If another day of staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic has you feeling blue, what you choose to eat can make a difference. Certain foods and nutrients help your brain to make chemicals that can impact your mood, attention and focus, while other foods can zap your energy, says Dona Maria Mesmar, Kcal Nutrition Manager.
Many researchers have come to the same conclusion that a healthy diet can help with symptoms of depression and anxiety, such as mood swings and lack of focus. Whatever the focus may be, changing your diet to include healthier foods can quickly boost energy levels.
At KCAL, the focus is to first encourage clients them to start building a routine diet with their meal plans. This is so they can jump over that first hurdle and break old habits – both physically and mentally. That first step is the most important when it comes to choosing a new eating lifestyle, as the key moment to boost mental health is when the serotonin levels are impacted. An increase in serotonin levels boost mental capacity to focus on the goals ahead.
Slow and steady wins the race
If you’ve heard the phrase “slow and steady wins the race”, this could not be more accurate when it comes to diet and its influence on mental health. Often, it takes KCAL clients weeks or even months, to achieve real weight loss or achieve their goals. However, by week one of their meals plans, the majority of our clients feel much better about themselves, have higher levels of energy and are more stable emotionally. This has a lot to do with that change of what they’re now feeding their bodies. The results are someone ready to keep going while enjoying the benefits of feeding their body better.
Break the bad habits
Bad habits are also a key factor in poor mental health. Breaking that temptation to eat, based on emotions is crucial. If you’re anything like me, then your automatic temptation when you see a food you love is to give excuses as to why you deserve to “treat yourself”. These excuses are no-doubt from habits we have seen in glamourised movie scenes, where tiny heartbroken girls eat tubs of ice-cream while mourning their latest break-up. So I’m going to tell you, what I tell myself and all those I work with… habits like this are easily made and difficult to break, but we must break them to achieve long-term results of positive mental health and healthy diets.
Plan Ahead
Ready for another excuse? “I’m just too busy” – Sound familiar? For all the workaholics, mothers, fathers and socialites out there reading this, a busy schedule is not a good enough response to having a bad diet (harsh but true). At KCAL, our clients are given the tools to plan ahead and have healthy meal plans ready for the week ahead without any of the stress. Advanced planning takes away that automatic (and very Dubai) feeling of jumping on a delivery app and ordering every high-fat item that is on special offer from the breakfast, lunch & dinner menus.
So, in short, the food you consume absolutely affects your mood, not only this but the way in which you consume it is also a cause for negative mental health impacts. Stress-eating and eating out of routine hours can also have a lasting-effect on health, both physical and mental.
Therefore, the best piece of advice is to get onto a meal plan – plan ahead and keep a routine that will help to battle mental health challenges. Keep your diet with a plan where you don’t need to put in effort to cook or beat yourself up over slipping up and ordering the high-fat option on the delivery app! Mental health is a serious issue, and if there is something you can do to help yourself or encourage other to do, is nourish your body with a healthy diet!
Want to find out more about our delicious & healthy meal plans to get you started? Head to: https://kcallife.com/