Food in quarantine that are good for your health.

Hello everyone! I’m back with another blog post. Recently I watched a webinar on nutritional advice to give to people in quarantine and so I wanted to share that with you all. Shall we begin?

A while ago I watched a webinar about nutritional advice that we can give to the public while there is a lockdown and people are staying at home. There were some important pieces of advice that I would like to talk about in this blog post.

First of all, eating a balanced diet and getting all of your vitamins and minerals in your diet is more important now than ever. As we are spending more time indoors, our lifestyles may not be as physically active as they were before and our diets also may have changed. It is important to consume all of your vitamins whether it is through supplementation or if it is through the food sources that we eat.

Although there is no food or nutrient that helps prevent COVID-19 there is new research to suggest that Vitamin D improves the immune system in our bodies making us more healtier. In the UK, there is a nationwide deficiency of vitamin D because of having lack of sunlight source and therefore, it is recommended for people to eat 10mg supplement of vitamin D if they do not have a good source of it in their diet. Therefore, it is at least recommended to meet that recommendation.

People may think that frozen fruits and vegetables or canned fruit or vegetables may not be as nutritious or healthy but it’s actually false. Frozen fruits and vegetables are high in nutrients as much as organic fruits and vegetables are. This is because as the food is frozen or stored in cans the nutrients are more preserved and last longer than organic foods that have been out and could lose nutrients quickly. So this advice is for people who may live alone or they work a lot but frozen fruit and veg are definitely a part of your five a day too!

I know that there are many FAD diets and specific diets that people like to follow but now staying at home may not be the best time to follow such diets. It’s more important to have a balanced diet and meals because we at home we are living a less physically active lifestyle and will have an affect in diet and health. Therefore, it is recommended that you should try to refrain from following specific diets and have a balanced diet overall.

For people who struggle financially or would like to save money during lockdown there are some money-saving tips you could use! One of them would be to grow your own fruit or vegetables in your back garden or indoors as well. This can save some money on having to buy fruit or vegetables from the supermarkets. Another money saving tips could be substituting meat with beans and veggies as meat can sometimes be costly.

This next piece of advice can shock you a little and I’m not saying that you should do this every day but on a particular day where you feel like you are not doing well mentally or you have had a rough day, eating small amounts of chocolate a few times that day can help boost your mood may leave you feeling the slightest bit better.

A last piece of advice I would add from my own knowledge would be to try and do some exercises in your home. It can be some stretches or some exercise positions that you like, or if you have an hour free search for a workout video on Youtube and take a break and exercise for a little while. It can help relax your mind and body as well as keeping fit.

I hope those pieces of advice helped make your time staying at home a little better and be sure to leave a comment if your have any nutritional advice too!

Mental Health Awareness

Today I’m going to be talking about a topic that is not my area of expertise as of yet but something I want to keep an open mind about and learn more about it. This week, we’re going to be talking about Mental Health Awareness. Shall we begin?

Keeping physically fit and nutrition has become a big industry with a lot of trends. People are starting to take care of their body and becoming more aware of physical health. What we don’t realise is that mental health is also really important too. Having a bad mindset and bad mental health can really affect your physical health a as well.

What is mental health? “Mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being. Many factors contribute to mental health problems including: biological factors (such as genes), life experiences (such as trauma or abuse) and family history of mental health problems.” https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health

Mental health problems don’t have to be big problems such as trauma and abuse they can be as simple as school work stress and work stress. Being a workaholic and not knowing when to stop can also be a big problem, it can lead to the person not eating or sleeping well and this can cause nutritional deficiencies as well as their overall health. These small mental health problems matter a lot too and that’s something that we always overlook and we need to also raise awareness about.

In my previous posts I also mentioned eating disorders and how body image representation is a major contribution to it. Mental health is also a contributor as one individual may see this body image representation in the media and feel inferior which can cause certain disorders such as anorexia or bulimia just because the individual may want to reach that body image representation. This is just one example of how mental health can relate to eating disorders, there a some more examples that I will give in detail in another blog post.

