Is food mastering you?
For a lot of people with weight issues, food is the main problem. It’s often easier to start walking during your lunch break than it is to control the food that goes into your mouth all day.
Food is supposed to be used for sustenance and strength. It’s meant to give nutrition to the body. Unfortunately, especially in the U.S. and developed countries, food is used for entertainment, stress relief, pleasure, and instant gratification.
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I saw a TV commercial about how one good food choice led to another. In the commercial, the actress began her day with a cereal bar then chose a salad for lunch, skipped brownies in the boardroom, and got steamed veggies and grilled meat for dinner. All of her good food choices were contributed to her eating “the” cereal bar in the morning.
Now, I don’t think a cereal bar for breakfast will automatically make your day go great. But I do believe once you’ve made one good choice, it’s easier to make a second good choice.
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If you’re a fan of “Anne of Green Gables” you are familiar with this saying. Miss Stacey encourages her pupil, Anne, and star of the movie series, that every day is fresh with no mistakes in it.
As we push ourselves to better our health and lose weight, we have to remember that every day is a new day. We can feel very disappointed with our behavior when we don’t make the right food choices or we skip out on exercise.
But despite the ice cream yesterday, or the nap instead of the walk, we have to look at each day with fresh eyes.
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My son brought a cookie home – not just any old cookie. It was a peanut butter cookie with a Hershey’s kiss in the center. It winked at me from its cozy spot on the counter and whispered, “You should taste me. You know how much you love me.”
Several times I was tempted to reach for it. I reasoned, “If I share it with my boys, it won’t be that bad.”
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Many times clients express their wishes to lose weight, but they don’t really want to change their diets. They may say they want to “ease” into it. Maybe they are willing to make a small change like giving up their daily candy bar. But they want to stay pretty comfortable with their food and not feel “deprived.”
Sure, small changes can be good. For some people, this is all they can handle. And at least it’s better than nothing.
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I know very few people who eat only when they’re hungry and stop as soon as they’re full. They don’t overeat. They don’t eat for emotions. They eat because they’re physically hungry and that’s it.
Most of us fall into a different category. We’re emotional eaters. We eat when we’re miserable – stressed, angry, sad, bored, lonely – and we eat when we’re happy – celebratory, relaxed, or excited.
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I confess, I had way too many carbs this weekend (plus a slice of chocolate pie). My diet is usually squeaky clean so I’m feeling the effects – sluggish, tired, yucky!
We all have a bad day or two. It could be we choose junky food because we’re stressed or traveling, or maybe because we’re celebrating and eating out. In any case, we fall off course from time to time.
The key is; this has to be an occasional occurrence. Not an everyday thing!
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We all have times when we crave a little “bad” food. Sometimes we can shrug it off; other times it’s like trying to hold down a monster.
It may be better to give in a little and curb your craving. This can ward off an all-out binge. Here are some little food “sins” you can indulge in from time to time to help you feel satisfied and not deprived.
Ice Cream
Skinny Cow ice cream treats
Weight Watchers desserts
Frozen yogurt (fat free)
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Gaining weight back is a terribly disappointing setback. Ten pounds is uncomfortable, but 50 pounds or more is nearly debilitating. It makes the person feel like she’s out of control going in the wrong direction. She wants to put on the brakes, but seems unable to do so. She’s embarrassed and distressed.
Finally, she hits a breaking point. She is ready to begin again.
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One client recently related to me, “I’m killing myself with food.” It was meant in a joking matter concerning weight, but how true she was.
Sometimes we focus too much on how weight makes us look. We have to wear big sizes, we have a hard time fitting into small seats, and our thighs rub together when we walk. Our relationships suffer, our job performance suffers, and our energy’s in the tank because we’re so big.
But beyond how uncomfortable it feels to be overweight, being overweight is deadly.
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We had our first family Christmas dinner tonight. All the food was amazingly delicious (thanks Bea!). I did eat a little yogurt before I went so I wasn’t starving and I ate a large salad with dinner to keep from eating large portions. Even so, holiday food has a ton of calories – especially the chocolate cheesecake dessert! (I sure hope all that snow shoveling I did this morning helped pre-burn some of those calories.)
After dinner we sang Christmas carols around the piano. One of my nieces made me a lovely wreath of fresh greens and silver ornaments. i can hardly wait to hang it on my door.
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You’ve heard me say it before, but I have to say it again: If you want to lose weight, you have to journal your food. Most people grossly underestimate the calories they consume each day. They’re often unaware of what is in their food and how much they really do eat.
A food journal keeps you aware and keeps you honest. For one thing, you have to look at nutrition labels so you know what’s in your food. This can be pretty eye opening. Then you have to be accountable for every bite you take. No more mindless eating, grabbing a cookie here, a handful of pretzels there, or the kids’ leftover Goldfish.
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I love Thanksgiving. It’s so restful for me because we go to my mom’s house for dinner. I don’t have to mega clean my house or cook a huge meal. She wants to make everything herself and is only “allowing” me to bring a dessert.
