If you want to have a healthy and fulfilling life, eat like you give a damn about yourself! It’s as simple as that.
Now you might have this thing pop up in mind - I do eat, and I eat what I feel like eating! But, my question is - ‘Do you know what’s the impact of things that you eat on your productivity, forget about life and well being?’
Ever thought about it? Being a foodie, I also had the same attitude until I stumbled upon the 10-Day Pure Energy Challenge by Tony Robbins. It helped me a lot to not just look good, but reach the peak state of performance in every facet of life.
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Here is a look at what those habits are -
1. Eat food. But not too much.
Most of us are either eating too much or too less. That’s the harsh fact. I was the one from the first category. My hunger drives ended with me overeating more often than not, resulting in unproductive hours, filled with laziness after every meal.
Running short on time, not paying heed to what’s on the table for breakfast, eating processed or fast food in lunch - these are the common habits associated with our generation. But that’s no excuse for being unproductive. With a small conscious effort to eat what’s right for our body, we can actually bring a lot of positivity and productivity!
So, before you go for the lunch today ask yourself this question - Are you eating the right amount of food?
2. Fuel the body right
What’s the right fuel for your body depends entirely upon what sort of lifestyle you have. The nutrient requirements of a person involved in hard physical labour throughout the day are going to be completely different from someone who has a sitting job. You need to eat the foodstuff according to what your body requires, not what your taste buds yearn for.
It is a good idea to sit with a nutritionist who can figure out your body’s nutrient requirements based upon its metabolism and lifestyle habits. Based on all these factors the nutritionist can prepare the amount of fuel your body needs daily and you can fill the tank accordingly!
3. Plan breakfast, lunch and dinner
Eat your breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. Plan your meals accordingly. For instance, fruits contain the right blend of fibres and complex sugars which break down easily and fuel your body. Therefore, making them part of your daily breakfast can be the best way to begin each day on a high!
Similarly adding multigrain and whole grains to your lunch diet means that you are consuming the complex form of carbohydrates which take longer time to digest. What this does is the energy from the breakdown is supplied steadily for greater periods of time. The same way, incorporate raw vegetables as part of your dinner to get a good night’s sleep, as they are easy to digest.
4.Graze throughout the day
Ask any health expert, and you will get to know the importance of having small, frequent meals are far better than eating heavy meals thrice a day. Yes, breakfast, lunch and dinner are the most important meals of the day, but you don’t have to rely on just these three to supplement the body’s nutritional requirements.
Divide your daily calorie intake into three major meals and many small meals. Eating small frequent meals ensures that the body is getting a continuous supply of glucose. Relying upon just three meals to supplement body’s glucose requirements leave scope of the depletion of body’s energy reservoirs and hence the feeling of laziness and tiredness seeps in.
5. Make sure you don’t dry up
There are so many benefits of drinking adequate amount of fluid, especially water, that you simply cannot ignore it. From keeping your excretory system in the best of healths to rejuvenating the skin and keeping your brain active - water is important for all this and lot more.
Therefore, pay due importance to the amount of fluids you consume during the entire day. There is no strict demarcation as to how much water one should drink. The most basic rule, however, that we all can follow is the 8 X 8 rule i.e. consume at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily to keep your body’s cells hydrated and healthy.
6. Stay away from processed food
One of the toughest eating habits to incorporate (at least it was for me) in your daily routine would be this one. We have become so acclimatized to consume processed food that eating fresh, organic and raw food seems like a luxury. But we all forget that by consuming processed food we are doing more harm than good to our body.
The colorants, preservatives and texturants that are added in processed foods are not only bad for body’s energy balance, but also lead to overconsumption. Even after a heavy meal containing these processed food the energy gets drained off quickly. And, you are left with the feeling of fatigue and laziness.
7. Eat to live, don’t live to eat
Coming to the end of this post, I’d like to ask you one simple question - do you eat to live or eat to live? If you are part of the first creed, it is easy for you to bring changes in your eating habits to become active and productive. But if you are from the latter one, then the journey is pretty tough.
At some point of time in life, you will realize that eating healthy is the only way to lead a productive life. The sooner you realize the better it is.
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About Author
Vartika Kashyap is the Marketing Manager at ProofHub (https://www.proofhub.com/) — a project management software for your growing business needs. She is a seasoned marketing professional who is an expert in digital marketing and entrepreneurship. She’s been featured among LinkedIn’s Top Voices for the year 2016, and is also a contributor for The Next Web, Huffington Post & Your Story. She is also a top writer in Leadership & Productivity on Medium. Connect with Vartika on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter.
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