Improve Your Mood with Food
Are you finding it hard to juggle the daily demands of life, work and family on top of balancing your eating habits?
You’re not alone.
Many of my busy clients struggle to get going in the morning and don’t take time to give themselves a nourishing head start.
Unfortunately this regular denial creates a cascade of cravings and energy dips for the rest of their day, ruining their healthy eating intentions.
When the brain is lacking nutrients, it often overrides the conscious mind by reaching for convenient, packaged and processed foods to ensure it gets what it needs. So when we believe we’re too busy to eat, the body starves while the brain tries to survive.
You see, nutrients provided by the food we eat are required for the tens of thousands of necessary chemical reactions that occur every second of every day. That’s because food provides, or fails to provide, the many chemical building blocks needed to produce neurotransmitters – hormone messengers linking the brain and body.
Nutrients are also required to make the many essential brain chemicals that influence our moods and behaviour. The quality of the food we eat supplies the biochemical basis for everything that happens, or should happen, within the body.
Without real and regular nourishment our moods, energy and overall well-being suffers. Before you know it weight is out of control, cravings and mood swings are a daily occurrence, sleep and digestion are getting you down, and your stress levels are through the roof.
Quite simply, the more we deny our brain and body of nutrients, the more our cells will crave food – healthy or not.
Taking a good look at the food you eat on a daily basis, and how often, will very likely give you an idea of where you may be lacking a variety of nutrients and not stopping to acknowledge them.
From there you can start making some healthy swaps for more nutrient dense sources and scheduling in meal times to consciously appreciate them.
Here are some general healthy guidelines, subject to any allergen foods:
- Focus on whole, natural and seasonal fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds (organic is preferred where possible)
- Add in good quality protein from both animal and plant sources (grass-fed and free-range preferred)
- Include quality complex wholegrain carbohydrates according to your own personal energy requirements (think oats, buckwheat and rice)
- Substitute refined sugars for natural nutritious sweeteners like coconut sugar, rapadura sugar, raw honey and a variety of fibre-filled fruit
- Choose natural sources of healthful fats (including coconut oil, grass-fed butter, avocados and cold pressed virgin oils like olive and macadamia)
- Reduce (or eliminate) processed, packaged and refined foods in favour of all of the above, most of the time (80/20)
- Make time at every meal to sit, breathe, relax and enjoy every mouthful until you are comfortably satisfied
When your body is nourished so is your brain.
Cravings will then gradually stabilize, along with your moods and hormones, and naturally fade away.
You’ll create more energy, better concentration and enjoy a happier relationship between your mind, body and food!
Viki xo
About Viki
Viki Thondley is a Mind-Body Wellness Specialist and qualified Holistic Counsellor, Food, Stress & Lifestyle Coach, Meditation Therapist, and Eating Disorder Recovery Coach who inspires women to shift from dieting and restriction to whole-self nourishment, self-care and healing. Recovered from bulimia nervosa and the many years of hormonal imbalances, food prison and self-sabotaging behaviours’, Viki is an inspiring coach, speaker and event host who also provides personalised holistic programs, workshops and retreats to instil self-love, happiness, body confidence and real food freedom. She is author of “Achieving Your Wellness: Create a Life You Love” and “Healthy Chocolate Delights: Real Food Sweet Treats”.
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