Eating healthy has more often than not been synonymous with eating boring, unsavory foods.
Like, what do you people think of, Aloe Vera juice?!
And I have also, more often than not, seen people on either extreme of this spectrum – either be so obsessed to eat healthy that you count calories and nutritional value OR you don’t be at all.
For a person like me (who lives far away from her family, has a budget to maintain AND highly susceptible to mood swings), I just have two goals:
- Eat healthy food.
- Eat healthy food on a budget.
Due to the unavailability of good therapists, I had to take my mind into my own hands. I found out the kinds of food that help in mental wellness and the role of nutrition in mental well-being.
The foods I take for mental health wellness
I started eating higher calorie and higher carbohydrate intake to keep depression far as much as possible. But I wanted to have a broader range of fruits and drinks I can consume to keep my mind happy.
- I regularly have green tea before starting for office, always have oats or cornflakes with few almonds as breakfast, and meals are mostly rich in carbohydrates and proteins. I always have a packet of walnuts stuck in my pantry, and I love to munch them on Sundays.
- My lunches and dinner are almost always lentils and pulses. And I add peas wherever possible. I love peas. They are so cute!
- When it’s the season for pomegranates, I have them as breakfasts every Sunday. Tomatoes and carrots are my tea-break “snacks”. In summers, citruses, oranges and cucumbers are my thing. And whatever is the rage in any season.
- I hog down water like nobody’s business. I can confidently declare that I drink most of the water in my office.
My eating habits changed as I started fending for myself.
You know, ever since I started living on my own, I have become more conscious and rigorous in eating healthy. This is due to three reasons:
- For starters, I am a smoker. (NOT RECOMMENDED) I gotta get my nutrients back!
- As life would have it, I have the super power of getting stressed easily.
- Also, healthcare and surprise visits to the hospital gets heavy on the budget.
It’s much more desirable to spend little more amounts on fruits and vegetables monthly than have a whole big amount plopping down suddenly. Granted, it is possible that adding up all the extra nutrients cost as much as the hospital bill, but you know what I mean.
Back at home, my mom used to feed me (yes, force feed me. Like a baby.) pomegranates. And musk melons, ew. I don’t like the smell of musk melons. I still get goosebumps whenever I think of musk melons.
But you know what? I eat them now. Because I need that vitamin C and damnnnn those carotenoids, baby! Carotenoids replenishes my smoky lungs.
Final word
But yeah, eating healthy doesn’t have to be harsh on your wallet. As I was hunting for cheap meals which are both healthy AND quick to make, I discovered two new recipes which had my favorite fruits and vegetables!
Like, I didn’t know cauliflower “rice” existed! And one of the cheap pegan diet recipe is fried honey bananas. Bananas. Honey. Bananas. Honey.
For someone who’s reluctantly learning how to cook (but unabashedly likes cooking now), fried honey bananas are my cranky-saviors.