Mental Health Awareness Week is a national week in the UK that is dedicated to raising awareness, organising events and raising money for mental health charities. This is all to raise awareness and educate people about mental health and the gravity of the situation. How can we deal with mental health problems and help our loved ones?

Physical fitness and mental fitness both come hand in hand and mental health is something we need to take into consideration and start raising awareness about. Especially for nutritionists who are giving their clients and patients advice, we should also be taking their mental health into account and giving our advice based on both of those factors.

Body image.

Hello! Welcome back to another post. This week’s post is going to be about something that is a major concern in our media today. It’s a lot to discuss so shall we begin?

Unrealistic body image in the media has a huge cause to eating disorders and eating behaviours. We see a lot about body image in the media from books to movies to social media platforms like Instagram. We fall prey to the “perfect” body image we see on our screens and forget that we don’t necessarily have to look like that.

I was reading a journal that looked at some scientific studies linking social media, body image and food choice in healthy young adults. They looked at previous studies and found that social media engagement and specifically exposure to image-related content (Instagram can be a huge example of this!) can negatively impact body image and food choice in young adults. I will paste a link here so you can read the review in more detail. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1747-0080.12581

So who is body image in the media affecting the most? The main victim that falls prey to the media’s portrayal of body image is indeed females. I found another study that tests whether the increase in major depression in adolescent girls is caused by body image and eating disturbances. This was a study that lasted for four years and they found that after puberty major depression in girls was indeed caused by body image and eating disturbances. You can read more by clicking on this link. https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0021-843X.109.3.438

There are many other studies like these that investigates body image representation in the media and how it can affect people. TV Shows, films, social media, books all of these things show one type of body image as the “ideal” body type and because of this representation it affects people to believe that they are obligated to look a certain way.

The fact is that every single one of us is not the same shape or size, think about it, how boring would this world be if we all looked the same? But because of the media’s representation of body image it affects mental health and ultimately eating behaviour. It can lead to eating disorders and poor health.

The main group that is largely affected by this is females as there is a lot of body image representation in the media that is targeted towards girls and this causes bad eating habits and affects food choice. That’s not to say that there isn’t a stereotypical body image representation for males too, I’m sure you’ve all heard the cliché “Tall, fair and handsome” that is thrown around a lot in the media. Isn’t that a stereotypical body image representation for males too?

The truth is the media is just a fantasy world that people create. In reality, we are all different in our own unique way and beautiful too. It’s time to put away stereotypical body images in the media and start being more practical about eating a balanced diet to take care of our health instead. Just remember you’re so beautiful the way you are and it’s time to start taking care of your health instead of chasing an unrealistic body image. So try not to skip meals and I’ll see you again next week!

Nutrition and Psychology

Hello! Welcome back to my blog it’s good to have you here! This week I’m going to be talking about a certain nutrition and psychology and how the two areas are linked! Shall we begin?

According to https://www.nutritional-psychology.org/what-is-nutritional-psychology/ nutritional psychology looks at the relationship between diet and eating patterns and it’s link with mood, behaviour and mental health. This area of study focuses on people’s eating behaviour and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia and things such as stress-eating.

It’s a interesting research area as we all have varying eating behaviours and how simple things such as our mood can affect our food choice and what we choose to eat. For many of us so-called “unhealthy” foods can be comforting for us when we are going through a bad time. As you often see in TV or movies there is a stereotype of girls eating ice cream when they go through a breakup.

Another huge issue is body image representation in the media and this affects many people, particulaly girls as they see that they may not have the body image that is portrayed in the media and this can be the cause for some eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.

As many of you know and this is something I have written in my previous post is that I have become a Registered Associate Nutritionist. I would like to open my own practice in the future and for that I woud have to specialise in an area of nutrition. I would like to work with patients who may be struggling with eating disorders and have an unhealthy relationship with food.

I believe it is an area that needs to be worked on and I would like to work specifically with women as the rates of eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are higher in women and a main cause of this is body image representation in the media.

I’m still considering about specialising in Nutrition and Psychology and it seems like an interesting topic so I’ll be posting more about it here and so I just wanted to kind of introduce the topic through this post. I hope you enjoyed reading and I’ll see you next week!

