Habits are made and broken all the time by people; they blame their lack of willpower. However, I ask you to question now the fact that they have strong willpower because it allows them to carry on with the habit rather than change it.
If you want to change how you feel about your health and fitness, you can. It's so easy to say I can't change this; it is me. I will always be the fat one or the unhealthy one in the family or group of friends. But why do you want to give yourself this label that you can't change your ways?
Research has shown that diet and exercise are the two things we can control and are critical to our mental health. In 2018 the results of The Smiles trial was published after studying the link between healthy eating and mental health. They were changing eating habits to more Mediterranean style food that is protein-based helped with positive change in people's mental health. Over a 12 week study, 32% achieved full remission and did not suffer from depression. This was followed by The Helfimed study conducted on a larger scale, and the results were the same. Eating a healthy diet increases people's wellbeing, and depression decreases.
It's not about joining the gym or eating organic food or even superfoods. It's all about focusing on yourself to gain the maximum return to benefit a healthy body and mind. It's the mind, body connection. Walking costs nothing; you can fit this into your life any time of the day. Start with 30 minutes and increase weekly; your body adjusts and builds up stamina quickly. If you start the day with a walk, you will find the rest of the day is free to do what you need to do and have more energy. Your happy hormones (serotonin- happiness, dopamine – pleasure and rewards) have been released, and you feel more motivated.
Start by adding protein to your diet. This should include snacks as well as your meals. This is because protein helps to stabilise our blood sugar levels. When our blood levels drop, we start to feel stressed, low in energy and irritable. In addition, protein gives us amino acids, and we need this to help produce happy hormones. Protein can be found not only in meat and fish but in beans, legumes, nuts and seeds, as well as eggs.
Natural healthy fats should be included in your diet, like extra virgin olive oil high in omega 3. Oily fish, nuts and avocados also contain omega 3. This is good for your brain.
Eat the right carbohydrates. All food has carbohydrates, but what kind of carbohydrates are healthy. When you eat white carbs, like bread, pasta etc., all the nutritional value has been taken out of them, causing blood sugar levels to increase along with our waistlines! Healthy carbohydrates are found in natural whole plant foods. We are not talking organic but whole wheat, which costs the same as unhealthy carbs. If it was made by mother nature, we should include it in a healthy diet. Fruit and vegetables should be included in our diets, and our plates should be like a rainbow of colour. Each colour has its own phytochemicals that we need to help fight disease for our bodies. Not only packed with vitamins and minerals but fibre as well. Fibre is vital in a diet because it helps slow sugar absorption into the gut. Avoid starchy vegetables loaded with calories and make you feel sluggish after eating.
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