Let’s be honest: there’s so much unknown right now, and that alone is incredibly scary. Feelings of powerlessness and anxiety can often make people turn to food and overeating for the feelings of comfort and joy they’re craving. Even more, when in this state of quarantine, there are so few steps between your couch and your pantry, it’s easy to mindlessly snack throughout the day while roaming around your home. Revenge Body trainer and founder of BeachBody’s 21 Day Fix Autumn Calabrese spoke to HollywoodLife.com in an EXCLUSIVE interview about her refrigerator must-haves during this unprecedented time and how to avoid emotional eating.
“Right now it’s really easy for people to just say screw it. Right? It’s so easy to be like ‘We’re stuck at home. We’re quarantined. Go to the grocery store and stock up on everything in a box and in a bag — a lot of that is the really highly processed crap stuff. It is just as easy to make healthy choices,” she explained. “You can stock up on fruits and vegetables, and I know frozen fruit and vegetables are a little bit hard to come by right now, so what I’ve been doing is when I go, I buy the fresh fruit and vegetables. I leave some of them out in my refrigerator and I put some of them in bags, zip them airtight and put them in my freezer so I have them. That allows me to not have to make multiple trips to the grocery store just because all I was able to buy was fresh food. It allows me to have extra on hand.”
Autumn’s advice for stocking up on fruits and vegetables is due to their incredible benefits, which can also help build up our immune systems as the Coronavirus outbreak continues to spread. “We’re talking about how do we build our bodies up and make them as strong as possible right now? You do it by putting in real food, whole food in its most natural form,” she said. The trainer alluded to her Ultimate Portion Fix Nutrition Program, which is currently offered on BeachBody On-Demand, and focuses on portion control, balanced macronutrients, and reducing and eliminating highly-process foods.
“We can use this time as an excuse to just say ‘screw it,’ and eat whatever we want and emotionally eat. But, the bottom line is, that doesn’t change anything, and that’s the most important thing for people to realize,” Autumn explained. “You can eat that whole pizza and that pint of ice cream, the anxiety won’t go away. The situation won’t change because you ate the pizza and the ice cream. For the five minutes while you’re eating it, it might bring you a sense of joy or peace, but it doesn’t actually change anything. Taking care of your body actually changes something cause it puts you in a better position to be healthier and stronger and to make you feel in control. Then you’ll find other things that you can do to bring you that fun and that joy.”
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