Breakfast ideas for a homebody.

Hello! I’m back with a Nutrition post after a long time! I know I have done a post like this in the past so this time I’m going to try and include some different recipes and ideas that are good for people who are at home during breakfast time! Shall we begin?

Since I’ve pretty much been at home most days fixing breakfast just seems so dull at the moment. I don’t really have much appetite to eat breakfast anymore and so I decided to write this post so that I can find and share some recipes that are fun, creative and easy to cook in the morning.

Working from home has become more common among this pandemic and people are spending more time at home, thats why the recipes that I am going to share with you today are better suited for homebody’s who work from home!

The first recipe I want to share with you is French Toast. This si something I’ve been craving and have eaten for breakfast once or twice. I like to have my French Toast plain but this recipe will show you how to make a delicious French toast with all kinds of fruits and syrups that will make your breakfast colourful! https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/french-toast/

I was curious about this so I googled and researched about the origin of French Toast and did you know the actual name came about in 17th Century England? Also the French consider this as a dessert rather than a breakfast and it’s called “pain perdu” meaning “lost bread” because the French would make it from stale bread in order to prevent food waste. I found this out from a website so I’m not sure whether this is true but if it is, it’s interesting to know!

The next recipe is actually something I talk about in literally every post when recommending foods. And maybe you guessed is but yes it is overnight oats! I talk about this so much because they look so good but I’ve never actually tried making them myself! I have a link that shares 6 different recipes for overnight oats! https://www.andianne.com/blog/6-overnight-oats-recipes-you-should-know-for-easy-breakfasts?utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=tailwind_tribes&utm_content=tribes&utm_term=922851144_40602310_333301

I literally adore my toasts and am always trying something different to make a nice toast out of! So this next link shows 5 healthy toast toppings! My favourites from this would be “Strawberry Yoghurt”, “Cucumber Hummus” and Avocado egg! All these toasts are high in protein so if you’re looking for a high protein breakfast then these would be the perfect toasts for you! https://www.liveeatlearn.com/healthy-toast-topping-ideas/

Energy balls or Energy bites were literally my favourite thing to eat when I was studying in University and they’re super easy to make! This recipe only consists of 5 ingredients which are peanut butter, chocolate chips, old fashioned oats, ground flax seed and honey! Read more to find out how to make these! https://chefsavvy.com/5-ingredient-peanut-butter-energy-bites/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=tailwind_tribes&utm_content=tribes&utm_term=955394690_42385942_157318

My last recipe that I would like to share is something you can literally bake a few days before and grab it and go! This is Healthy Banana Brekafast Cookies! I will probably try this out myself soon too! https://thecleaneatingcouple.com/healthy-banana-oatmeal-breakfast-cookies/

Which recipe is your favourite? Let me know in the comments below!

Bake with me!

Hello everyone! I’m a little excited for today’s post because it’s been a while since I wrote a post like this! Today’s post
I’m going to be sharing some things I’ve been baking during the lockdown! 

Brownies

The first thing I baked was brownies! I liked brownies before, but because we baked them two or three times I started to dislike them. 😦 The recipe is actually very easy, but with this recipe I would recommend that you add something else to give it more flavour, some things I would recommend would be adding some walnuts or orange zest to it. It’s quite plain by itself. This is the recipe that I use to make these brownies Chocolate Brownies recipe.

Cinnamon Rolls 

I also attempted to make Cinnamon Rolls! I have to be honest and tell you that they looked delicious but I must have done something wrong because they did not taste good at all. I also didn’t make the icing but it is also included in this recipe. But the first try doesn’t always have to be successful! This is the recipe I used Cinnamon Rolls recipe.

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Oat Bars

This was probably the most easiest thing I’ve baked! It was a really simple recipe to follow through and when I had made them I didn’t add any of the seeds and instead of berries I used raisins but they still turned out delicious! This is the recipe I used Granola bars.

