Fuel Your Future: A fresh start to nutrition in the New Year.
- nu2health
- Dec 22, 2024
- 6 min read
The festive season is upon us - a time to gather with family and friends, savour delicious meals, and perhaps enjoy a few extra treats and drinks. It’s a season of joy, but being honest, it often leaves us feeling like we’ve overindulged and ready to hit the reset button come January!
This year, let’s get ahead of the curve! In this month’s blog, I’ll guide you toward establishing a healthier, more positive relationship with food as you step into the new year. I’ll share practical tips to help you develop nutrition habits that nourish your body, improve digestion, and boost your energy levels. Let’s make 2025 your healthiest year yet!
First Things First
Find yourself a notepad, purely for this task, and between now and the end of the year, write a food diary that covers 5 days and shows what you ate and drank. The days don’t have to be consecutive. It’s just so you’ve got something to work with in January.
Then write down what your health goals are and how you want nutrition to support you in the new year.
New Year - Week 1 - Investigate
Look at your food diary and start breaking it down into the types of foods you are eating.
Is most of it ultra processed i.e. packaged products that have a high number of ingredients (10 or more) that you wouldn’t recognise in a standard kitchen?
How many wholefoods are you eating regularly i.e. fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, beans, nuts and seeds.
How balanced is your breakfast?
Is it a cereal that’s high in sugar and calories?
4g Sugar = 1 tsp (recommended daily allowance is no more than 7 tsp per day, 28g)
Healthy Breakfast Options
Overnight oats (Google recipes that match your taste buds).
0% Fat Free Greek Yogurt and add your own berries, nuts and seeds.
Smashed avocado, fried egg on wholemeal toast. (Add a splash of sesame oil and mild chilli powder to your avocado for extra kick and flavour).
Importance of Fibre
Fibre rich foods feed your gut microbes. It’s their major food source. This helps maintain the integrity of your mucus lining in your intestines which protects you from incoming viruses, pathogens, bacteria and leaky gut.
How much fibre are you eating per day?
Daily recommended amounts for adults are 30g per day.
You can achieve this figure by gradually incorporating more fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, beans, nuts and seeds into your every day diet.
Fibre improves digestion through better absorption of nutrients and helps prevent constipation.
Mindful Eating Challenge
Choose one day, one meal, where you are fully focused on what you are eating.
No mobile phone, no TV, no radio, etc. Just you and your food.
Look at what you are about to eat. Engage the senses.
Focus on the food you put into your mouth, the taste, smell, texture, consistency, and chew it well.
This prepares the brain and the stomach to receive the food.
Fully focusing on your senses helps with the feelings of fullness and your less likely to over eat.
Plus your less likely to feel bloated and get indigestion.
Week One Reflection
What did you find out about yourself and your current habits?
What have you managed to change?
Did anything surprise you?
What was the result of your mindful eating challenge? Did you eat less? Did you chew your food more? Were you able to feel yourself becoming full?
Week 2 - Invigorate
Paying attention to your refined sugar intake is a valuable practise. It helps you determine if you're exceeding your daily recommended allowance (28g) and whether this might be causing fluctuations in your energy levels throughout the day.
Too much sugar, over a long period of time, can increase your chances of type II diabetes as well as causing inflammation in your body, damage small blood vessels (particularly in the eyes), lead to weight gain and heart disease.
Healthy Snack Ideas
Try changing your mid morning snack for a piece of fruit and some whole nuts or carrot/cumber/celery sticks with some houmous.
These snacks have protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals which help keep you feeling fuller for longer and release energy slowly so no highs and lows in your blood sugar.
Low blood sugar will cause you to feel hungry, irritable, tired, shaky and have difficulty concentrating.
The Power of Protein
As we get older we need more protein as we become less efficient at using it.
20-30g per meal is a good target for someone who is not very active.
If you are active, exercising regularly, and doing some type of weight training, then you need to up your protein to more like 30-40 g per meal.
This gives your body what it needs to build and repair muscle and cells, support your immune function and help with all your physical functioning.
If you’re not consuming enough protein, your body may begin breaking down its own precious muscle tissue to meet its needs!
Good v Bad Fats
Saturated fat is the one we need to monitor our consumption of. Think red meat, salami, cakes, biscuits, pastries, ice cream.
Every cell membrane in our body contains cholesterol (waxy, fat-like substance that's essential for the body to function), but too much can increase our bad cholesterol (LDL) and your risk of developing heart disease increases.
Recommended saturated fat intake for adults:
Men = 30g per day
Women = 20g per day
Focus on consuming the healthy fats i.e. polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. These can be found in seed oils, nuts and seeds, avocado, oily fish.
Week Two Reflection
How is your protein intake? Do you need to increase it?
What healthy snacks have you managed to incorporate into your daily routine?
How well were you able to track and manage your saturated fat intake?
Week 3 - Awareness
Mindful shopping
Become your own detective during your food shopping trips! Food manufacturers use eye-catching marketing and enticing health claims to convince you their products are “good” for you—don’t be fooled!
Check the ingredients list for the amount of saturated fat, sugar, fibre and protein as well as the number of ingredients.
REMEMBER, if you don’t recognise many of the ingredients it’s probably ultra processed and high in calories but low in nutrients.
Try Cooking at Home
Set yourself the challenge of making one home cooked meal a week, as a starting point, using fresh ingredients.
Google a recipe that incorporates some ingredients that you like.
Check out some recipe books you may have.
Look on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. There are free recipes available on all social media platforms to suit all tastes and styles.
Plus you'll know exactly what is in your meal!
Week 4 – Fine-Tuning
Gut Health
To boost your gut health further, incorporate probiotic or prebiotic foods. Natural
yogurt with live cultures is a type of probiotic (look for 0% fat free Greek Yogurt that has live cultures added. This also has the highest amount of protein too!)
Try some Kefir (fermented milk). A couple of mouthfuls a day is sufficient.
Gradually increase your prebiotics with fibre rich foods – swap white rice for wholegrain, white bread for wholemeal, choose as much variety as you can when selecting your fruit and vegetables. The more variety, the better fed your gut microbes are. They like lots of different types to function well and be balanced.
Slow Release Energy Foods
Foods that will keep your energy levels steady are foods that contain good quality protein i.e. fresh meat, fish, yogurt, eggs.
Complex carbohydrates i.e. brown rice, wholewheat pasta, sweet potatoes, oats, different types of beans.
Healthy fats i.e. nuts, seeds, avocados, oily fish.
Hydration
Keeping hydrated is so important. Helps regulate your body temperature, delivers nutrients, removes waste, improves cognition and helps maintain healthy skin.
Sipping fluids consistently throughout the day is the healthiest approach. Water, green tea and herbal beverages make excellent choices to stay hydrated.
Try and keep sugary drinks to a minimum or as a treat. Fizzy drinks that contain sugar free sweeteners are a great way to wean yourself of full sugar drinks, if you are trying to achieve this, but try and keep this as a short term measure only.
When you wee, check your pee - if it’s very pale in colour then you are well hydrated!!
Challenge Reflection
What new nutrition goals have you set, and how will they help you achieve a healthier lifestyle?
What positive changes have you noticed in your health or energy levels since making adjustments to your diet?
What specific nutrition habits or goals will you prioritise next month to keep your momentum going?
The purpose of this blog was to encourage you to reflect on the foods you choose to eat. Are they supporting your health goals, nourishing your body, and contributing to your overall well-being?
I hope this has inspired you and motivated you to take steps toward a healthier, happier you in 2025. Wishing you a wonderful New Year!
December 2024
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