We all know how important it is to eat high quality, preferably local/organic food, but it is equally helpful to eat frequently. By eating at regularly spaced intervals (ideally every 3-4 hours) you maintain a fairly even blood sugar level, which helps balance your mood.
If you let yourself skip meals your blood sugar level plummets and it’s easy to feel crankocidal (my sister’s word), moody and impatient. Another unhelpful pattern is to eat something high in sugar, or overly processed (like white pasta or white bread), on an empty stomach. This spikes your blood sugar level leaving you feeling energized for a very short time and then enervated until you eat something else. A by-product of this eating pattern is that you develop cravings because your food choices are ultimately unsatisfying.
I know changing one’s eating habits is daunting, but it’s especially important when you’re stressed because healthy foods and frequent small meals bolster your body’s ability to handle the additional stresses of divorce.
Eating just half a cup of beans, such as garbanzo, kidney, lentils, pinto, etc, every day has been shown to radically stabilize blood sugar levels.
I know there are scads of “complete meal” bars and other granola-type bars for sale. Yes, they are portable, quick, and easy; but they are often loaded with sugar and/or non-organic soy protein. Most non-organic soy is from bioengineered crops. Personally, I think it’s always best to eat whole foods. This mitigates in favor of eating whole fruit rather than drinking juice. You get more nutrients and fiber with the fruit than from the juice.
Here are some ideas for snacks that are fairly easy to find or carry with you:
Almonds/Walnuts
Trail mix
Cereal (preferably something with whole grains)
Fruit (best eaten with some protein, like a piece of cheese or some nuts)
Yogurt
Peanut butter sandwich, or PB on celery, banana or apple.
Hard-boiled egg
Dark rye (if you’re lucky enough to have an Aldi near you, they carry an excellent loaf from Europe) with any fatty fish, like herring, sardines, salmon, or tuna.
A small container of last night’s leftovers.
Brown rice and beans with your favorite vinaigrette.
Three bean salad
A few crackers and cheese with fruit.
Miso soup with some organic tofu and seaweed, or bean soup.
One last thing: You don’t need to over-hydrate, but drinking fluids throughout the day will help you stay energized and insure better digestion.
(See post: Food: Cheap & Healthy)
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Copyright: Nicole S. Urdang
