I know it is not an easy thing to do and I know because I have been there before. Our lives tend to be so busy – we work 10 hours a day and it is just so easy to stop at a fast food outlet and get a burger, those amazing fries and a coke for dinner. The same goes for the mornings, we are in a rush to get to work and just drink coffee for breakfast and off we go and we will most probably skip lunch too. The sad reality is that this is the worst thing that you can do to your body.
See, the first mistake we do is to skip breakfast. Our mothers did not tell us breakfast is the most important meal of the day for nothing. It actually is the most important meal of the day. The actual word breakfast means that we break the overnight fasting period by eating something in the morning. This is important because by eating a healthy breakfast, we eat essential nutrients that will give us energy for the rest of the day.
I have not always been a big breakfast eater myself, in fact I still am not. Believe me, some mornings I literally need to force myself to have something healthy to eat before setting off to work. One thing that has definitely helped me to have a healthy appetite in the mornings is working out before breakfast. By rebounding you certainly crush a lot of calories which ensures that you will be hungry afterwards.
It’s really not necessary to eat a huge breakfast every morning. Just the thought of having bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast makes me want to run for the hills and anyways, according to me that is not the healthiest breakfast. I love a bowl of oats in the morning. You add oats, a pinch of salt and boiling water, microwave for 3 minutes and you are good to go. Eat that with milk and cinnamon and you will be ready to take on the day. For some variety I also like a bit of yogurt with muesli or fruit. See, it really is not that difficult.
What I have found that works for me is to plan my meals in advance. By doing that, you already know what you will be eating the rest of the day and if you leave the office, you don’t feel the urge to stop for fast food as you have already planned your healthy dinner. What also helps me not to be so hungry by the time I get home that I want to eat everything that I lay my eyes on, is to snack in between my three main meals during the day. I’ll usually have a fruit with my 10 o’clock and 3 o’clock cup of rooibos tea.
I know that lunch is not always that easy as we tend to be very busy at work and then either completely forget to eat or once again, go for something super unhealthy. What I do is to make something extra with the previous night’s dinner that I can quickly make a healthy salad or toasted rye with for the following day for lunch. I am very privileged to work about 5km from home, so I get to go home over lunch most days and that makes having a healthy lunch much easier. What I would suggest is that you do the same, just pack everything the night before into a bag, put it into the freezer so that you can just quickly grab it to take with you to work the following day.
For me, dinners are the easiest meals of the day. We’ll have a protein like meat, fish, pork or chicken with some sort of vegetables or salad. We try not to eat carbs at night but rather with lunch as you then still have enough time to ‘work it off’. Another thing that I have learned in the past is not to have dinner too late. I know that is not always possible because you never know what happens at work and then you get to go home late or still have to help kids with homework etc. but we try our best to have our dinner before 7pm so that we still have at least three hours before we go to bed.
Another small step that I believe everyone should take is definitely drink water! Luckily I’ve always loved water so this has never really been an issue for me. Water is so important for your body. Your body is composed of about 60% water. Benefits of drinking water includes better digestion, absorption and circulation of nutrients and maintenance of body temperature. Rebounding offers so many benefits of which one is detoxifying your body and by drinking water it also helps this process. I love having a glass of water especially when I’m thirsty or after a fun session on the rebounder.
If you have never eaten healthy I would suggest that you don’t go cold turkey right away. Rather just take it slow and make a small change every day. If you are used to drinking 6 cups of coffee a day, rather try to cut out at least two cups a day and see how it goes. If you are used to having 2 teaspoons of sugar in that coffee, try to reduce it to only 1 and get used to it before cutting it out completely. There are some side effects to cutting out certain things from your normal way of eating which includes headaches and feeling tired. These are all normal and you will soon feel better as soon as all those toxins are out of your body. By starting out slowly on a rebounder, it will also help you to get rid of all those toxins and drink water, it is the best thing you can do for your body!
The amazing thing about eating healthy and being healthy is that it makes you feel great. You will get more quality sleep, you will not feel that tired anymore, your headaches should be less, you will feel more energized and you will look amazing. What I have noticed from my own body is that when I eat unhealthy I immediately feel it. The problem with us humans is that we normally don’t keep it to only one unhealthy meal. We tend to eat a couple of unhealthy meals after another and then we feel awful and have to start all these small little steps all over again.
The same goes with exercise. If you start off over doing it you will burn out and will probably only do it for a week or two and be back to square one again. Rather start slowly. Start by taking out your rebounder and jumping for five to ten minutes a day. I promise you, you will feel amazing. Every week you can increase the time by five minutes and before you know it you will be rebounding and getting in a great 30 minute workout.
By following these very small steps and changing something every week you can become a more healthier version of yourself!
