How does your lifestyle affect your nutritional status?

If a nutritional approach is to work for you, it needs to fit with your life.  Having an understanding of your lifestyle and the related joys and stresses is important to establish this fit.  Lifestyles can affect our physical health as well as our mental health, and both of these can affect our nutritional status and approach.  May be there are aspects of your lifestyle that will be helpful to you, may be there are parts of your lifestyle that would benefit from review.   Here we look at four aspects of our lifestyles and why they are important to your nutritional health.

There are two obvious points to exercise and health that I’ll not cover in detail as we hear so much about them:

• Regular exercise is beneficial for our health (physically and mentally)
• We need appropriate nutritional intake to reach our full fitness potential.

Unfortunately, excess exercise can result in stress.  If your body does not have time to repair itself between high-energy sessions, it may increase your risk of injury and inflammation.

The environment in which you exercise may have an influence on your health too.  Are you always indoors?  Do you spend a lot of time in the sun?  Are you exposed to chemicals through conventional gardening approaches, or swimming pools for example?   Are your activities done as part of a team, giving you a support network (see below)?

Looking at the types of exercise you do, your motivations and rest methods, can help us establish any potential contributors to your health status that may require additional nutritional support (or review).  It can also help us identify how your activities and mindset are supporting your health.

Needless to say stress affects our health.  However, we respond to it in different ways and the different types of stress may require different responses.  When looking at stress, we will also look at how you manage those stresses:

• Do you have an outlet for your stress?
• Do you turn to food or drink when you are stressed?
• Do you practice mindfulness to help you manage your stress?
• Are you making changes to your life that will affect these stresses?
• Are these short or long-term stresses that you are experiencing?

What does all this have to do with nutrition, other than the risk of comfort eating or reduced appetite?  Inflammation.  Our bodies are designed to deal with short-term stress.  We experience all the time, may be even without realising it.  However when we experience long-term stress, our body can become systemically inflamed.  This is when we may begin to experience chronic health issues such as reduced immunity, cardiovascular health issues, gastrointestinal issues, and more.

Understanding your stresses and how you deal with them, can help us to identify your nutritional needs.  It may be that you need increased amounts of some nutrients to help your body cope with the stresses, or you may need an approach that considers specific stress-related symptoms.

When considering stresses, it is important to be aware that I may suggest other therapies or information (not provided by me nor affiliated with me) that may be of benefit to you.  These may be support groups, activities, therapy professionals, or resources.

Leading on from stress and resilience, we have sleep and relaxation.  Each of these lifestyle factors can affect the other so to an extent they are linked.

Sleep is important for your body to grow and repair.  A lack of sleep can contribute to inflammatory conditions and poor mental health status.  Sleep works with exposure to daylight to help maintain your body’s circadian rhythm.  The circadian clock affects cortisol levels, blood pressure, metabolism, digestion, and more.  Your nutritional choices may be affected due to low energy levels, or availability of food during the night time.  Circadian rhythm is particularly a health factor to consider if you work shifts.

Of course we don’t need to be asleep to relax, but being relaxed may help you to sleep.  Relaxation can help us to de-stress, supporting our physical and mental wellbeing.  Being relaxed while you eat can help your digestion and avoid symptoms such as reflux, bloating and heartburn.  We will therefore consider the ways that you relax, including your hobbies and social life, to understand how they are supporting your health.  We will also consider any additional relaxation requirements you may have, and how they can be met.

Our friendships, relationships and support networks can have a big influence on our outlook.  Your support networks may include social groups, friendship groups, work groups, and or family that play a role in your life.   We will also consider if you could benefit from expanding your network and what groups there are near to you that may be of interest.

While I have no formal training in psychology, I believe it is important to assess these influences to be successful in making positive changes to your physical, emotional, mental and nutritional health status.

Thinking about work:

• At work you may enjoy regular lunches out – does the venue offer healthful options? Can you influence the lunch destination?
• Is there a culture of Friday cakes? If you are managing your blood sugar, indulging every week won’t help you to build healthier habits!
• Are your colleagues supportive? Will they help you achieve your goals?

Social groups, may not be close friends but can still be an important part of your life – they may be a knitting or craft group you joined, or a book club:

• Is this an environment where you can find support or does the group add time pressure or stress to your life as you feel that you need to achieve something to be a part of it?
• Does each session come with a plate of biscuits? May be you can suggest or provide an alternative.
• Is the group supportive and encouraging, or do you feel under pressure to meet the requirements of the group and/or to fit in?

Friends and family.

These are likely to be the people closest to you, physically or emotionally.  They may help you feel supported and grounded, or you may feel frustrated by individuals.  Friendship groups may support or detract from family relationships (and vice-versa) creating feelings of peace or stress.

Friends and family considerations include:

– Do you feel happy and secure around those people, or do they actually trigger feelings of stress?  How do you deal with this?

– Are your relationships centred around food and drink?  Will you be able to apply your healthier habits comfortably within those environments?  Will you be able to influence the environment that you meet in, or the amount of time you spend there?

– Are you comfortable discussing the changes you want to make with these groups?  Are they likely to support you, make you feel self-conscious, or make you feel that your goals are not achievable?

– Would any of your friends accompany you to any health-related classes?  Would they form an accountability partnership or group with you?

– What are your priorities and how do they compare to expectations placed on you by yourself, friends and family?  An imbalance may contribute to stressful situations or even strained relationships.

Knowing who you can get support from and who will hinder your progress can help us to personalise your nutrition strategy and identify ways to incorporate any challenges you may face.

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Understanding each part of your lifestyle and its influence on your current and future health is important to be successful in identifying effective changes to your nutritional health.

• Health Effects of Exposure to Chlorination By-Products in Swimming Pools – Couto, et al (2021).  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/all.15014
• Circadian Rhythm, Lifestyle and Health: A Narrative Review – Farhud and Aryan (2018).  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6123576/
• The Risks and Benefits of Friendships Outside Marriage – Place (2022).  https://www.marriage.com/advice/relationship/risks-benefits-of-friendships-outside-marriage/#Danger_1_Too_much_time_spent_apart
• Break the Cycle – Gerlach (2014).  http://sfhelp.org/relate/friendship.htm