For our final part of this series, let’s take a look at how we should eat now we’re not 20.
I’ve left this one to last because really the upshot is that playing by the rules becomes more and more important as you get older, and given that I’ve previously written a lot about how to structure your diet, you’ll already know most of this.
The first thing is to remember that the way you eat really does make a difference to how you feel, how you sleep and to your overall health.
The days where we could eat whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, and suffer no ill effects like weight gain or digestive discomfort are gone, as I’m sure you already know. This simply highlights the fact that our bodies take longer to recover now we’re a little older, and so the after effects of going off the rails with food might be bigger.
How sensitive your body is to eating off track is an individual thing; you might find that one meal is enough to upset your digestion and that it takes a couple of days for it to get back to normal. Or, you might find the odd meal here and there isn’t much of an issue but consistently not paying attention to your diet over several days – like on holiday, or over Christmas, might give you more noticeable symptoms.
The same goes for alcohol. There’s probably nothing wrong with a drink or two here and there, but drinking like you did in your 20’s is likely to make you gain weight and kill your energy levels.
The impact of alcohol on the duration of your sleep becomes more noticeable and more impactful the further away from your 20’s you get! Drinking is likely the reason you wake up early and struggle to get back to sleep.
I think the changes to our bodies ability to recover as we get older makes for a good opportunity to change the way we do things. I don’t think we need to eat like nutrition saints all the time (I certainly don’t), but it would probably serve you well to spend a little more time considering what you’re going to eat, and when, and to decide in advance when it is worth going off course.