During a COVID-19 lockdown, it’s easy for our health and fitness goals to feel derailed or disrupted. But when it comes to eating well, lockdown doesn’t have to be a big disruptor. There are lots of ways you can adapt your patterns, or even take advantage of the change in pace, to support your health through nutritious food. 

Have a plan

It’s easy to find ourselves gravitating toward the cupboard and reaching for a small snack whenever we are bored. Mindless eating like this is a big contributor to lockdown weight gain and feeling off track.

Having a rough plan of when and what you are going to eat can not only stop the mindless grazing, but it can also help with grocery shopping. If you know that you want to have crackers and avo or a homemade muffin for morning tea in the coming week, you can add all the ingredients to your shopping list and have it ready to go for a quick shop, click-and-collect or delivery.

While planning can feel like a drag and that you have to set aside lots of time, it doesn’t have to take forever. Try setting aside 10 minutes while you have your morning cuppa to jot down 2-3 ideas for next week’s meals and snacks. Then leave it and come back to it later. You will be surprised by what a few short bursts of planning can achieve, and how it can make food choice so much easier over the course of the week.

Focus on Fibre

Making a healthier choice in lockdown doesn’t have to be complicated either. Consciously choosing a high fibre option or adding a high fibre food is a simple way to know you making a nutrient rich choice.

Fibre is the indigestible part of a plant, which means that it’s going in one end of your digestive tract (your mouth) and coming out the other (you get the idea). It moves right through, and we don’t break it down or absorb it into our body. So, what’s the point of that?

Fibre has several key benefits to your health:

• It fills up your stomach so that you can more easily recognize fullness.
• It reduces the energy density of your meals so that you can worry less about overeating.
• It makes your gut work hard to access the carbohydrates in your food, which helps to even out your blood sugar levels and energy levels.
• It binds to saturated fat in the gut, carrying excess fat out of your body in your poo and helping to lower cholesterol.
• It feeds the bacteria in your gut, which supports a regular poo as well as having impacts on immunity, inflammation, and mental health.

To top it all off, when you choose foods and meals that are high in fibre, you are generally going to get more whole food, which comes with the benefits of many other vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals.

AMAZING!!

We get fibre from fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and wholegrain foods. Picking a meal or a snack that’s built on these foods is the most efficient way to support your health in lockdown.

• Add some nuts and seeds to your breakfast cereal or porridge
• Snack on some fruit and yoghurt
• Serve your toasted sandwich with a side of snow peas and dip.
• Steam or stir fry some veggies to have with your takeaway
• Have some fruit salad chopped and ready in the fridge 

Temper your treats

Food and drinks are a nice way to treat yourself on a day stuck at home. A glass of wine in the afternoon, a take-away to reduce the pressure of cooking, a special dessert or baked good because you have the time to make it. Yet the frequency and volume of ‘treat’ foods can easily add up and result in a disruption to your patterns of eating and cause lockdown weight gain.

Take a moment to think about how often you want to treat yourself and give yourself a budget. You don’t have to miss out or abstain. Just be clear about how frequently you are willing to indulge and then keep track so that you stick to it. 

• Do you want to have chocolate multiple times a day or just once a day?
• Do you want to have dessert every night or just on the weekend?
• Do you want to have alcohol every day or keep it to 2-3 times a week? 

There’s no right answer, but unless you as the questions, the habit will form without your awareness, and you will find it harder to change. 

Accrue some alternative comforts

With all of the risks and uncertainties in the pandemic, it’s so easy to feel anxious and overwhelmed. Food can be a quick and easy comfort. But if you’re finding yourself relying on eating as a form of comfort or buying take away and junk foods as the only way to boost your mood, it may be worth building up your arsenal of other options.

What are some other activities that soothe your state of mind?

If you can have a list of these things ready, it can save the mental load of thinking of an alternative when you’re craving something sweet or salty.

These are some common ones to consider, but it’s essential that you make your own list of favourites: 

• Taking a hot bath
• Reading in the sun
• Having a short nap
• Listen to a podcast
• Have a cup of tea and catch up with your partner / family
• Call a friend

Build a new habit

Lockdown is the perfect time to reflect on what is and isn’t working in your health journey and plan to improve certain habits. Are you in the habit of eating lunch at your desk or dinner in front of the TV? Or, are you in the habit if having something sweet at 3pm every day? What other aspects of your food choices do you want to change?

To build a new habit, you need to be specific about what you want to change and why it’s important. Don’t pick ‘drink 3 litres of water’ if you don’t see any point or benefit to focusing on that habit. However, drinking 3 litres of water may be a great goal if you are regularly experiencing constipation or struggling to manage your appetite. 

Be clear about what and why.  Then, decide how you are going to make it happen. It can be valuable to consider these things when you’re working out the ‘how’:

• Can I give myself some form of prompt, or reminder?
• Can I pair that habit with something else that I regularly do?
• Can I make that habit more enjoyable or appealing? Are there things I can do to make that habit easier?
• Is there a way to reinforce the habit or pat myself on the back? A reward or a treat (that doesn’t undermine the habit itself) 
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If you are looking for ways to take advantage of lockdown and build new habits for your health and wellbeing, the team of Accredited Practising Dietitians at The Healthy Eating Clinic are running video consultations and can help you to priorities what to change and how.

To book an appointment with one of our team, head to healthyeatingclinic.com.au or call us on 02 6174 4663.