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Chocolate chip cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are probably a very straightforward thing to bake but when I baked them for the first time they didn’t turn out as I had hoped. But when I tried them for a second they were just perfect! The recipe is quite easy to make so you can try this at home too!

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Shortbread

Shortbread is something I bake often because it’s the easiest thing in the world to make. It doesn’t require too many ingredients or even much effort and they taste delicious anyway! The recipe I use is Shortbread recipe

 

That’s all I have for today! I hope you will try and enjoy some of these recipes and be sure to leave a comment or tag me in your photos on Instagram! 

 

Truly Raisa

 

For the love of food…

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my space 🙂 Today I’m going to be talking about the most common problems or situations I have surrounding food and nutrition and “keeping healthy” So, shall we begin? 

I wasn’t always interested in nutrition. In fact I didn’t know that there were courses on nutrition and until I came across it while doing some research on what university to go to. But I was a big foodie (I still am now!) and I think that’s what got me to think “I really want to learn more about food”. I was originally a media student but it wasn’t a practical career field I saw myself in.

Simple pleasures: our favourite foodie anime | littleanimeblog.com

Adapting from being a media student in the Arts to doing Nutrition in Applied Sciences was a huge change. I swear the first few lectures were gibberish and the first year I would wait until I was home to properly take notes and understand the lectures!

Apart from learning about nutrition I tried to pay more attention to what I ate and I had a lot of struggles. Some of them maybe some of you will be able to relate to. Something that I had struggled with in the past is snacking. In my opinion I think snacking is a bad habit and for us who should be eating three meals a day, that should be more than enough to satisfy our energy and caloric intake during the day. In the past, I used to snack a lot and it often lead to binge-eating. So recently, I have tried not to eat anything in between my three meals and occasionally I still snack on something (unhealthy, usually!) but I am working on it more.

Another struggle I had ever since I was a student was stress-eating. A-levels were a particularly hard time for me, even harder than university and because of my bad habit of snacking I used to stress eat a lot. I’m glad that with time I can now say that I’ve completely eliminated that struggle!

Finding time to exercise is a struggle I can say that there are some of you who can relate to this. The NHS guidelines for physical activity is 150 minutes of moderate activity. I really wanted to achieve that, but working a part time job while being a university student meant I had barely any time on my hands. I’m not really comfortable with completing exercise with others and it’s something I like to do on my own so I don’t go to a gym. We have a treadmill in our house so I usually go running 2 or 3 times a week. Occasionally I also find a YouTube video and follow a Yoga or Pilates routine! But any type of physical activity is great! Just getting your body moving and being active is all that’s required!

anime and sailor moon 이미지 (With images) | Sailor moon aesthetic ...

After three years of learning about food I can tell you it’s not just black and white. The constant pressure to eat healthy and stay active isn’t as simple as gaining weight or losing weight. That is not the only goal, yes it’s amazing if everyone can be a healthy weight but that’s not the only goal. Foods are so much more complex and believe it or not, what you eat can prevent you from having diseases and being ill in the future. Having a good diet and exercising often can improve your health so much, do you ever see some people that look in their early 40s and they’re actually so much older? The chance of that is because that person has a good diet and they are active. Food is amazing and there is so much more to it than what meets the eye.

That’s all I have for today, but if you have any questions then let me know in the comments below! 

Truly Raisa

Snacking is the problem!

Hello! Welcome back to my space! Today’s post is all about snacking! It’s a problem 😦  Shall we begin? 

Let’s face it, we all eat when we’re bored. Don’t even deny it, we all get bored at sometime at home and end up in the kitchen cupboard or the fridge looking for food. What if I were to tell you that most of the time people gain weight not because of the three meals a day they eat, but because of the snacks they eat in between.

I’m not going to deny it, I’m also guilty of it! But its something I am trying to eliminate. Well, I guess you don’t have to completely eliminate the element of snacking, maybe if we change what we eat then maybe it can make a difference.

If you’re someone who doesn’t like eating fruit……..shame on you (I’m joking) because you should be eating five a day anyway.

