How to Plan Your Meals and Snacks when Suffering from Depression

It's all very well hearing the facts, but when we are depressed, we couldn't care less about our weight and eating! But at the same time, we do want to minimize our self-abuse. My personal experience has also been that when I overload my digestive system with junk food, I feel bloated, sluggish and more depressed. And when I eat a good diet, I feel lighter, more energetic and cleansed. But we are bombarded with so many 'good eating' plans that it is hard to get serious about one. This is well documented within the slimming industry, which is continually being criticized for perpetuating the yoyo effect among slimmer - the 'losing weight, gaining weight' syndrome. We become fatigued by the facts that are thrown at us, and each new one becomes a little less eye-catching. The easiest way to organize our diet is to concentrate on health.

REMEMBER: FIVE PORTIONS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES a day.

If we simply adhere to this rule, we find ourselves feeling better-not only because of what we are putting in our mouths but also for what we leave out in order to fit in the fruit and vegetables.

WHAT TO DO FIRST

The first thing to do is not to dread change. Any change that takes place can be as slow as we want and as gentle as we want. In order to get our diet to be effective, we need to plan ahead. This is the key because, when we don't plan, we have nothing to eat and we dive for the junk and end up feeling worse. Plan your menu for 3 days at a time.

SNACKS

We all need something to munch on when we feel down. But it's easy to reach for things that will make us feel worse rather than better, like chocolate, sweet biscuits, cakes, cheese, etc. Because these foods can have the effect of medicating our feelings, we trick ourselves into thinking we will feel better but we don't, we feel worse. Here are some good alternatives for snacks:

• Fresh fruit

• Fresh vegetables (e.g. peeled carrots, radishes)

• Rice biscuits

• Oat biscuits

• Raisins or sultanas

• Plain nuts

• Packets of unroasted, mixed fruit and nuts

• Toasted sunflower seeds

• Dried apricots, prunes, pineapple etc.

Put these snacks in lovely jars in the cupboard. They will seem appealing and yummy to look at, which will put us off diving for the cooking chocolate in a bad moment.



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