7 Tips to Stay in Control of your Nutrition During Covid-19

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Here are the 7 Tips to Stay in Control of your Nutrition During Covid-19.

1. Create eating inconvenience, by removing ‘zero-cook’ foods from the household

2. Set an eating routine

3. Place more emphasis on main meals

4. Get ‘red-light’ foods out of the house of at least out of sight.

5. Create an example day of eating or a ‘default diet’

6. Go on short walks or brush your teeth when questionable hunger strikes

7. Keep the mind busy with a passion project or hobby

We’ll explain more about them in detail below.

Firstly we must outline what sort of goals are feasible during this time. Due to the fact many folks will have full control of structuring daily schedules and diet, great fat loss and healthy eating goals can be achieved. However the situation still isn’t optimal, so 'best possible', aggressive results or ‘high level’ goals are probably not feasible. 

Appropriate diet-related goals during COVID-19 restrictions:

1. Improve or maintain health

2. Form & solidify healthy eating habits

3. Maintain current body composition

4. Achieve a slow rate of fat loss

Goals that likely aren’t feasible during COVID-19 restrictions:

1. Growing a notable amount of muscle for those who are beyond the ‘newbie lifting phase’.

2. Achieving fast, aggressive fat loss.

Why are these goals not feasible or not a good idea?

Growing notable amounts of muscle, or retaining muscle during aggressive fat loss, requires a pretty hefty training stimulus. When dieting aggressively, the risk of muscle loss is higher so the level of stimulus required to maintain muscle is elevated compared to situations of maintenance Calories or mild fat loss rates. Similarly, the amount of stimulus required to grow muscle for many folks will be difficult to achieve with a minimal home gym environment. While you can certainly train effectively at home, ‘high level’ goals are best saved for when gyms open or if you have a neat home gym set up.

Now onto the 7 Tips to Stay in Control of your Nutrition During Covid-19

1. Create eating inconvenience, by removing ‘zero-cook’ foods from the household.

During normal circumstances, a lack of convenience is often a reason why people struggle to eat healthfully. However when you’re spending all of your time at home, a lack of convenience is no longer a concern. In fact, it might actually become an issue, as the risk of mindless eating and snacking is so high.

Given this, adding some inconvenience to your ‘at-home’ food environment might provide a needed level of annoyance that can deter you from grabbing at random foods, or provide you with extra few seconds you need to consider whether your urge to eat is justified or just an ‘in the moment’ impulse.

2. Set an eating routine. 

When you move house, change the workplace, etc. The first week or two might be a little ‘all over the place’. But after a while, you develop a routine and settle into a structure that's the most efficient or effective ordering of events. Over time you know the quickest route to take to work, the most efficient morning routine, or the best way to navigate the supermarket. The same can apply to the foreign situation of working from home that many aren’t familiar with. 

It’s a good idea to sit down and plan a rough daily schedule that includes your ‘eating time slots’ (how many meals, roughly when you’re going to eat them). Have this as a start point to evaluate and refine from. This will help create efficiency, productivity, and make eating time and non-eating time clear cut, rather than a grey zone.

3. Place more emphasis on main meals.

You’re either eating or you’re not. Consume large, filling, fibre and plant-rich meals that will erase food from your thoughts for several hours. Plan them well to ensure they adhere to these requirements. Rushed, or in the moment decisions around food with poor planning will reduce your chances of making choices that are conducive to Calorie-conscious goals. Keep it simple and by placing more emphasis on main meals it may reduce any unjustified urges to eat in gaps between predetermined eating times. 

4. Get ‘red-light’ foods, out of the house or at least out of sight.

Any foods that when present, you struggle to control your intake of are not ‘bad’ foods but rather ‘red-light’ foods that might be best kept out the house, or at least out of sight. If the option isn’t there, then mindless consumption can’t happen. Crackers, dips, biscuits are all classic ‘zero-cook’ pantry-snack-attack foods that can add a tonne of Calories before you can blink. Either don’t buy them or arrange your kitchen to hide them from plain view.

5. Create an example day of eating or a ‘default diet’. 

In combination with creating a daily structure with meal times, the rough composition or structure of each meal should be planned. For example, breakfast might be a yogurt, oats and fruit-based meal. Lunch might be a Mexican style burrito bowl meal, and dinner might be a frozen veg and lean meat ‘one pan special’ with a moderate portion of fibrous carb-dense food such as brown rice. This structure is not rigid, but rather an example day of eating to always default back to. Change the proteins, change the fruit and veg choices, etc. Just keep the general structure and portion sizes roughly the same. This will help you plan appropriate nutrition, shop efficiently for only the things you need, and avoid having random foods present that don’t really fit your meal structure. 

6. Go for short walks or brush your teeth, when questionable hunger strikes.

In the time gaps between meals, if hunger strikes that you feel might not be justified or if you get urges for random indulgent type foods, you need to slow things down to give yourself a chance to consider things. Giving yourself a 10 minute time zone to let things settle before you assess whether eating is a good idea might work a treat for making you realise the urge you previously had isn’t needed. 

7. Keep the mind busy with a passion project or hobby.

Staying busy is one of the best ways to control your Calorie intake. The time gaps between exercise, house chores, eating and work need to be filled or the boredom might lead your mind to food. If you’ve been wanting to learn something, research a topic of interest, work on a passion project or start a new hobby, these times present an awesome chance for you to do something exciting and mentally stimulating. They can fit into your daily schedule to fill the gaps that might result in needless food intake.

