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Posts Tagged ‘Vegetables And Fruits’

A lot of Americans work in an office setting which can be a tough situation when considering you will be sitting for 8 hours a day. You are also an easy target for unhealthy foods from co-workers. There may be donuts, cakes, muffin and other snacks offered to you from day to day. The combination of junk food and sitting all day does not add up to a very healthy life. You can bring in your own snacks if you want but if they are perishable you run the risk of someone eating them if you leave it in the refrigerator, if you work even has a refrigerator.

If you are lucky enough to have a refrigerator at your work you can keep a bunch of healthy snacks and meals available for you throughout the day. You can keep fruits, vegetables, sandwiches, or maybe leftovers from your dinner from the night before. This also gives you the opportunity to eat 5 small meals throughout the day instead of 3 large meals. By eating 5 to 6 small meals throughout the day helps speed up your metabolism. It helps your body process the food and doesn’t overload your system at one time. The only problem with keeping food in the fridge at work is that it is usually a community fridge and everyone has access to it. This means you run the risk of someone accidentally, or purposely, eating you food when you are not around. If you work with trustworthy people you shouldn’t have anything to worry about and should consider yourself lucky.

Snacking throughout the day is also helpful as long as you are not snacking on junk food. Vegetables and fruits are great snacks to have at your desk. If you are unable to use a company refrigerator or have problem with others eating your food you can always look into getting a mini fridge or a small office fridge to keep under or near your desk. They come in all shapes and sizes and are perfect for the office worker who wants to be able to eat healthier at work. You can even use them to store bottled water because you should be avoiding juice and soda if you are trying to eat healthy at the office.

We all know the feeling of being down and standing with the refrigerator door open hoping to find the food that will numb our feelings for a while. It is a response many people have to a range of emotions that are uncomfortable or that we do not want to deal with.

Unfortunately, this reaction to emotions leads to a cycle that in the end will actually make you more depressed than when you started. Eating a large pizza may feel good while you are doing it but all those carbohydrates can offer is a temporary fix.

When you start a new diet it is easy to feel excited and motivated but after a couple of days you invariably are faced with a stressful situation. Once stressed and overwhelmed you look to comfort foods to do just that: comfort you. In the meantime, the excess sugar from carbohydrates turns into sugar which leads to increased insulin. This leads to increased “bad” hormone levels and inflammation in the body. Before you know it, you want more of the wrong foods to feel better for a couple of hours and the cycle starts again.

The only true way to get food to improve your emotional state is to avoid processed foods, sugar and basically, eat more of the good things. Complex carbohydrates like whole grains, vegetables and fruits keeps the body from going into the destructive cycle mentioned above. Complex carbohydrates are the gift that keeps on giving. Since the body breaks down these carbohydrates much more slowly than sugar, you receive a slow, steady release of sugar that will not overwhelm the system and cause chaos in your brain chemistry.

By increasing the consumption of lean healthy protein found in fish, chicken, eggs and cheese, important B vitamins are available for energy. Also eat more green leafy vegetables for needed nutrients and minerals. It may be difficult at first to break the cycle but once you do and experience the welcomed effects, the motivation will be there to stick to it.

Controlling your emotions is like any other habit: you just have to practice. When you feel overwhelmed by any emotion, exercise can help you process information and just give you some time to think. Combining exercise with a healthy diet and dietary supplements, your emotions may just become easier to deal with. Anytime you are deficient in any of the essential vitamins or minerals you will feel the effects, but you may not recognize the connection.

It cannot be emphasized enough what a dangerous game we play when we allow the cycle of hormones and increased insulin to alter our normal brain chemistry. These uncontrolled hormones can eventually lead to diseases and other ill health effects. Did you know that an apple in the morning can actually wake you up and keep you up longer than coffee?

Simple changes in your lifestyle to start can show you big improvements, making it worthwhile to make the changes. If you are suffering from moderate to severe depression, it is more than likely that you have some vitamin and mineral deficiencies and should reach out to your healthcare provider for help.

It is important to remember that we are not always fully aware of what and why we are eating something, so keeping a food journal can play an important role in your lifestyle change. Writing down what you ate, when and what you are feeling at the time may reveal patterns you were not even aware of.

This does not mean you can never have a treat, but everything must be in balance and a treat is just that. Not a reward, not a band-aid, just a treat. View all you eat with purpose and ask yourself, “What am I putting in and what am I going to get out of it?” As an old Chinese doctor said, “our blood is made at the end of our forks.” I think he was wise before his time.