How is Nutrition Mindful?

How is Nutrition Mindful?

07/11/16 Laura Gibbons

By Health Coach Frank Alvarez, Lt. Col. United States Air Force (retired)

Our stomach acts like a “second brain.” As a result, the “brain-gut connection” is powerful. Bad food is addictive, just like gambling, drugs, or anything else. Be mindful, pay attention.

Nutritional 9-1-1
• Don’t skip breakfast!
• Add one nutrient dense food each day for 30 days. This is as opposed to trying to change your diet too much at one time. Add one “banana,” then one “apple,” etc. Before you know it you are eating a much healthier diet.
• Make each meal “right” – in other words, the proper amount of protein, carbs, (low) fat, etc.
• Move it or lose it – the need for daily exercise.

Each of these points are expounded upon in the following sections.

Don’t Skip Breakfast
• You are literally “breaking the fast” you incur from a full night’s sleep.
• Breakfast is the most important meal of the deal, but it’s not the meal, it’s the food you eat. Good breakfast foods include wholegrain cereals, whole fruit, and eggs.

Add One Whole Food Each Day
• Each day add a whole food to your diet and/ or meal.
• Don’t replace, add to it.
• It is not cumulative.
• What will begin to happen is that you will find you like, and your body needs, these foods.
• You will crowd out the bad stuff (non-nutrient dense).

Make Each Meal “Right”
• Protein, carbohydrates, fats at each meal.
• Essential or not?
• The good, the bad, the ugly.

Movement
• Move it or lose it!
• Bad conditioning can even lead to loss of memory, depression, and discontent.

Summary
Socrates had this to say about mindfulness: “You should learn all you can from those who know. Everyone should watch himself throughout his life, and notice what sort of meat and drink and what form of exercise suit his constitution, and he should regulate them in order to enjoy good health. For by such attention to yourselves you can discover better than any doctor what suits your constitution.”

Source:Employee Assistance Report Brown Bagger, Volume 19, No. 8, August 2016