I know there are a lot of people who say to swap your snacks for fruit but you can make the fruit any way you feel comfortable! There are a lot of recipes out there to make sweet, delicious snacks from fruit in your home! It’s a few ideas to try while we’re stuck in quarantine too!

I created a Pinterest board with some ideas and recipes to try out: Fruit Snack Ideas!

Pinterest fruit snack ideas

 

There are also other things that are considered healthy snacks too, such as popcorn, crackers that you often get from the  supermarket, oat bars and more! So maybe swap that bar of chocolate for one of these snacks and you’ll benefit much more!

Truly Raisa

Tonight’s TMI….

GoodNite Club

 

Dear readers….

Welcome back to the GoodNite club! I don’t think I explained properly why I chose the word “Good night”. I watched in a drama somewhere that if you can eat well and sleep well, then you have a good life.  But even though those people can’t sleep don’t they deserve a good night too? Maybe they like to write or draw or read a book, just something in the peace and quiet of the night?

So that’s the kind of concept I thought of when I came up with the name…

So my dear readers….tonight’s TMI is … I looked out of my window today. You’re probably going to think I’m stupid and yes I’ve always had a window to look out at but I’ve never had the time. To just stop and look. It’s a nice thing to do when you’re stuck in your home all the time.

” I really want to go outside but I can’t so I’ll watch it from here.”

How is quarantine going for everyone?

 

That’s all I have for tonight, if there’s anything you want to talk about (it can be totally anonymous you don’t have to give any names) then write in the comment section below. I’ll be waiting…

Truly Raisa

Getting back into routine after the holidays!

Hello everyone! I’m back with another post! As you all may know from my previous post I went on holiday for the month of December to Dubai and Pakistan and we all know getting back into routine after a holiday is the hardest thing to do. That’s what this week’s post is going to be about! Shall we begin? 

As you all may know from my long hiatus and from my previous post I went on holiday for the month of December. If you missed the post you can click on this link and read that first Dubai 2019! .  I missed all the days where I can just wake up and have no checklist or anything to do but do nothing.

funny, gif, gifs
Me on Holiday

 

Work and student life can get stressful sometimes and a break away from it all sounds amazing sometimes. So then the long-awaited holiday comes and you’re living your best life and it all passes by pretty quickly and the dreaded journey home finally comes. Dreading going back to work and back into studying can be the worst. I was absolutely dreading it when I had to come back and I only had 6 days to revise for my exam! I spent 6 days cramming revision in when I wanted nothing more than to be back on holiday again. After my exam had ended it was the biggest sigh of relief but I still hadn’t got back into any routine. My diet was a mess and I so badly wanted to go back to my regular exercises but was too lazy to do so.

I slowly went back to work but only once or twice in the week where the rest of my days were spent either at university preparing for my dissertation or at home being the lazy ass I was. Image result for sailor moon lazy

I spent about two weeks being lazy and watching too many dramas with take-away twice or skipping dinner altogether. One thing I am happy is that I am reunited with my laptop and my blog! There is nothing I wanted more than to write a post as I am now!

I started getting back into routine last week and started running after work and applying for some work experience and jobs. This is my latest struggle. I am studying Nutrition in university and want to build on my work experience but haven’t been able to find a placement. If there is anyone in London who is a fellow Nutrition student or even a Nutritionist and has any advice about where to look for work experience please comment some advice below and help a sister out! 😦

I also kind of lost most of my appetite since I’ve been back, I’ve been skipping breakfast and lunch when I’m not at home and I’m quite used to it because back in Pakistan I used to skip breakfast and lunch too and just eat dinner at weddings or something. Now before any of you say that it’s not good to skip meals I know it’s not, but I can’t force myself to eat when I’m not hungry because that can easily turn into binge-eating for me so I need to find a healthy balance soon.

Now you can see my struggle of getting back into routine 😦  University will officially reopen next week and it will be back to the same old stresses about dissertations and assignments but, I plan to build a healthy routine and get a head start on my assignments soon so I won’t be stressing too much!

That’s all I had for this week! I’ll be back next week with another post, if you have any topics you want me to talk about let me know in the comments below! 

 

-Yours Truly Raisa 

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