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Tips to cleanse your diet
Ceileigh McKersie: Tips to cleanse your diet.
When all the festivities of Christmas and New Year are over it is time to come back to the real world and get your diet back on track. With all the late nights out and copious amount of food consumed over the festive period I am sure that a lot of you feel uncomfortable and are not happy with your newly established eating habits.
Unbalanced sugar levels are the main culprit of all your sudden cravings. Have a look at the list below to see if you have any of the following symptoms:
• Difficulty concentrating
• Excessive thirst
• Struggle to get out of bed in the mornings
• Irritable when you miss meals
• Excessive consumption of caffeine
• Smoking more than normal
• After lunch energy crash
• Constant fatigue
If you answered yes to 3 or more of the points above there is a great chance that your blood sugars are unbalanced. In order to help re-balance your blood sugars you need to cleanse your diet, starting today.
Follow the tips below to help you cleanse your diet:
1. Avoid all foods that cause your blood sugars to rise rapidly. Examples of these foods include high GI foods such as all processed foods, chips, bread, potatoes, alcohol, caffeine, pasta, sugar etc. Choose foods that are low GI goods. A basic rule of thumb is that the less processed a food is the lower its glycemic index (GI).
2. Increase the amount of fibre that you intake daily from a wide variety of fruit and vegetables.
3. Include protein in all your meals to help you keep fuller for longer. It takes your body a long time to break down protein therefore helping to maintain stable blood sugars level in the process. When you get hungry your blood sugar levels drop. This is when you crave foods and often opt for unhealthy fast energy realising foods which in turn spike your blood sugar levels-it’s a vicious circle.
4. Eat small, regular meals ideally.
5. Eat every 3 to 4 hours to keep your blood sugar levels stable.
6. Drink as much water as possible, more than 2 litres a day to start. Try to avoid any drinks containing sugar or caffeine as both spike your blood sugar levels. It can be hard to drink a lot of water.
Below are some ideas for making water ‘taste’ better:
• Add mint to your water
• Add slices of lemon or lemon grass to your water for a refreshing taste
• Add small slices of fruit to your water for a different flavour-any fruit will do
• Make ‘healthy’ iced tea by using a flavoured or herbal tea bag-do not add sugar or any other sugary additives including honey!
• Add lots of ice-sometimes just changing the temperature of the water you drink makes it more interesting.
7. Try to eat as many raw foods as possible (vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds). For example have loads of salads, carrot/cucumber/celery sticks throughout the day with humus. When cooking vegetables you do not need to over cook them.
8. Get outdoors and do some exercise. Exercise is one of the best ways to help stabilise your blood sugar levels. Also if you have been working out hard at gym, you are a lot less likely to cheat and have something high in sugar later in the day.
9. Keep busy-boredom results in overeating and unhealthy choices. Find a new hobby or start on all those chores that you have been meaning to do for a while.
10. If you find that you are still craving sugary foods or struggling with fatigue don’t get too upset-everyone is different and it will take a few days for your body to stabilise itself. The key is to push through.
