Eating and lifestyle changes

 

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Heather Little-White, Gleaner Writer

As you go through life, changes take place at each stage with adjustments in health conditions and family relations.

Eating on a budget

A major part of the changes is learning to live and eat on a fixed income while meeting the needs of medication. It means shopping wisely to maximise the food dollar. Make a shopping list. Try shopping on weekdays when specials are given to seniors.

Keep an emergency supply of non-perishable foods - dried milk, dried fruit, canned foods and juices. Some stores offer special services where you can phone in your orders and have them delivered.

Eating alone

Usually, mealtime is to enjoy the company of others but there are times when you have to eat alone, such as:

• When the home becomes an empty nest, that is, children have left home
• When a spouse dies
• When you are temporarily left alone as family members have gone on other activities.

It is easy to feel depressed, and you really do not feel like preparing food or even eating because of the lack of company. So what do you do? There is no need to eat alone all the time.

1. Get together with other seniors for weekly potluck dinners. Everyone takes a favourite dish and you also rotate hosting.

2. Visit a senior citizens group where there is communal activity and a meal is also served. This is a chance to make new friends.

3. Try eating out and select small portions in appetisers and other small items. Do not be afraid to ask for the ‘doggie bag’ to take home leftovers. Check restaurants for senior-citizen prices.

4. Have a standing date with a friend or relative for lunch or dinner at home.

5. If you still want to cook, you may get companion help to pre-prep your stuff and invite friends over for a gourmet meal.

6. If you have to dine alone, make mealtime special by using your finest dishes and glasses. This will boost your appetite and morale.

7. Change the places you eat - try eating in the dining room, on the patio, the kitchen.

8. Create some atmosphere by listening to music or watching your favourite television show as you eat.

9. Make food preparation easy for one by purchasing ready-to-eat meals.

Meals in minutes

• Baked potatoes

Place potatoes in a baking dish and rub with vegetable oil and sprinkle with some rosemary or basil. Bake at 400°F for about 40 minutes or until tender.

Baked chicken

While using the oven, bake some chicken breast seasoned with your favourite condiments.

• EASY CRISPY CHICKEN THIGHS

6 chicken thighs

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tsps garlic powder

Method

Preheat oven to 425°F. For easy clean-up, line a large shallow baking pan lubricated with cooking spray. Season chicken on both sides with salt, pepper and garlic OR seasoning of your choice. Place on pan, making sure the pan is large enough to accommodate the chicken without crowding but leaving at least an inch or more between pieces. The less crowded the chicken pieces, the crispier they will become. Bake chicken 35-45 minutes or up to an hour. Chicken pieces should be well browned and crispy on the outside and the juices clear.

Serve with tossed salad greens and an easy dessert.

Source: Sharon Keith, eHow

Easy dessert

Drizzle your favourite ice cream with fruit salad.

Quick breakfast

Add hot water or hot milk to instant cereal.

Frozen dinners

Keep some dinners in the freezer for those days when you do not want to be bothered with cooking. You can cook two or three times a week and freeze meals.

Salads

Salads are easy to prepare, by washing, tearing and drying salad greens and storing them in plastic containers for use over a couple days.

STOP EMOTIONAL EATING

According to WiKiHOW, emotional eating is a bad condition to be into because it can be done blindly, which is called ‘invisible eating’. Invisible eating means eating patterns which are fuelled by feelings such as happiness, sadness or anger without realising it. Basically, if you take a cookie out of the jar every time you are swept with emotion, you are guilty. Here are some ways to take control of your emotional eating and stop it.

Identify what emotion you feel when you want to eat. How? Start by doing your normal, everyday activities, and then whenever you feel the urge to eat, think. Am I hungry, or am I about to emotionally eat? Did I just feel an emotion? You can tell if you are actually hungry by listening to your stomach. If your stomach doesn’t feel any hunger pains, any rumbling or hollowness, you are not hungry, your taste buds are. You can calm them down by chewing tasty but sugarless gum.

Find another way to celebrate happiness. For example, instead of ‘treating’ yourself to ice cream when you get that job you wanted, go to the movies instead. Lifestyle changes mean different things to different people but one thing that should not be ignored is nutrition in the process of change.

Heather Little-White, PhD, is a nutrition and lifestyle consultant in Kingston. Send comments and questions to saturdaylife@gleanerjm.com.

This entry was posted on 19. June 2010 at 15:42 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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