Eat to live and not live to eat. That, in a nutshell, should sum up your attitude to food and eating. Do you grab a bite whenever you have the urge to eat or forget to eat when you are too busy? Then it would be a good idea to think through these food rules to get the best out of your meals.
1. Eat regularly throughout the day including three main meals and at least two snacks. This will maintain your blood sugar levels at an optimum level throughout the day. If you miss meals, you will get low blood sugar at some stage. To make up for the missed meals if you go an eating spree that will raise your blood sugar levels. This will lead to a skewed up eating pattern. So eat little and often. Eating sporadically will also affect your metabolism. When you miss meals, your metabolism has a tendency to slow down. This happens because you're sending it messages that food is scarce, so it will attempt to get more from the food you do give it. A pattern of eating where you don't eat much during the day and then hog a lot at night will do just that. Excessive eating in one go will overload your digestive system, putting it in overdrive.
2. Your main meals should get smaller and simpler as the day goes on, ending with a simple meal at night. Follow the saying, ‘Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper.’ Have a hearty breakfast as it sets up your eating habits for the day and kickstarts your metabolism. This meal is essential and should never be missed.
Remember that the majority of energy is used during working hours and food intake should be geared towards fuelling it. But normally we eat very little during the day and then belly-bust (does this sound ok) in the evening. So the energy we are making has nowhere to go. Surplus energy at night, especially fat, is readily stored. In fact, dinner should be eaten a good two hours before sleep to allow for partial digestion.
3. Be organized with the food you keep in the house and what you order in restaurants. What you buy is what you eat, so start shopping correctly. Plan what you are going to eat, especially if you are on a fitness plan, and stock up the fridge accordingly. It's easy to go off track when you open the fridge and are faced with junk food. When eating out go easy on the oil and spicy curries.
4. Keep a food diary even if it's only in your head. This means that you keep a mental note of what you eat throughout the day. Then you can see when you go wrong and not do it again. Sometimes this helps in overcoming a specific habit that doesn't become apparent until you see it written down. Eating correctly is food management. It doesn't happen by chance, but because you make it happen, and a diary will assist you in your mission. A diary need not take more than three or four minutes a day to fill out and it will help. Food diaries are now smarter, simpler and more effective.
5. Have a balanced attitude towards food management. Don't panic. This may seem like a trivial rule, but it's probably the most important one and at the root of healthy eating. What it means is trying not to fit your life around these or any other suggestions but to fit the rules into your life. Food intake is really about management and balance.
Following these rules may ensure that you manage your food and, in turn, your body productively.
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