Monday October 21st 6.30 - 7pm
Over the next 3 weeks, we have decided to share a little insight into how Tom and I, eat, move and think, and some of the reasons why we have chosen to do the things we do.
Like many of you, we sometimes struggle to stick to a set routine, and I think sometimes as health care professionals we provide you our best advice, but it may come across that we have a perfect diet!
We do our best to eat a natural and balanced diet, however I can assure you that we do enjoy a treat now and again! The tips and tricks we provide in the Wednesday Wisdoms are certainly things that we do incorporate into our lives, but I wanted to provide an insight into how we do this.
So, to start us off on this 3 part series, we will be focusing on nutrition and how we eat! This week is also diabetes awareness week, which is well timed, as nutrition can have a huge impact on the prevention and management of this.
We are by no means nutritionists, so if you do want specific nutritional advice tailoured to you, I would highly recommend speaking to our dear friend and nutrition guru Craig Barton who we personally use, and have learnt so much from Craig along the way. You can learn more here: https://www.craigbartonpt.co.uk/ .
We are also not saying that our way is the right way, but hopefully it provides some food for thought and I will share the reasons why we do what we do.
How do we start our day?
When it comes to food in the morning, the first meal we will eat is generally a large salad and eggs. We try to mix the salad up using different vegetables, but at the moment it generally includes:
Eating a raw and colourful salad adds lots of vitamins and minerals into our diet as well as phytonutrients, which help with the health of our cells by fighting off nasty free radicals. The eggs are a great source of the essential amino acids which are the building blocks of protein, which forms every structure of our body. The high protein also helps to keep our satiety at bay which means that it makes us feel fuller for longer, and keeps our energy high.
Do we snack in the morning or afternoon?
Snacks can vary, and really depends on what we are up to. If Tom is in practice all morning or we have been quite physical, it is likely we will have a snack. If we are having a less active morning, it is likely we will skip it.
If we do have a snack, we will often have a protein shake (we use the vanilla vegan protein from https://naturalnutrients.co.uk/) and a piece of fruit such as an apple or pear. Alternatively, we may have a handful of nuts such as almonds or walnuts.
We are not perfect however, and sometimes we will have a treat as a snack, mainly at the weekend! Toms current favourite is KP Roasted Peanuts, and my current favourite is a flapjack!
What about lunch?
Our lunch is similar to our breakfast but we do try to mix it up so that it is not identical. It generally consists of a large salad with some form of protein such as white fish. We may add some seeds, goats cheese or avocado into it also.
What about evening meals?
We try to mix this up, and I will admit, Tom currently does most of the cooking!! This is not because I don’t want to, it is more because he enjoys it and is happy to do so, so I am certainly not going to get in his way!!
We generally have some meat or fish, such as grass fed beef (we source locally at Field Farm – https://www.facebook.com/pg/gourleyfieldfarm/about/?ref=page_internal) or we have wild caught salmon or free range turkey. We will often have this with brown rice spaghetti, brown rice or sweet potato and a large portion of vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower or peas (we do make sauces etc and try to make the meals as interesting and tasty as possible!)
We cook our foods using avocado oil or coconut oil rather than olive oil for example, as these can withstand high heats and stay in their original form.
We choose grass fed, organic and wild where possible because these contain higher sources of good quality omega 3 fatty acids that are essential building blocks of the cells in our body and helps with healing and repair. As well as being free from nasty chemicals that can damage our gut and brain health.
We choose organic foods where possible because these are much denser in the phytonutrients previously mentioned, as well as not being tainted by the damaging chemicals.
We do enjoy going out for food now and again, and with the current circumstances this is now in the take out form. If you like pizza then Sim at Caffe Portico is the place to go and is our current favourite! http://caffeportico.co.uk/
With regards to supplements we take the below daily:
Non-dairy probiotic – this helps our digestion and absorption of the good foods we eat.
Vitamin D3 – this is brilliant for bone health and cell repair.
Magnesium – this help our muscles relax and our nerves to work faster.
Vitamin C – this is an essential ingredient for boosting our immune system.
Vitamin A – like Vitamin C this is great for the healing of our immune system.
Omega 3 – every cell in the body is made up of Omega 3, therefore to have the healthiest cells, it is essential to have this in your diet.
We source these from Cytoplan and Nutri and are the ones we stock at Epoch Lincoln due to the high quality.
What do we drink?
We mention this quite often that water is essential for our overall health. We drink a lot of water, and start our day without fail by drinking a pint of water when we first wake up. We do this because our bodies are often dehydrated from our nights sleep, so it helps to get our brain and body firing. We then continuously sip water throughout the day. If you struggle with plain water, why not try infusing it with a slice of lemon or lime?
I will generally have a couple of herbal teas throughout the day also. Turmeric tea by Pukka is my current favourite! I will also have a hot chocolate now again by using hazelnut milk with a teaspoon of raw cacoa powder – yum! We find alternative milks to diary are much better for the body, they don’t increase inflammation as much and raw cacoa is a brilliant source of magnesium and is anti-inflammatory. It also won’t give the sugar spike like regular chocolate powder.
Tom enjoys a coffee, so he will have 2-3 coffees a day – usually black, but may add some almond or hazelnut milk into it.
Alcohol! We all know alcohol isn’t good for us, but I will be honest, we do enjoy a glass of prosecco or a bottle of cider at the weekend now and again. If you want to try something different, or are finding yourself drinking more frequently than you would like, then a little trick we learnt through Craig, was to have a non-alcoholic ‘Becks Blue’ beer instead of a regular beer. This is very low in calories and does not have any alcohol in, so one bottle normally satisfies that craving on a nice sunny day, and you don’t have the impact of the alcohol! We all know the negative effects of alcohol on our liver, brain health and long term susceptibility to chronic disease, so we do try to keep an eye on how much we drink.
Also another tip from Craig is to try sparkling water with a freshly squeezed lemon juice, which is a great alternative and tastes similar to lemonade without the high sugar content!
You may have noticed that we rarely have wheat, dairy or sugar. We consciously choose to avoid these as much as possible, as they are highly inflammatory to our body and taxing for the body to ingest and process. Have you ever heard the expression that it is pointless to try and get water by eating ice, as it will use a lot of energy for the body to melt that down? The same is true for wheat, dairy and sugar. The benefits, be them very minimal, in eating these does not outweigh the detrimental effects they can have on our health. Therefore, our recommendation would be to try and keep them as a treat and not the norm.
As you will see, we generally do try to eat consistently well, however we do allow ourselves a treat and when we do, we enjoy it!
Small things really do make a big impact, so even if you add an extra glass of water into your day, this is a great start and please remember, we are by no means perfect. We just hope that this goes some way to helping you live your best life possible.
With love,
Sarah and Tom
