EATING PROPERLY WHEN WORKING FROM THE HOME
WE are all working in unprecedented times and it has brought with it some real challenges in our lives starting with the changes to our daily routines, eating habits and lifestyle. Most of us are now working from home and with that brings the temptation for frequent visits to the kitchen!
Plan your meals for the week. It will help save you time, avoid sporadic and impulsive shopping and make the food you buy last much longer. Think about cupboard essentials and less perishable items such as tins of beans, chickpeas, tomatoes as well as rice, pasta and lentils. Centre meals around these ingredients. Canned food can play an important role in our diet: canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are a really valuable source of important nutrients. Try not to buy excessive quantities of fresh foods that will lead to waste.
If you haven’t spent much time in the kitchen before the lockdown, now is a good time to get working on those cooking skills and why not get the whole family involved? Experiment with different foods, flavours, and spices. Involving children in food preparation could be an opportunity to develop healthy eating behaviours and to increase their vegetable consumption. If you have the freezer space then freezing any leftovers or bulk cooking meals such as spaghetti bolognese, shepherds pie, stews and curries to freeze can be a great idea for days when you don’t have the time to cook or when supplies are running low.
Having a kitchen in or near our new working environment, coupled with lack of routine as well as stress and anxiety can lead us to frequent and often mindless and unconscious snacking. Stick to a normal eating pattern aiming for three meals a day to prevent hunger between meals and consider if you are hungry before consuming a snack. Choose healthy snacks such as fruit, yogurt, peanut butter on wholegrain crackers or rice cakes and beans on wholegrain toast to add extra nutrients to the diet.
Try to limit snacks high in sugar or fat such as crisps, sweets and chocolate.
There is no excuse to skip the most important meal of the day. Regular breakfast consumption is shown to be related to an overall healthier diet, lower levels of obesity and cardiovascular disease, and better cognitive performance. The Irish staple of porridge can be made more interesting by adding your favourite toppings such as berries and seeds for a quick and easy breakfast meal, that will keep you powered through your virtual work meetings!
Be aware of portion size, even healthy foods when over consumed will contribute extra calories to the diet. Some of the following tips may prove useful:
· Try using a smaller plate at meals
· Freeze or chill left-overs right away so you are not tempted to go back for more
· Avoid eating in front of the TV as it is easy to overeat when distracted.
· For dinner, fill at least half your plate with vegetables or salad. · Instead of eating from a large packet, serve a single portion into a bowl.
· Don’t buy the foods you tend to overeat!
· If you are buying treat foods buy snack sizes and only have one. It is important to note that no single nutrient or food is going to supercharge your immune system and prevent you contracting COVID-19. Instead, we need to focus on overall diet and health. By making healthy diet and lifestyle choices consistently we can support our overall health and immune function. Look to trusted sources for your nutrition information, such as Healthy Ireland, the World Health Organisation and registered professionals such as dietitians. Finally, be kind to yourself. Try to make healthy choices most of the time to keep your body and immune system strong but don’t feel guilty about making less healthy food choices sometimes either. Instead make healthy choices relatively consistently and enjoy the occasional treat.
IN TERMS OF HOW I FIND WORKING AND LIVING IN ENNISCRONE.... IT’S A BIG CHANGE IN PACE IN WORKING IN DUBLIN....YOU CAN’T REALLY BEAT GOING FOR A LONG WALK ALONG THE BEACH DURING YOUR LUNCH BREAK
- DOMINICK BARRETT, FOUNDER OF ATLANTIC STAR CONSULTING