I get to go into the gym in the morning and have a kick-butt workout. (The goal is to burn at least 800 calories.) Then I can put my feet up and catch some of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV before we leave.
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I ran into a past client today. He had lost a lot of weight when he worked with me and got into great shape.
He told me that several months ago his wife said, “After three years, you shouldn’t need the food scale anymore.” And she put it away.
He started eating larger portions because he was no longer weighing and measuring his foods. In three months time, he put 30 pounds on.
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I find that I get in trouble with my calories when I don’t plan my food out for the day. Even if I’m choosing healthy foods, it’s so easy to have 50 extra calories here, 70 extra calories there, and so on. Before I know it, I get to dinner and realize I don’t have enough calories left for the rest of the day to remain in my calorie limit.
It’s simply poor planning on my part. When I sketch out my food for the day (before I eat it), I can make adjustments and wiser choices. This allows me to add up my calorie total to make sure I’m within my limit.
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You could say I have a healthy appetite. I’m not one to forget to eat (wish I was). So, I began wondering if there are certain foods that make you feel fuller than others.
From experience, I know eating a bowl of cereal is about as good as a wafer in my stomach. (I think my stomach is turbo charged.) I also know animal protein sticks. So here’s what I found out about foods that’ll fill you up and keep you full.
Fiber: fiber is great for filling you up and slowing your digestion. Try getting high fiber foods every time you eat. Some good options are: apples, berries, oatmeal, popcorn, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, beans, peas, salad, broccoli, corn, and baked potatoes.
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When it comes to weight loss, it’s always the food that reflects on the scale.
Inevitably, when I weigh a client in whose weight has gone up, he or she will say, “But I exercised all week!”
Well, when we’re looking at the scale, I’m not interested in hearing about your exercise. I want to know what you’re doing with your food.
One thing I try to drive home to my clients is: “Weight loss is 80% percent what you eat, 20% how you train.” Food is absolutely, positively, unquestionably the biggest factor in weight loss.
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Today was rough. I was tired, the kids were tired, and we had tons of stuff to do and a crazy schedule to follow. The kids were at each other fussing and fighting. Honestly, I was too tired to deal with their behavior consistently. It was not a good day.
I found that I wanted to eat. I wanted to calm my nerves. I wanted to escape!
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One of my clients is a school teacher. Her toughest time of day for staying on track with food is right after school. She’s hungry, stressed, and tired. She would arrive home and begin raiding the kitchen. What also made this time difficult was waiting for her husband to come home so they could have a late dinner together. She was so hungry she would continue snacking.
She realized that the rest of the day went well. It was this one period in the afternoon that was sabotaging her weight loss efforts. She came up with a plan to deal with this trouble spot.
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We had the last cookout of the summer with our friends. We grilled, built a fire in the fire pit, and watched the kids chase each other with flashlights all over the backyard after the sun went down. What a sweet time we had.
The only down side for me was that I ate too much! And I had ice cream – chocolate with peanut butter chunks. Oh man.
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Take time this weekend to plan healthy meals ahead for next week. If you’re very busy during the week, go ahead and prepare them (or partially make them) so all you need to do is re-heat or cook.
This will help you avoid stress eating at the end of the day when you’re low on energy. Consider also eating the “same” foods during the day and only changing up your dinner foods. This too will help keep your food choices under control, and makes planning and preparing a simple process.
Here are some ideas for healthy plan-ahead meals:
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When I look back over the years, I realize that I’ve had a love for ice cream from the time I was a little girl. I remember eating bowls and bowls of it. If we didn’t have chocolate, I would add chocolate syrup to vanilla ice cream and stir it in until it became chocolate ice cream “soup.”
I well remember going to one particular cousin’s house for a delicious treat. My aunt would sometimes allow us to make banana splits. She had all the fixings and big, round bowls to eat from.
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If you’re like me, on the day or two before grocery shopping the food choices around the house get a little lean. My lettuce is either gone, or has gone bad. I’ve eaten all my yogurt and fresh strawberries. I’ve grilled all my fish. The last of the raw almonds has been snatched by my son.
Part of eating nutritiously, however, means you need to have healthy foods on hand. Here are some food staples I recommend having on hand so even when your “fresh” foods start running out, you can still keep a healthy diet.
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It takes a lot of focus to stay really tight with your food. You have to think ahead about what you’re going to eat for each meal and snack. You may need to get up early and pack food to take with you. Or you may need to put dinner in the crock pot before leaving for work.
Then there is the energy needed to resist temptations. It takes a pile of restraint when there is “bad” food readily available. Like cookie trays set out on the lunchroom table, or a luncheon where the provided food is anything but healthy. And how about when you’re really hungry and the kids don’t finish their snacks?
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If you’re like me, when you get overly hungry all you want to do is put something in your mouth as fast as you can. Then you can hardly stop eating because it takes awhile for your brain to catch up with your belly to know there’s actually food in there.
When you wait too long to eat, your blood sugar drops and the brain sends hunger signals to your body. These hunger signals get stronger until you’re ravenous. When you do start eating, the digestion of food and release of sugar into the blood stream takes a little time. So it makes overeating very likely.
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