Eating Yourself Happy and Bean Salad Recipe for Lunch!

 Good Monday to you Interwebs!

Sorry for the hiatus on blog posts. I was away getting married and honeymooning! 

This week’s blog post is going to be on a topic that has been of great interest to me in the last month or so. Today we are going to talk about how to eat yourself happy. This post may not apply to some of you, but if you are like me, your moods depend greatly on what and when you eat. A lot of people don’t even realize how much their nutritional habits affect their moods. Take this quick survey to see if this is something you may want to keep closer attention too….

1. Do you get grumpy/angry if you go more than 3 hours without eating (or a lot if you don't keep track of when you eat)?

2. Do you get headaches after consuming or NOT consuming high sugar foods or caffeine?

3. Do you have trouble sleeping?

4. Do you often not have enough energy for your workouts?

5. Do you feel like you are going to fall asleep or have trouble concentrating around 2pm in the day?

If you answered yes to 2 or more of these questions, I guarantee your diet greatly contributes to these problems. 

I know this to be true because this is something that I personally struggle with. I need to eat and drink a certain way or I get all 5 of those symptoms (poor Scott). So do a lot of other people. So how can we improve our diet and make our days go from “Blah” to “awesome super excited happynesss”? Well here a few things I have learned over the years. 

To help you even more, at the end of this blog post is a bean salad recipe with a home made dressing I made last week which is super yummy, low calorie, and wont leave you grumpy!

*Note: Although I am focusing mainly on how eating this way makes one feel, eating this way will also help you lose weight!

1. Protein 3 times a day… ESPECIALLY breakfast

This is not just something I made up but has also been studied (specifically by Dr. DesMaisons of radiant recovery). It is very important for your overall functioning and mood to consume protein 3 times a day, especially breakfast. Why? Because it keeps your blood sugar stable. Without going into great detail on how blood sugar regulation and neural cell metabolism works, the more you keep your blood sugar stable (rather than fluctuating up and down all day) the more stable your moods will be. Some excellent options for protein are…

• Nuts: e.g., almonds, walnuts (unsalted and only a handful at a time)
•   Eggs
•  Beans
• Meat: Lean unprocessed meat (e.g., not lunch meat, store bought ground beef, hot dogs)

2 Poached Eggs, Rye Bread and Avocado for Breakfast=Happyness

  

2. Do not go more than 3 hours without eating

The longer you go without eating something the more likely you will become hypoglycemic (low blood sugar), which will leave your brain without any (good) fuel, which ultimately will lead  to a change in mood. The body does not like to be hungry and acidic. That being said, you shouldn’t be eating a cheeseburger every 3 hours. You want to be eating small (250calories ish) snacks every 2-3 hours that consist of complex carbs (e.g., fruits and veggies) and preferably protein. 

3. Stay away from high sugar and processed garbage food

Want an excellent way to feel like crap…eat a bag of Skittles and O’Henry bar then down a diet coke. Sure you’ll feel good for a little bit, but soon enough you’ll be swearing at yourself (or someone around you) when you accidentally drop your pen/eyeliner/purse. Again, this goes back to keeping your blood sugar regulated. If you pack your body with processed high sugar junk it basically goes “what the hell is this stuff”, which makes it very hard to stay homeostatic/in balance. Eating high sugar high processed stuff is just asking for trouble.

4. Stay Hydrated

Please don’t go from consuming no water to 7 bottles a day, because that also isn’t good for your system. What I mean by staying hydrated is increasing your water intake and decreasing your liquid crap intake (pop, coffee with crème and sugar, juice, energy drinks). So say if you drink 5 pops a day and no water, try 1 bottle of water and 4 pops a day for a week, then 2 bottles of water and 3 pops a day the next week until you slowly wean yourself off the sugary stuff. Why……. I know I sound like a broken record, but it’s so your blood sugar doesn’t bounce all over the place.

Byn’s Tip for the Week: Do You Hate Water? I used to as well! Try mixing half water half orange juice and slowly decrease the amount of orange juice over time. This can also be done with other beverages like ice tea and crystal light but those are often high in chemicals and sugar so I don't recommend them.

So there you go... 4 tips to help you not be such a grumpy pants and just generally feel better! I don’t recommend trying all 4 at once starting tomorrow if you live off fast food and pop. This is because if that is the way you roll at the moment, your body is used to having sugar and caffeine pumped into it all day. Taking it away all at once will send it into shock making you feel much much worse, not better. Refer to tip #4 on how to introduce things slowly. 

Now for my Bean and corn salad recipe

This took me exactly 17 minutes to make enough for lunch Tuesday-Friday last week. It has it’s own homemade dressing, has protein, good fats, no preservatives, and is vegetarian (I’m pretty sure it’s vegan too)

Ingredients

Byn's Black Been and Corn Salad! Yum!

• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

• 1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels

• 1 avocado - peeled, pitted and diced

• 1 red bell pepper, chopped

• 2 tomatoes, chopped

• 6 green onions, thinly sliced

• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Directions

1. Place lime juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, and cayenne pepper in a small jar. Cover with lid, and shake until ingredients are well mixed.
2. In a salad bowl, combine beans, corn, avocado, bell pepper, tomatoes, green onions, and cilantro. Shake lime dressing, and pour it over the salad. Stir salad to coat vegetables and beans with dressing, and serve. 

 

Delicious!

As always, questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

Stay Strong

~Byn