Good Food, Good Mood

So in my last post I told you a little about myself and about what I intend this blog to be about-wellness in its entirety. Usually when we think of wellness, we think of health; mental health and being physically healthy. But I think that wellness should be viewed in a broad sense as all of the different aspects of our lives that enable us to perform optimally.

Thus, wellness can be broken down into:

Physical

Financial

Nutritional

Medical & Dental

Psychological & Emotional

Behavioral and Intellectual

Environmental

Occupational

Spiritual

Social

My focus today will be on nutritional wellness because this was one of the first things that I had to work on in order for my health and overall well-being to improve. 

This topic will definitely be one that I will revisit because there is so much that encompasses nutrition and there is no way that one post will be able to go that much in depth(without boring you guys!).

Today, I'm going to mainly focus on some nutrition basics and make a pitch for cooking some of your meals instead of going to restaurants or drive thrus consistently. 

First, here's some basic terminology.

macronutrients or "macros"-nutrients we need in large amounts for energy

When people talk about them, they're referring to carbs, protein, and fat.

clean eating-avoiding processed food in favor of "real" food like fruits and vegetables

Basically, you want to stay away from food made in a laboratory. 

saturated vs. unsaturated fat- the names are based on the chemistry behind it, but health-wise, it's better to have more unsaturated fats like olive oil vs saturated fats like butter because of their effects on cholesterol

trans fat-this name also describes its chemistry, but basically this is the no-no in the health world. You can find it in a lot of fast food and it's bad because it is an artery clogger!

That's it for now, I can always introduce more health terms as time goes on. I don't want to just spew vocabulary at you, but I do think that it's important to understand some food basics and hopefully this will save you from seeming clueless if someone mentions one of these words! 

      Eating better has made a huge difference in my energy level in addition to physical perks such as clearer skin. I'll make a post later about how I was able to incorporate eating better into my daily life. One of the main things that I changed, though, was eating more meals from home. In med school,everything was centered around studying for me, so I would often resort to quick foods like microwavable meals, snacks, and Starbucks. In less than a year, I put on 10 pounds! This was really surprising because I was eating a lot less and a lot less frequently, so if anything, I would've expected to lose weight. But the real issue was that I was eating really high calorie foods without even realizing it. When I would get that coffee from Starbucks or eat that frozen dinner, I wasn't thinking about how many calories they contained! Now that I am cooking and paying more attention to the food that I eat when I go out, my body is thanking me both mentally and physically! I know that it's really hard to set aside time to cook (and even to learn to cook). But I promise that it's worth it, even a few times a week. I will address strategies to incorporate healthy eating in your diet in a later post.

Till then, 

Don't stress.

Remember to Breathe