Ever since we got locked at home, food has either been our escapism to release stress or the complete opposite; loss of appetite was overwhelming given the stressful COVID19-related news and the new situation. Either binge eating or undereating, unhealthy eating habits became yet another issue that the quarantine triggered. Health Coach and Yoga Instructor Malak Sekaly shares the following simple tips to maintain a healthy diet during lockdown!
- Drink boiled ginger water and squeeze half a lemon every day before breakfast. It boosts the immunity, metabolism, cleanses your body from toxins, and eases digestion to eliminate any waste.
- Drink 2-3 litres of water a day. Before every meal, drink one bottle of water if you can, or two cups. It is one of the best ways to flush out toxins and to get nutrients from the food you are eating.
- Lunch should be mostly vegetables, with natural carbs and protein.
- Daily movement, even one short yoga flow a day to circulate the blood.
- Drink herbal tea after lunch and when you have cravings.
- Don’t starve yourself – have a snack if you feel like you need to, but not too often.
- Differentiate between physical hunger and emotional hunger. When you are emotionally hungry, you are craving a feeling that you think you will get from food, because food tends to make us feel good. Yet, if you find yourself eating and you don’t actually feel hungry, try to remove yourself from the situation you are in and put yourself in a new environment. Leave the room for example, call a friend, take a walk, read a book – do anything else. If 15 minutes later, you are still hungry, then you were probably hungry. But if 15 minutes pass and you forget about food, then you were just looking for some emotional support.
- Do something you love every day so you don’t go crazy.
- Take care of your mental health, it’s often neglected.