Healthy Body = Healthy Mind

Way back last year, when I was diagnosed with severe anaemia (borderline transfusion level), I changed my eating habits big time. Having had a number of viruses previous (due to the lack of iron affecting my immune system), my appetite had waned somewhat. With the diagnosis I threw myself into researching how to up my iron intake to compliment the high dose of iron tablets I was on from the doctor (800mg daily). This all fell by the way side as I deteriorated with other health issues.

However, it is the New Year and I feel now is as good a time as any to try and get back eating healthy again. I must stress that it is not a diet, I will not be restricting myself food based on calories or anything like that. I will be focusing on healthy food. After researching links with depression and food, I created a meal plan for myself with as many of the ideas I could include. 

My planner that hopefully will keep me on track!

Two big things I will be cutting down on is caffeine and sugar. I cut out caffeine at the start of the year as it affects iron absorption but reintroduced it again as a comfort thing e.g. copious amounts of cups of tea. I have come to realise that my body does not react well to this in energy levels, bloating and it also affects my sleep - which I have enough problems with already! Sugar is another thing, I will still be having a chocolate treat on an evening or a little something after my lunch but I am a sugar fiend. I have it on my cereal daily so I start the day off with sugar pumping around. This, again, is not good for depression or energy levels. Since energy levels are a huge problem for me I am targeting this part of my diet to change too.

I therefore planned out my weekly food menu and created a shopping list to go with it. I have found doing so in the past really focuses me on what to buy rather than randomly putting items into my basket. I used my research to help me plan it. I have decided to try and food prep my lunches to start taking salad to get my vegetable intake - something which I am not a fan of and rarely eat. 

I set off today and spent time wandering the supermarket shopping for my 'healthy list'. In the future I would like to get my vegetables from grocers but for now just being able to get out and do a shop some days is an achievement.

My 'healthy' basket

I have planned in a pizza/treat night as I still want to indulge and as I said before, this is not about weight - it is about a healthy body leading to a healthy mind. I am sure I will lose weight naturally once I start eating healthy but I will see that as a by product. 

To cut out caffeine I have trained myself to drink herbal teas. Now I was never a fan of these but as I persisted I began to enjoy them. I drink a green tea with breakfast (I know this has some caffeine in naturally) then I drink Camomile tea throughout the day. On the evening I will either have a camomile or a hot chocolate. Also, gone are the frosted flakes and in is the porridge and wholewheat breakfasts! As I am still phasing back into work, I am planning scrambled eggs some mornings. 

I am hoping having such a structure will help me (almost CBT style) stay on track and keep up the healthy lifestyle. A friend told me that it takes two weeks to get used to something, so if I can only get through the first two weeks I will feel good. 

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Are you starting a healthy eating plan? Share the link in the comments for me to check out!     Head over to Venus Trapped to link up :