The One-Day eating plan To Feel Great For 24 Hours
Eating plans sucking the joy from life? What if just one day could offer you a feel-good factor for the next 24 hours?
What you eat can make a big difference to how you feel.
THE BRIEF
Time to read: 4 minutes 40 seconds
Time to action: 24 hours
Mantra: Instant energy through eating
Main message: Eat more, extra energy - it’s a double win!
Stat: 1 in 8 Britons has low energy 24-7. That’s all the damn time.
Eating plans are, for the most part, a brilliant idea. They only fall down when the practice outweighs the promise. Which, feels like most of the time. A strict ‘yes/no’ food policy is joylessly rigid, whilst ‘guidelines’ are too easily bent. It’s a tightrope: hard to action vs not enough result. So, what if you could feel the difference with just one day of prescribed eating? What if you could feel better actually eating, as well as when you put the fork down? Here is the simplest of daily meal planners, guaranteed to give you more energy and leave your body feeling less sluggish. Simple as that, a 24-hour feel good - from eating.
THE SNACKS
Green tea
Granted, coffee seems to give your energy levels a shot in the arm, but a simple switch to green tea (for one day, remember) will keep your energy optimised (less ups and downs) for longer. Drinking 4 cups of green tea a day can increase your endurance by up to 24%. Thinking of it as liquid energy makes it much more exciting. It’s not true of course, but it is more exciting.
Soba noodles
Technically noodles in a pot, they are as far from pot noodles as you can get. Unlike regular noodles, soba noodles take time to digest. They’re like the nutritional gentlemen of the snack pack - in no rush to leave, providing plenty of potential energy release. They’re made from buckwheat (high in fibre, protein and iron) – to add longevity to vitality.
The crazy fool bran flake breakfast
Bran flakes are incredibly rich in Vitamin B6, which releases energy from food. A bowl a day can give you the energy to run up to 8 minutes longer than other, more popular, sugar-coated breakfast-cereal-corn-based breakfast.
We know it’s all getting a bit exotic, but drink milk daily. Cyclists who drank a glass of chocolate milk could ‘bike’ considerably longer than those who drank a leading ‘energy drink’. Chocolate milk has an optimal ratio of carbohydrates to protein to help refuel from fatigue. If you’re more saddled to your desk than a bike, a glass of plain milk will lift your energy without the sugar rush (then crash) that comes with the chocolate version. Told you it was exotic.
The Wild Man’s cottage cheese sandwich
Cottage cheese at lunch keeps your energy levels rebounding through the afternoon. Casein protein stays in your bloodstream for over 7 hours, because casein-rich foods clot in your stomach, causing a slow release of energy. Trust us, it’s much healthier than it sounds. The bread for the cheese-o-champions must be whole wheat that contains the entire wheat grain. This means additional fibre and nutrients such as magnesium, fibre and B vitamins. People who ate high-fibre foods, felt as full as they did the previous day when they had eaten 30% more calories from low-fibre foods.
Your let’s-go-ape dinner
Fish and chicken are rich protein sources that stop spikes in your blood sugar, which adds to your energy-extending day. It was recently found that people with a high-protein diet ate less throughout the day and had more energy. Just to go crazy wild, add beans to your meal. Beans are one of the richest antioxidant sources available and high in fibre and iron – all key for a sustained energy increase.
Garnish like a lunatic
Taking two tablespoons of vinegar can lower your blood sugar by 20% when eaten with a high-carb meal. People were less hungry a couple of hours after consuming vinegar with bread instead of bread on its own. Combine vinegar with olive oil, and it’s a total win. People who consumed olive oil with their bread experienced significantly smaller blood sugar spikes than when they ate it with butter or margarine. Add it to anything/everything to give it a bit of life.
We didn’t promise you it was exciting, but we can promise you a day of feeling better and doing more. 1 day a week? It’s got to be a worthwhile payoff. You can always go back to meat pies tomorrow.
PT WOLF
(Fitness)
Wolf is a personal trainer who tries and tests every programme we put together. A celebrity trainer, Wolf has been a fitness journalist as well as practising what he preaches for over twenty years. Now into his 40s, Wolf has added muscle to his frame in every decade of his life.
DR DRAGON
(Body Health)
A GP for an eclectic community, Dragon is a prolific author in the world of health. Award winning for his content creation and ability to answer the ‘actual’ questions asked of him, his theories are always worth listening to in looking for those little things that can actually make a real difference in our lives.
SOURCES: 1. American Journal of Physiology
2. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
3. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism
4. in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism
5. National Academy of Sciences
6. Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A
7. Washington School of Medicine, U.S.A
8. United States Department of Agriculture
9. Lund University, Sweden