With social drinks and meals not being a limiting factor, the current situation presents a great opportunity for fat loss and healthy eating goals to be focused on and nailed. That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy… With some tweaking of your environment, you can mitigate some of the potential speed bumps your healthy eating goals might face during these odd times.   

If you’d like to learn some more strategies surrounding food selection, recipes, meal inspiration and shopping lists, our Team FNC Community is an ever-growing nutritional resource that has you covered.

For only $5 per week, you can access our Community that includes weekly webinars, infographics, exclusive content, meal inspiration, video lessons and more. Plus you get the chance to ask our team of coaches a question each Friday.

Yes, only $5 per week. You read it right. Less than the price of a drink at a pub that you can’t even go-to for a while. The money you’re saving there could be put towards improving your knowledge and understanding of nutrition over the next few months.

To learn more about our online community and sign up, click the link below.

Find The FN'Sweet Spot: Goals, Values & Convenience

Shocking Facts:

• You can eat a healthy meal that tastes good

• You can eat a healthy meal that is cheap

• You can eat a healthy meal that doesn’t take much time to prepare

• You can eat a healthy meal that doesn’t require high levels of cooking skills

• You can eat a healthy meal that aligns with your culture

• You can eat a healthy meal when you go out or are with friends

• You can eat a healthy meal that you enjoy, that tastes good, is aligned with your goals, aligns with your values and is convenient.

Can you consistently consume meals that tick the 3 boxes of Goals, Values and Convenience?

Now termed the FN’Sweet Spot.

A new term and strategy to help promote adherence and sustainability for your way of eating.

This is a truly vital component of healthy eating because “Healthy eating is an important determinant of health, but adherence to dietary guidelines remains a public health concern.” [1]

*NOTE: We are using the term healthy eating to mean eating for your goals.

In the research, common influences on healthy eating are:

• Social and cultural factors

• knowledge

• social media

• the relevance of information

• peers, taste

• convenience [4, 5, 6]

Alongside those are common barriers to healthy eating such as:

• Social

• heritage (perceived to lose heritage/cultural component of meals)

• poor taste

• expense

• lack of information

• cooking skills

• confidence

• time

• effort

• convenience

• cost

• support

• availability

• competing priorities

• ease of access to unhealthy foods [2, 3, 7, 8]

One study had expense and taste coming in the top 3, just after willpower. [2]

One study even showed a common reason being eating healthy is not a masculine/bloke thing to do. [3] (Clearly an Aussie study).

From this list, we’ve placed them in 3 categories:

Goals, Values and Convenience.

We can try to improve our adherence and consistency with our diet by ticking all 3 boxes.

Under each category we have:

Goals - Education, Informed Decisions, Legit Knowledge, Goal Aligned

Values - Taste, Culture, Social, Physical Health, Emotional, Personality, Enjoyment

Convenience -  Time, Effort, Energy, Money, Cooking Skills

Why is important to tick all 3 boxes?

If we just tick the goals and values box eg. they are healthy and taste good - they might not be convenient, it might be expensive, take too long to make, have too many ingredients.

If we just tick the values and convenience box eg they are tasty, enjoyable, cheap and easy - they might not be goal aligned.

Then if we just tick the goals and convenience box eg they are goal aligned, cheap and easy - they might not be very tasty or enjoyable.

We know that taste certainly goes a long way when it comes to rewarding. From previous webinars and blogs, we know that the reward is an important final part of the habit-building sequence. We are more likely to continue the behaviour that provides us with immediate rewards.

How do we put the FN’Sweet Spot into practice?

If you feel like struggling to adhere to your diet, do a check-in with yourself. 

Use the FN’Sweet Spot graphic as a guide. Do most of your meals tick all these boxes?
If there is a constant theme of a certain box not being fulfilled, look at some strategies to try and improve that area.

Here are some examples for each:

Goals: Improve your knowledge and understanding of nutrition such as food selection, portion control, energy balance, calories per bite. Make sure this is legit information too, not guru health. Make sure it is information that is aligned with your goals

Values: Can you improve the taste of your meals by using low calories sauces, herbs and seasons? Can you bring your culture and heritage into the meal creation? Can you invite friends over for healthy dinners or learn how to read menus and pick goal aligned foods? Can you still enjoy foods and flavours that resonate with your personality?

Convenience: Can you find easy/no prep protein and plant options? Can you shop smarter to keep costs down? Can you find recipes that are within your skill level and don’t have 10+ ingredients? 

So to reinforce the point from earlier, you can eat healthy meals that are tasty and convenient.

Take the time to find ways to make the experience and process of healthy eating a little sweeter by using the FN’Sweet Spot.

At FNC we can help you improve the consistency of each category by improving your knowledge and understanding of nutrition, providing you with convenient and enjoyable ways to create your meals.

Contact us today to learn more from our team

[1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13679-016-0192-0

[2] https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/39/2/330/3002965

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5675273/

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15702586

[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15570680

[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29892990

[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4276670/

[8] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309314854_The_barriers_and_enablers_of_healthy_eating_among_young_adults_a_missing_piece_of_the_obesity_puzzle_A_scoping_review