Busy Day, Healthy Choices
How to sustain healthy eating and drinking habits throughout the day
Jean Edelman: Great to be with you this week. This week I thought I would talk a little bit about our food on a busy day. You know what? It’s that time of year when we’re out and about. We have more time for our outside activities and we may not be thinking about or planning our food for the day. It’s so important for our self-care to not get dehydrated and hungry when we’re out for the day.
Why is this so important? Because we really want our hormones to kind of stay in balance so that our emotions can stay in balance, so that we can stay in balance. And the only way to do that is to fill our fuel tank on regular intervals throughout the day. And the only way to do that is to look at our schedule and make sure that we have snacks and water or an opportunity to sit down and eat on these fun days out.
Our food can be the highlight and bring us great joy. I’ll tell you what, on our family vacations, when we were out, my grandfather used to have a boat and we’d go out fishing and there was nothing like a warm peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a cold, crisp apple when we got to take our lunch break.
So it was fun. And it can be fun to create wonderful goodies, to bring in a cool, wonderful cooler and break it open and have a picnic or have an opportunity to have some good snacks. So good self-care means we’re thinking ahead and we’re planning.
And so my action item for this week is to look at our calendar; what’s coming up? Are we going to have one of those days where we’re out from morning till evening? And if so, let’s go pack a cooler the night before we can wash up some grapes. We can cut up some melons and strawberries. We can have hummus and carrots, cheese bites and crackers. How about some cucumber slices? It’s always fun to create awesome little snacks that we can nibble on during the day when we’re out. We need to have something that’s going to keep our blood sugars level. So this week is super easy.
The word of the week is going to be FOOD.
The F is to Focus, to focus on our needs. Don’t get hungry and thirsty. Don’t ignore this beautiful body that we have and the signals that it’s sending that we need some fuel, so focus.
The O is to Observe. How are we feeling? When was our last break? Did we drink some water? What do we need?
The second O is for Okay. It’s okay to remove ourselves from whatever it is that we’re doing to go take care of ourselves. Go take a break. You know, I’ve seen people, they go to these long meetings and or all day sessions and stuff, and sometimes you just have had enough. Well, it’s okay to take a break and go find a quiet spot and eat something.
And the D is to Devote the time and energy to our self-care. No one’s going to do it for us. We’re in charge of us. Remember, this is a time of year where we’ve maybe got a little bit of extra time and this is the time of year where we need to reinforce our self-care routines. And food is just one of the priorities in our self-care.
Taking care of ourselves is the ultimate self-love. It’s because we want to be available for those that we love. The only way we can do that is if we’re hydrated and we’ve got fuel in our belly. You know what? And it’s so much fun to open up a cooler that somebody has prepared for us or a bag and have some yummy available snacks. It’s nice to sit on a nice day and enjoy it. It’s wonderful to have the opportunity for a moment for ourselves. We can sit outside on a park bench, go find a tree. It’s an opportunity to smile, enjoy, rejoice that we are taking care of ourselves.
Have a wonderful week, everyone. And I want to hear what creative ideas you’ve come up with for your everyday little snacks.