5 top healthy eating tips during quarantine

We’ve been in lockdown for over a month now in the UK, I’m not sure how your diet is going, but I’ve let mine slip a little! If you’re the same, I'm here to tell you not to be too harsh on yourself; we still have time to start fresh and create a healthy routine for ourselves and our families. It all starts with how you feel, and how you feel depends on what you put into your bodies. So, I'm here to give you 5 healthy eating tips which will allow you to get the nutrients you need to maintain your health, feel good about yourself and have more energy.

1. Aim to drink 2 litres of water a day (with a litre when you first wake up)

Drinking 2 litres of water every day has a massive positive impact on your body, and quality of life in general. Did you know humans are 60% water, and our blood is 90% water? It is essential for so many parts of our bodies, such as our kidneys, skin, lubricating joints, helps transport nutrients & oxygen around the body, boosts energy levels and increases mental clarity and ability to focus. If you find it hard to drink water, try adding a little fruit flavour to it or set your alarm every half hour to take a few sips instead of trying to gulp most of it at once and disheartening yourself.   

2. Meal prep

We've seen and heard many gym-goers talk about meal prep but who has the time or the energy to prep one or even two weeks' worth of food? Not me. So, to make things easier, I do meal preps for the next day or sometimes two days ahead, to give me two days' worth of relaxing and not having to think about what to cook. My healthy eating tips for your meal preps would be to oven cook your food where possible and avoid frying. If you're eating healthy six days a week, you can have one day a week, what I like to call a cheat day. One main tip I would give you regarding your meals is PORTION CONTROL. Your meal portions should not be bigger than your fist. If they are, the proportions are too big. If you stick to fist size portions, then you can easily have five meals a day. Each day you should be aiming to consume around 1800 calories. To track your calories, download the app 'My Fitness Pal' and put every item of food into the app throughout the day.  

Most crucial healthy eating tip - Only cook with coconut oil/ avocado oil.

3. Eat plenty of fruits 

Fruits are one of the essential food for supplying the vitamins, minerals and fibre our body needs for good health and maintenance of your body and healthy immune function. You should aim to eat at least 5 portions of fruit. You can have fresh, frozen, dried and juiced fruit to mix it up.  Fruits are going to help you to get a lot of antioxidants in. If you can get some berries, oranges and papaya, which are all high in vitamin C which will help keep our immune system healthy. More importantly, keep getting in that fibre like bananas and apples as we are sitting a lot more than usual and our digestive system might not be moving as much, so it's important to keep our fibre intake up. Fruits help with positive moods, as well as an uptick in curiosity, creativity and motivation.

4. Snacks

Boredom or reduced productivity makes us go to that cupboard where we know we shouldn't. Try emptying all the junk and unhealthy snacks that you have and replacing them with healthy options, so when you do go wondering, you will come back with something healthy on your plate. Please remember, if you try and space your meals to 5 times a day, you will less likely want to binge eat. I try and limit my snack intake to one a day. One of my go-to snacks is oven-baked crispy kale, which I drizzle with lemon, salt and pepper. Another option would be a handful of almonds or a simple but tasty rice crispy.

5. Type of food 

There is a lot of different kind of foods that we can consume, and I know some of you are meat eaters, pescatarians or even vegans, so to make things simple, I will give a couple of ideas that you can try out.

Breakfast (7/8 am)

Oats, crushed nuts or a handful of berries, drizzle with agave syrup, and of course with milk of your preference. 

In-between breakfast and lunch (10/11 am)

Avocado, Lemon Juice, coriander, Himalayan sea salt on toast, drizzled with olive oil. Instead of avocados, you can have eggs, smoked salmon with spinach.  

Lunch  (1/2pm)

Spiralised Courgette, chickpeas with rice and salad. You can also have half chicken breast with sweet potato and green beans or even add a piece of salmon with asparagus and brown rice if you are pescatarians. 

In-between lunch and dinner (4/5pm)

Rice Cakes. Light spread almond butter with banana or berries mixed in yoghurt.

Dinner (7/8pm)

Dinner needs to be light and straightforward, so whisking up a Protein Shake is a perfect choice and very easy to make. Water, almond milk and banana is all you need. if you have protein powder, then add a scoop by all means.

Hopefully, this encourages or helps you during lockdown. Want to have a chat about diets and how it can have an impact on your mental health and mindset? Head over to our contact page so we can arrange a chat.