The Secret is Out! Why Lunch Is Just as Important as Breakfast

Hola amigos! Welcome to One Small Bite!

Lunch has to be the most overlooked and forgotten meal of the day. It’s almost always shadowed by Breakfast, and Dinner is definitely the time we get to spend with family and friends. But did you know that Lunch provides such an important fueling mechanism to your body? In this episode, I talk about a client with diabetes and how she was able to improve her blood sugar levels just by paying attention to her body’s needs. Slowing down to have a meal in the middle of the day, was critical for her. We’ll explore what the research shows about lunch and how it can help the body. I provide some ideas about food combinations that can build a more positive relationship with food and your body. Now, sit tight, relax, and enjoy this show.

Highlights of this episode:

• How lunch helped improve blood sugars
• 4 Stages of Learning
• The research behind meals and lunch
• Small changes to enhance your lunch options

Episode Show Notes: 

[02:17] How lunch helped improve blood sugars
I’d like to introduce your to Veronica. She’s a 53yo mother of 5 who devotes all of her time to her kids and family. She is constantly on the go and often skips lunch, and by skip, I mean she might snack, grab food on the run, or have a snack bar. She came to work with me because she wanted to get better control of her blood sugars, yet she wasn’t eating very unhealthy. Her biggest challenge was actually slowing down and taking time for herself, especially in the middle of the day. There were other challenges in her day that were affecting her blood sugar levels, like late night snacking, sleep challenges, and difficulty with physical activity because of prior injuries. However, she realized that the stress from not eating and fueling her body adequately actually made it more difficult for her body to manage her blood sugar later in the day. Just by slowing down and starting small, she was able to start making small meals with a little bit of fiber, some more fruit and veggies, and proteins that worked best for her. She realized that the stress is a greater challenge for her body, and slowing down to have a balanced meal helped improve her blood sugar by 15 points.

[05:24] 4 Stages of Learning
1. Unconscious Incompetence – when we don’t know or don’t realize that we don’t know what’s affecting our health
2. Conscious Incompetence – now we know we didn’t know what was affecting our health
3. Conscious Competence – knowing that we need to make changes to those habits and experimenting
4. Unconscious Competence – when the new habits become automatic and routine, therefore improving our health

These four stages are what most people go through when they need to change in order to transform their health. This is what occurred for Veronica. By taking time to work with me, we discovered that she needed her “me-time” in the middle of the day to take care of herself. That meant slowing down to stop and have a meal so she can fuel herself, and more importantly, she learned how to create boundaries. It wasn’t easy, but she started slowly and simply, and progress occurred.

[08:43] The research behind meals and lunch
In a recent study that was published in the science journal Nutrients titled “Breakfast in Human Nutrition: The International Breakfast Research Initiative” they explained that although there is some belief that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, they state “Breakfast is often referred to as the most important meal of the day. And in recent years has been implicated in weight control, cardio metabolic risk factors in cognitive performance, although at present the literature remains inconclusive as to the precise health benefits of breakfast.” This is so important because people believe one thing or another about meals and food, which then causes them to ignore what their particular body’s needs actually are. Some people do great with breakfast, some don’t, and the same applies for lunch. However, lunch is often overshadowed by the importance of breakfast, and many people tend to skip or just snack instead of stopping for that meal. I get it, it’s not easy if you’re so use to the grind mentality, and skip lunch. What’s key, however, is not whether you should have lunch, but what is it that your body needs. Slowing down to pay attention to your body. It might be telling you to slow down and fuel.

[13:18] Small changes to enhance your lunch options
Veronica improved her blood sugars by 15mg/dL just by slowing down and having lunch. What are some ways you will slow down and pay attention to what your body needs?

Resources:

Get Your Copy of the book – One Small Bite: Anti-Diet Stories that Empower You To Build a Positive and Secure Relationship with Food

ON Community

A community of people just like you interested in building a positive relationship with food and body, to learn and practice new habits, grow together, so that people can feel good and live fully. Read about it here: ON Community

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Chop the diet mentality; Fuel Your Body; and Nourish Your Soul!