How To Practice Self Care Through Nutrition

Before we even dive into the topic of this blog, let’s talk about self-care and self-love for a moment. What is self-love? When you practise love for yourself, you take into account your own happiness and emotions. It’s not just an internet trend, or something motivational speakers are trying to push down your throat, it’s having a higher sense of self. And learning to take good care of yourself. Hence, self-care. Self-care simply put is a way to nourish yourself.  You can start your self-care journey by caring for yourself – inner-self and body. A proper self-care and nutrition for your body obviously means – sleeping, eating right, and exercising well.

In this blog, we’re specifically talking about practising self-care through nutrition. A healthy diet forms the center of a healthy life. No matter what stage you’re in – young adulthood, middle-ages, or the senior years of your life – nutrition is important. A healthy body equals a healthy mind, heart, and soul. 

How Can You Practice Good Nutrition? 

What you eat in a day greatly affects your life right now as well as in the longer run. Good nutrition helps you lead a healthy lifestyle. When you combine this with a good diet, sleep and exercise schedule – you double the benefits. Not only this, it also reduces the risk of chronic lifestyle diseases. Starting and maintaining healthy eating habits doesn’t have to be too tedious to follow. You can start by incorporating small lifestyle changes one day at a time. Even doing something for five to ten minutes a day, can build a habit for lifestyle. You can try by setting small goals and adding one goal at a time. 

Is Eating Healthy Self Care?

Eating healthy is the first step of self-care. Good nutrition is important because eating healthy indicates self-care.  You need to have a better balance of your life which only comes from being well nourished. Do not starve yourself. Keeping your tummy full is like answering the needs of your body. Detoxify and cleanse your body from time-to-time. Have you heard about color therapy when it comes to food? The more color you add in your daily diet, in this case, the better it is. 

What Are Five Ways You Can Improve your Overall Diet? 

There are many ways to nourish your body, we have listed five such pointers below – 

• Keeping Track of Your Diet 

You can easily take care of your daily dietary requirement by using a calorie counter. You need to make sure you don’t consume more or less calories than you burn in a day. Becoming overweight, or staying malnourished is neither healthy nor wise. Understanding that your body needs whole foods over snacks. So, the next time you are on your breakfast table, put aside your breakfast snacks and grab a good bowl of fulfilling oatmeal. A balanced diet will not only keep you full but also help retain healthy calories. 

• Eating a Wide Variety of Foods 

India is known for its wide variety of fruits and vegetables. It becomes an easier job to pick a colorful, nutritious diet because of this. In order to increase the variety in your diet, you can try adding a new fruit or vegetable to your diet once a while. You can also start by having food that comes from different families – adding a glass of buttermilk, and a salad to your meal can make it wholesome. You can also divide your days into a proper diet chart that helps you include a wide variety of foods and outlines what can be eaten when, and how. 

• Making Cereals and Whole Grains the Base of Your Diet 

Many individuals try to shift their focus from starchy foods like bread, rice and potatoes when improving their diet or trying to lose weight. It is a myth that starchy foods can help you cut fat. On the contrary, starchy foods are an important source of energy that provides carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and a lot of fibre. They also contain half as much calories as fats. It is important that you start by eating plenty of cereals and grains with every meal you consume. Choose whole grain options like brown rice, wholemeal bread, and high-fibre breakfast cereals over other meal options as these are rich in starch. Including pasta and rice can also help. 

• Increase the Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables – it goes without saying – are the healthiest and possibly tastiest way of getting more nutrition into your body. These rejuvenating gifts of nature provide you with essential vitamins and minerals and protect you against a range of health conditions. Include at least two pieces of fruits and five vegetable servings in your daily diet to maintain a healthy balance of nutrition. Eating the skin of some fruits is also highly beneficial as it is rich in fibre. You can add vegetables to your salad, fruits to your breakfast bowls, smoothies and even shakes, and ice creams. 

• Increase Your Fluid Intake

Drinking seven to eight glasses of water everyday is extremely crucial to lead a healthy, disease-free life. Water is a no-effort way of keeping yourself active, healthy inside and out. Water not only cleanses and detoxifies your body but also helps boost your metabolism. Dehydration can cause skin issues, make your hair brittle and lead to fatigue, poor concentration and many such issues. Drinking herbal juices, green tea, and fruit-infused water can also be a way of keeping yourself hydrated. 

In conclusion, it is very crucial in today’s time to practise self-care and listen to our body’s needs. Whether it is by listening to your favorite music, relaxing yourself through a massage, or taking proper nutrition – whatever path you choose – you must invest time in caring for yourself regularly. You can also take simple steps like replace sugar with raw honey or raw wild honey, consume green tea for weight loss to take on a healthier approach. And replace other oils with organic cow ghee for its high nutritional value.