Video from my Breakfast Television segment: http://www.btmontreal.ca/videos/4876133532001/
International No Diet Day is an annual celebration of body acceptance, with the main purpose of raising awareness of the potential dangers of dieting and the lack of evidence of their success. Luckily, you can enjoy foods that make you feel and look good without the guilt in 3 easy steps (which I explained on my appearance on Breakfast Television).
Focus on feeling great.
Take 1 minute and ask yourself these 4 questions before having something to eat:
- Am I hungry?
- Will this food make me feel good while eating it?
- Will I feel good 30 minutes after eating it?
- Will I feel good tomorrow, in 2 days, a week from now?
If the answer is yes to all four of these questions, then go for it. If the answer is no to any of these, then it’s time to have an honest conversation with yourself about why you are eating now, why you want that food, what emotions are you feeling, etc. Put the focus on feeling great rather than trying to fill a void that can’t be satisfied with that chocolate cake.
Listen to your hunger.
It sounds easier than it actually is because we often get confused between an actual physical hunger and emotional hunger. I always tell my clients to write down the different symptoms between a real and emotional hunger. With a real hunger, you may feel tired, light-headed, your stomach’s rumbling, whatever it is. But with an emotional hunger, it’s something that comes really suddenly and you usually crave something specific like a cookie or a bag of chips, which is not something that happens with a real hunger.
After you figure that out, you want to listen to that hunger and honour it. If you’re hungry, eat! That’s your body telling you “feed me”. You can rate your hunger and fullness levels on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being ravenous and 10 being you ate so much you’re sick to your stomach. This way, you can see where your problem times are, because if you wait too long before eating and you are at a 1 on the scale, chances are you will eat too much at your next meal, which doesn’t help. So really listen to what your body is telling you and trust it.
Remove all distractions.
In today’s busy world trying to juggle work, taking care of your kids, and social life, we try to multitask and eat at our desk or we relax by eating in front of the TV. But if we’re always eating this way, we don’t savor our meal and we often eat more than we should because we’re so distracted. So if you eat at your desk, take a break, go to the cafeteria. You only need 20 minutes and when you come back after a break, you’re generally more productive anyway. Same thing with snacks, all you need is a 5 minute break; it won’t change anything during the course of your day. I mean I’m guilty of it too sometimes, I’m only human. You can’t be perfect all of the time. If you eat in front of your TV, turn it off and have supper in your dining room. Not only will you eat less, you’ll enjoy your meal too!
So these are pretty simple steps. It may be easier to do this than to drastically change what you’re eating.
P.S. I really enjoyed my time on Breakfast Television. The hosts and everyone behind the scenes were great and really helped calm my nerves!
Montreal & West Island Nutritionist 