Article # 1 in our Healthy Habits Nutrition Series
By Clinical Nutrionist, Tammy Spiller
Our daily food choices and eating habits can influence how strong, empowered or energised we feel. While some people only really eat for fuel, our relationship with food is actually more complex than that. We all seek different things from our food — variety or consistency, social connection, rituals with our family, comfort foods, crunch, sweet or umami.
While it’s essential to build good meals so we are able to meet all the demands of our day, understanding our food choices and behaviours is one of the keys to developing a good relationship with food that can be sustained over time. These are our healthy habits.
When it comes to creating healthy habits we look to both our food and the food environment. Some questions you might like to ask yourself are:
- Am I getting protein at every meal? Do I know how much protein I really need to eat every day?
- How fresh (unprocessed) is the food on my plate?
- Am I fuelling the activities of my life or do I always just feel a bit hungry or tired?
- Do I eat because I am actually hungry (physical hunger grows gradually in accordance with the time between meals and isn’t usually specific ie. you could eat anything) or do I respond to my mood?
When I want to understand more about someones nutrition and work with them to develop goals I include at least some of the following questions:
- What do you want to change about your eating?
- What do you love about how you eat, or think you do well?
- Do you diet frequently or are on a diet now?
- How often do you dine out for breakfast, lunch or dinner?
- Do you drink alcohol? How much and what?
- How much water are you drinking a day?
- Are you eating enough?
- When are you eating? (ie: do I eat at 9pm, 30mins before going to bed, am I eating prior to training, when am I eating after training?)
- Are you getting a good mix of protein/carbs/healthy fats?
- Do you have the habit of snacking, or eating terribly over the weekend?
While I go on to ask about specific foods, these foundation questions don’t have a lot to do with the right things to eat, but they begin to build a picture about your habits, how you like to fuel yourself and either your positive or negative relationship with food. While nutrition is important for managing the molecules of hunger, providing the basics for our hormones, meeting our energy needs and building our muscles, it’s also important that you meet your personal goals and this happens through bringing awareness to our eating patterns.
We look forward to providing more nutrition info next month, and hope this first article has got you thinking constructively about your nutrition.
