stress – Nourish Genie

At this time of the year, what’s colder than the nip in the air is usually that chill running up and down your spine: whether a student or a parent, ’tis not the season to be jolly. Because it’s exam time.

When it comes to February-March, nutrition rules are flung out of the window. Comfort food replaces regular meals and overindulgence replaces common sense. The need for emotional eating is understandable as is the natural gravitation towards fattening and sugary meals. They provide students with a warm hug when they need it the most. But it’s also harmful.

Remember, exam nutrition is not about counting calories. Poor nutrition is detrimental to one’s ability to concentrate, retain and perform well under pressure. So, nutrition during exam time is simply about harnessing the best of what food can offer so that the body functions at its optimum level.

NIX THE JUNK

Avoid giving your child too much comfort food; try to ration it out. Rich, heavy foods are harder to digest and divert blood from the brain, which is needed the most by the digestive system during this time. Your brain needs blood because it brings oxygen with it, vital for its efficient functioning. That’s one of the reasons why students retain far more information early in the morning compared to later in the day. Because there’s very little to distract blood from going to the nervous system.

PUSH FOR PROTEIN

Protein works beautifully in helping the brain both retain information and recall it. Give your child good lean protein like dal, eggs, fish, chicken and quinoa, to help him or her get the best out of their prep.

CAFFEINE

While it seems like a knight in shining armour, the lesser the dependence on caffeine, the better it is for your child. Most parents don’t know how many milligrams of caffeine is safe to be given to a child, and that in itself is tricky to estimate because it differs from person to person. Forget children, sometimes caffeine levels are hard to estimate even for adults. An overdose of caffeine induces side-effects like loose motions, palpitations, and sometimes, even more serious ones like respiratory distress, vomiting and convulsions. Too much caffeine could also be counterintuitive to the exam process as it could bring about an inability to focus and concentrate. Common caffeine sources include energy drinks, black teas, coffees and caffeine tablets.

WATER

Adequate hydration is crucial for the proper functioning of the body, including the brain, and dehydration could bring with it headaches and tiredness. At least 8-10 glasses or 2 litres of water is recommended every day.

SLEEP

While this has nothing to do with nutrition, if you don’t sleep, your brain doesn’t work well. When you sleep is when your brain organises everything you have taught it, so that when you are awake, it functions almost like a jukebox. The fewer hours you sleep, the lesser time your brain gets to organise its short-term and long-term memory.

In short, pass the nutrition test, and you’re off to a flying start.

“I have been to every dietician under the sun but nothing works. I’m sure you are very good… but I have no hope. “

My new client and I had clearly got off to a good start.

Cases like Tanya’s are not unfamiliar to me. She had lost almost all the weight she needed to, and only the last 6 kilos were left now. But due to her slowing metabolism, and the fact that she had already lost a considerable amount, she was finding the last mile the hardest to cross. Based on her blood tests and eating habits, I charted out a meal plan and told her to come back in four weeks.

But when she came back, she hadn’t lost a single gram.

I frowned a frown I usually reserve for those clients who have spent their weekends undoing the week’s hard work. I had no doubt that Tanya followed everything I outlined to the T. So why hadn’t she lost weight?
And then, she started to speak…

“I weigh myself first thing in the morning, before a bath, after a bath, before lunch, after lunch, before exercise, after exercise. And my weight has not budged. I’ve hired an expensive personal trainer to complement my diet. I’m so stressed out by this that I can’t sleep. What more can I do?“ When someone weighs herself seven times a day, the person isn’t losing weight to look good or to feel better he or she is obsessed with the idea of losing weight. Tanya has an obsession with weight loss. For her, food equals calories. For her, weight loss was not a way to get to her goal but it was the goal itself. So whenever she ate, her attitude was not “I am fuelling my body and this tastes so good“, it was, “I am eating calories and I need to work this off at the gym“.

I spent almost half an hour talking to her because I had to understand why anyone would weigh themselves seven times a day. I told her that she had to enjoy the same food, without thinking about the calories. And just to prove to her that it was the attitude and not the diet, I asked her to follow the same plan with a happier, positive frame of mind. I told her to go out and have fun. And she was not allowed to weigh herself at all.

Two weeks later, the same plan gave her fantastic results. In just 15 days, she lost the 2 kilos she had been struggling to lose for months.

Same meal plan, two sets of attitudes.

JUST LET IT GO

” Obsession is as un healthy as a crash diet. “

Tanya’s story illustrates the point I have been trying to make this is the only body you have. Learn to love and appreciate it. Don’t sweat over the little things and stop obsessing over every single calorie. The results will come. For some, they come faster. For some, they take a little time. But there is no way that eating healthy will not make you reach your weight loss goals. Remember that.