How To Overcome Nutrition Challenges During Uncertain Times.

Will Smith said it best... “My life got flipped, turned upside down!” and I think we can now all relate.  As many of us are now faced with challenges such as working from home or not working at all, lack of childcare, and changes to our gym routine...your nutrition may not seem as important as it did last week.

However, now more than ever, your health should be a priority.  So if counting macros seems a bit overwhelming right now, nutrition coach, Tiana Tallant has laid out a few simple ideas to help keep your nutrition on track…

Okay. Let's look at the big picture first. 

What you can get at the grocery store might be limited right now. In that case, get what you can. Don’t worry about anything that comes in this section of the blog. Feed yourself and your family. Eat what you can and keep it moving. 

If you have options, here are some guidelines :)

• 1. Pay attention to what you’re eating 
• Invest some time and energy in tracking your current eating habits… download an app like @cronometer_official and track your food. There's no better time to start understanding what’s going in your body than right now! 

(I understand not everyone has extra time right now- but if you do and you’re looking for a way to improve your health, this would be a good time to start paying attention to your food intake.)

2. Fuel your body.

(1) Eat enough protein. A good starting point for most people is to: Aim for your body weight (in pounds) in grams of protein/ day.

(So for me as a 150lb human, a good starting point would be 150g protein/ day.)

If you want to take this a step further, a good rule of thumb is to divide protein up evenly across meals- so if I eat 5 meals/ day that would mean that I would aim for around 30g protein/ meal. 

(2) Eat 3-5 different colors of fruits and veggies/ day. Getting a large variety of colors helps us to be more likely to get our micronutrient requirements.

If fruits and veggies are limited by you right now, consider investing in a broad spectrum multivitamin to cover your micronutrient bases.

3. Schedule meal times for yourself during the day.

This is a useful strategy for those of us that tend to overeat and for those of us that tend to undereat.

Scheduling/ planning our meals takes the guesswork out and allows us to dedicate our attention elsewhere throughout the course of the day instead of making decisions about what food we want/ need to eat. 

4. Be mindful of what yummy treats you keep in the house.

Hyper-palatable foods (aka yummy treats) are going to be easier to overeat. Act accordingly.

If you are literally struggling to get any calories in- incorporating more packaged/ processed foods might be a good strategy to keep calories up.

If you know you tend to overeat (and not feel as good) when you eat those types of foods consider buying single-serving options or not keeping them in the house at all.

5. Dedicate one space in your home to eating.

Generally speaking, eating on the couch or in bed (or anywhere other than the table) does not set us up for a mindful eating experience. Especially now, when most of our homes have become our office, daycare center, and gym.  Establishing some boundaries around where to eat can be very useful. 

Again, please refer back to the first sentences of this post. If you don’t have choices at the stores around you- get what you can.

Life is less than ideal right now. Try to get some protein and try to eat something with fiber daily. Drink water. Move around. Keep shit simple until you are willing/ ready/ able to make it more complicated :)) 

Also, remember to check out meal delivery services like Trifecta if food options in your area are limited. Trifecta is the only reason I have had any animal protein over this last week because our grocery stores have been so slammed! (Thank you, Trifecta!

Tiana Tallant is the owner and coach at The Tallant Method. She specializes in teaching you how your metabolism works so that you can start working with your body to achieve your performance and aesthetic goals :))

She believes that big things start with little things- quality sleep habits, intentional nutrition choices, smart training programs, and awesome time and stress management practices. 

For more information...you can check her out on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/tiananicholetallant/ where she posts science-based educational content to help you learn more about you and your badass body!

Selected credentials (full list here: https://thetallantmethod.com/about/)

Want to apply for 1:1 nutrition coaching with Tiana? Submit an application here: https://thetallantmethod.com/nutrition-coaching/