Blog Post # 3- Coping Mechanisms with Food
If you are anything like me, you’d agree that maintaining a
healthy diet while in school is FAR easier said than done, and you may also
avidly avoid anyone who somehow has time to go to yoga or hit the gym if it’s
during midterm week. That last part
might just be the stress talking, but point the is, it can be really hard to be
healthy and nutritious when it comes to crunch time. The following are a few of my tried and true tips to those who are like me, and consider nutrition quite the luxury during
midterm or finals period:
1. Snacks
You may not get the full three meals a day, so
it is important to keep energized when hitting the books. Make sure to get a fairly wide
selection of snacks that you can eat consistently throughout the day. I say “fairly
wide”, because it is important to not get bored of the snack selection at hand,
resulting in making choices that are not as healthy.
Also, try to go for a mix of fresh and non-perishable. You
can snack on the carrot sticks and cheese slices at home, and the nuts and
nutritional bars while at school. After all, nobody likes the 2-day old
sandwich bag of baby carrots hidden in the backpack (don’t pretend you haven’t
been there). Nutritional bars are a
staple of mine, the ease at which I can grab one in the morning when I have
overslept has served me well. Having said that, some of the granola/convenient
breakfast bars found at the supermarket can have more sugar and fat in them
then your average candy bar! I have found Luna Bars and Cliff bars to be the
best, but Here
is a more comprehensive list of nutritional bars from Fitness Magazine.
Finally, don’t completely avoid the “fun snacks”, just try
to go for the lesser of all evils. Choosing things like veggie
sticks (the dried kind) instead of Doritos, and a chocolate bar with at least 70% cocoa content instead of a Snickers will satisfy those cravings without just filling you up with the bad sugars
(the kind that make you crash later). Read more about what different sugars do your body at
Eating Well’s website here.
2. Walks
A while ago, I came home after a long day of
school and I had another long night of homework ahead of me. I recognized that I
had to do something else for at least an hour in order to refresh my
brain. Because I was so tired, I was
reluctant to turn the TV on for fear of getting sucked into the vortex also known as Netflix.
It dawned on me that I had very little groceries in the house, and it was also
a very beautiful day out, so I decided to walk to the supermarket.
Since then, I have made the conscious choice
to go on a walk every few days. I am lucky enough to live near a pretty trendy
area, so usually I will just wander around, window shop, and grab a coffee;
other times I get my grocery shopping done (and not having my car means I won’t
buy frivolous things like heavy soda). If these amenities are not as close by, it is just as easy to brew a coffee or fill up the water bottle and still get out there. Getting out and getting some fresh air gives you time to figure out how
to attack the to-do list later, and the release of endorphins you get from even
just that much exercise makes you feel really good!
3. Breaks
That leads me to my next tip: breaks! I am the
first to admit that ‘breaks’ and I don’t always get along. I sometimes find it
difficult to find the balance between actually taking a break, and taking a
break for far too long (also known as procrastination). I can say however, that
I without a doubt always feel better coming back to my homework after I given myself even a little bit of "time off".
One way to make yourself take a break is to organize your
time so that you allow yourself at least half an hour when you are going to eat
dinner. I will find a good place to pause, go make myself dinner, then watch
one episode of something on Netflix while I am eating. It always does the trick!
Something else I have started doing, is every hour or so, I allow myself
15 minutes of good web surfing time. This is when I check up on all of my favorite
social media sites, blogs, youtube videos, etc.
Of course a good exercise break is a fantastic option as
well, something like going for a walk, or getting up to stretch and hit a few
yoga poses. Maybe even throwing in a couple of crunches and lunges to boot! This will keep the blood flowing and re-energize you for the next bout.
I realize that this doesn't have to do with food directly, but not only is it really important, but by taking a well earned break, you are giving yourself a chance to recognize that you might be hungry. Then you might use the time to get together a health snack, or even your dinner ready.
4. Larger
portions
When I can, I will make way too much food for one meal, which means that I have enough left overs for the next few days.
This results in a decreased amount of time making dinner every day, while still
being able to eat a healthy meal. One of my favourite meals to do this with is a Quinoa salad with black beans, mangos, and chicken pieces, because it lasts for days, is incredibly filling, and I can manipulate the recipe with the spices to be more of my tastes. Here is the recipe for that one (this recipe does not call for chicken, but I add the protein in order to make the salad more of a meal.)
Semi
Pre-made
Often in crunch time, I will purposely buy
semi pre-made food at the grocery store. Contrary to popular belief, doing this doesn’t always have to be
expensive- for example, you can get a seasoned, ready to pan fry piece of
sole fish for under $2, a delicious Spolumbo’s sausage for about $3, or even a
fast fry steak for under $3. Fry any of these up and splurge on a premixed
salad bag, and you have a really nice meal that is very fast for those extra
busy nights.
There we have it. These are just a few of the
things that I have found to be successful in those super stressful school
weeks. What are some of your tried and true stress coping methods when it comes
to eating well?
