How Your Diet Can Affect Your Exam Stress

Our diet can have a huge impact on our brain, from our mood to our concentration levels what you eat really can affect your exam stress!.

When we are in high pressure situations it can be very tempting to pick up the most convenient snacks possible to give us quick energy or to comfort eat to deal with the stress but did you know how these bad habits actually affect you?

Letting your energy levels slump and only eating when your really hungry will have a worse affect than grazing. When studying you are best having healthy and light snacks throughout the day to keep your energy levels stable.

Fruit & vegetables contain vital nutrients and chemicals that can foster the production of Dopamine, this plays a key role in motivation and engagement. Fruit & vegetables can also improve memory, moods and minimize body inflammation!

Take caffeine in moderation, over consumption of tea, coffee or sugary drinks can cause dehydration and an irritable mood making it harder to focus on studying.
As we said before memory boosting nutrients can be found in vitamin A, E & C such as eggs,carrots, broccoli, fish, nuts and green leafy vegetables.

Lecithin is a component of all cell membranes and can help calm nerves! Good sources of this can be found in egg yolks, soybeans, cauliflower and beans.

How To Make Your Food Shop Go Further

We all know it can be hard to shop on a budget, not just for students! It can be very easy to spend huge amounts of money on the weekly shop and not even realize until you get to the tills. Today we are going to look at how to be more of a smart shopper and make that food shop budget stretch further!

Write out what you need before hitting the shops- More often than not if you don't know exactly what you need it can be very easy to buy more than you intended and fall for the offers and pick up non essentials such as confectionery.

Take a set amount with you- The best way to stick to a budget is to take out cash beforehand, forcing you to stick to your budget and not be tempted to overspend.

Cook in bulk and freeze- Not only will this save you money and wastage if your food is about to go out of date it also keeps you super organized! Having home cooked meals frozen is particularly good for this time of year if you are too busy studying simply bulk cook in advance when you know your going to have a hectic schedule.

Check date labels- Particularity on more expensive and perishable foods such as dairy, meat and fish check the dates before you buy! This will reduce waste when you go into your fridge to only then realize all of the food is past it's sell by on the same date.

Use your leftovers- Wether it be leftover chicken from a roast dinner that could be used in tomorrows dinner or bread could be used as breadcrumbs don't let anything go to waste!

Ditch the takeaways- Takeaways can be very expensive and can easily add up to your weekly or monthly costs. If you know your going to be craving a cheat meal simply make your own takeaway from home, it won't only be cheaper but very likely much better for you.