Working with food doesn’t always necessitate a busy schedule, but Zoe Bingley Pullin is one of Australia’s busiest health food gurus. Hosting a healthy eating program called Falling in Love with Food, Zoe coaches thousands on how to cook, eat, and live healthy. In addition to her work as a healthy eating coach and cooking show host, Zoe also works as a consultant for the hospitality industry and as a wife and mother for her family.
While this busy schedule isn’t unusual for many working in the hospitality industry, Zoe manages to practice what she preaches in her healthy eating program. She and her family manage, for the most part, to adhere to a healthy lifestyle. I spoke with Zoe to discuss her work and her advice for café and restaurant owners about how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
While some specifications for the basic food groups have changed, the conventional wisdom of what a healthy diet consists of – mostly whole, unprocessed foods – hasn’t. However, in the modern world, it’s become harder than ever for some people to have a healthy diet. Especially among those in the hospitality industry, long, irregular hours can often have us reaching for the nearest snack – no matter the nutritional value – once we can catch a break.
Incredibly, Zoe has managed to juggle her work and family responsibilities and still eat healthy, and refrain from overindulging in coffee, alcohol, and chocolate. However, when she started out in the industry, working for a catering company and often keeping late hours – sometimes not finishing until three in the morning – she would turn to these unhealthy options for nourishment more often than not. It took some years of focusing on her own lifestyle and working on healthy eating that got her to change her habits. So, it’s important to note that any changes you want to make in your diet will take time and hard work.
First and foremost, Zoe advises to drink plenty of water. Workers in the hospitality industry are often doing a lot of running around, so it can be easy to forget to hydrate on a regular basis. It sounds simple enough, but even a little bit of dehydration affects your feelings of hunger and thirst, and your energy levels. Not drinking enough water can also affect your body’s ability to rid itself of toxins, which could make you feel even more tired, continuing the cycle. One easy fix for this problem is to have a bottle of water sitting on your bedside table and drink it all first thing in the morning when you wake up and before you’re out the door. If you don’t like to drink plain water first thing in the morning, Zoe recommends putting a little bit of lemon in it for taste.
It may also be difficult to eat regularly when you’re working a busy shift, and when your schedule may vary wildly from day to day. But normally you do know your schedule at least one day ahead of time. Zoe recommends to take a look at your schedule and see how much time you’ll have to take a break and eat. If you don’t think you’ll be able to eat for, say, five hours, while on a shift, have a high-protein, high-fat meal before that period. These nutrients provide slow-releasing energy, which will better sustain you over those five hours than a bowl of pasta.
Having healthy snack foods on hand will also help steer you away from unhealthy choices when you do have time to eat. Nuts, chopped-up fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, organic popcorn, and other such snacks fit right at home in a diet primarily consisting of whole, unprocessed foods. They will give you the bit of energy boost you need in between meals without the sugar, salt, and caffeine content of other options. Those options may seem more appealing at the spur of the moment, but in the long run they’ll run you down.
Finally, Zoe advises people who want to eat healthier to not beat themselves up over it. Not everyone eats healthy all the time, and it’s okay to indulge in McDonald’s or an extra cup of coffee once in a while. Getting out of the mindset that a single day of indulgence negates all the healthy choices you’d made prior to that will nurture a healthier relationship with food: that of pleasure and nourishment. After all, many of us in the hospitality industry love food – and it’s important not to lose touch with that.
Eating healthy is not easy, especially when you work in the hospitality industry. Fortunately, with just a few minor lifestyle tweaks, you can live a healthier lifestyle and keep on going with your business. You can find more information about Zoe’s work, and her Falling in Love with Food program, on her website.
Zoe’s Ten Takeaways
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Drink a bottle of water first thing in the morning before you start your day.
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Eat high-protein, high-fat meals when about to work a long day
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Always keep healthy snacks such as nuts, dried fruits, and veggies on hand so you’re not reaching for the crackers and chips when it’s time for a snack.
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It’s pretty easy to follow the 5 day/2 day philosophy – as long as you’re eating healthy most of the week, you can indulge in unhealthy but tasty meals and snacks once in a while.
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But if you can’t keep it up, don’t sweat the small stuff.
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Keep in mind that mental health is important, too – consult an expert if you feel you need help.
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When it comes to serving up meals in your own café or restaurant, there’s no need to overwhelm with choices or variety – just a half dozen or so tasty but wholesome, simple options can suffice
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If you want to open a health-focused establishment, be prepared to put the hard work in and find your niche.
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To make your kids’ menu healthier, it can be as easy as substituting regular chips in favour of sweet potato chips in fish fingers and chips, or zucchini pasta for wheat pasta.
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Zoe recommends reading the book Good Calorie, Bad Calorie if you want to learn more about the changing science around healthy eating.
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