mindful eating Archives - Page 13 of 15 - Diet Free Radiant Me | Intuitive Eating | Emotional Eating

Being Mindful With Godiva Chocolate

One of the beautiful things about being an intuitive eater is being able to eat what I love! I don’t have to worry anymore about whether eating a particular food will cause me to gain weight or not.

One of the doubts I often hear from my clients is whether or not they will actually choose nutritious foods once they give themselves permission to eat what they love and desire when they are hungry. And I tell them YES, you will. Once you give yourself that unconditional permission to eat, you will find that you will gravitate towards lighter healthier foods, and your meals will be well-balanced nutritionally. It’s just something that happens when you begin to experience how great you feel eating these foods.

You will also find that the heavy, less healthy foods don’t seem so desirable after a while. The physical and/or emotional discomfort from eating those foods becomes burned in your memory, and you won’t want to repeat.

This doesn’t mean there is no place in your eating for what I call “play foods”. Of course there is. Let me share a recent story.

My husband and I were on vacation in Las Vegas two weeks ago. As we were walking through one of the casino hotel’s shopping areas, we stopped at the Godiva Chocolate store to watch them make chocolate dipped strawberries. We walked inside and an employee was giving out small samples of chocolate covered caramels. These were very small, similar to the size of a small paper clip. The employee put one in my palm; I picked it up and took a bite. I savored it, allowing it to melt in my mouth so I could taste the chocolate and the caramel. I then took a second bite. It was delicious. It hit the spot.

I took notice of how other people were eating these chocolate samples. Some took one to two bites as I did, but others popped it into their mouths. I overheard a man saying to his wife that he could eat a few more. His wife said one was just enough for her. What was the difference, why did he need more and why didn’t she? I noticed he was one of those people who popped it into his mouth without even tasting it. It was down before he could even think about what he just ate. His wife, on the other hand, took two bites and savored each one.

My point is…eating healthy doesn’t mean depriving yourself of your favorite foods or treats. Part of learning to become an intuitive eater is learning to be a mindful eater. Enjoy every bite you take, with purpose, and you will have great pleasure in your foods, those that are nutrient dense and those that are “play foods”. Tune into your belly as you are eating, and let your stomach be your guide. You will know when you have had just enough.

The more you practice these techniques, the more intuitive you will become, and you will see, weight loss will start happening, without you worrying about the scale and about the effects foods will have on your weight.

Do you want to discuss how you can become a mindful eater? Just click here and we will set up a time.

How to Manage Your Emotions without Turning to Food

One of the things that come up often in my work with my clients is how they deal with emotional eating. We all experience different emotions throughout a given day. For some, there might be more than others. Such emotions include anxiety, loneliness and sadness. Other more subtle emotions that often might lead you to turn to food include boredom and stress. It is totally normal to experience these emotions from time to time, but how you cope with them is key. (Note: if you are experiencing intense sadness and depression, please see an appropriate mental health professional.)

So the question here is: do you find yourself reaching into the food cabinets when these emotions arise? If you do, how do you feel after you eat the cookies, candy or whatever your “go to” mood fixer food is?

I know that deep down you realize that food is not resolving the issue at hand. Yet, you still find comfort even for the moment in the box of chocolates. But you know what? After you eat them, you now have to deal with the guilt, physical discomfort of overeating and the original emotion you were trying to numb. You are now worse off than when you started.

Does this sound like you? How do you get out of this viscous cycle?

The first thing you need to do is acknowledge that you turn to food to comfort negative feelings, even to numb the emotional pain you might be feeling. Then, you need to commit to learning a new way. Before immediately turning to food, STOP and ask yourself what are you really feeling. If you can honestly say you are hungry, then by all means you should eat….a well-balanced power snack or meal. But if you are being true to yourself and really want to help yourself, you won’t automatically say “I’m hungry”. Instead, you will think about what you are feeling and how you can comfort yourself without turning to food.

If you are unsure what you need, seek out the support from a friend, counselor or therapist. Talking through your emotions instead of eating through them is an amazing feeling. If you are not ready to face your feelings, then engage in an alternate activity.

Write down some things that you enjoy doing that can distract you during these times. Take a walk, do a puzzle, read a book, go for a ride etc. Figure out what works for you.

I’ll tell you what works for me. When I am feeling overwhelmed, stressed or upset about something, I remove myself from the area I am at that is causing me distress. I then take several deep breaths and count down from 10 to 0. It really helps me clear my head, and prevents me from heading to the peanut butter jar:)

What works for you? Please let me know in the comments section below. And if you need help sorting through your emotions, I am here for you. Just click here and request to speak with me so you can get clear on your challenges and have a clear path towards dealing with your emotions without turning to food.

The 3 Pieces of the Chronic Dieting Puzzle, Why it Doesn’t Work and the Puzzle that Does

Obedience, willpower, and failure are three connecting pieces to a chronic dieters puzzle. Once you have one set in stone, the other two follow. I call this a “puzzle” because as a chronic dieter you believe that you need all three pieces to feel good about yourself and to get to a satisfying weight.

What if I told you that this is not the case? What if I told you that these three components are actually lethal to your health, and cause you to get trapped in the dieting cycle over and over again?

Let’s start with “obedience”. Say for example you have a new pet (how about a dog) and you are training your dog. You teach the dog what he can and cannot do (a set of rules if you will) and when the dog is not obedient, you punish the dog for bad behavior. For example, you tell the dog he cannot enter the living room when you are not home. You arrive home and your couch is all chewed up. Now you punish the dog by putting up a gate at the living room entrance because the dog was not obedient, the dog was “a bad dog”.

Now relate this to yourself. You are following a particular diet this month which lists for you foods that you can and cannot eat. You are following a list of rules with do’s and don’ts. Yet, you eat the very food you are told not to eat (let’s say, pizza) and you tell yourself you’ve been “bad”, you weren’t obedient to the rules. You vow never to do this again. Guess what? That’s not going to happen. You will absolutely eat that pizza again at some point in time. No one or thing can tell you how you feel and what you should eat. You are the expert of your body! You should be responsible for when, what, and how much you eat. So, let’s forget about obedience.

The second piece of the chronic dieter’s puzzle is “willpower”. Let’s take the party scene for example. Whenever you go to a party do you find yourself staring at the dessert table, drooling over everything that you love but have vowed to never eat again? You keep telling yourself you don’t need all the calories, just have willpower. You try and walk away but end up overindulging because you have starved your body from those desserts for a few weeks or even longer. Willpower is not a component of intuitive eating. You have natural desires, we all do. And to try and will yourself away from them just ends in disaster. Forget the willpower and listen to your own body’s signals because that will bring you back to your natural instincts, which you have lost through the dieting schemes.

The final piece of the chronic dieter’s puzzle is “failure”. This is what you feel once obedience and willpower have once again failed you through this dieting process. So you in turn overindulge and gain back all the weight that you lost, and sometimes even more. Newsflash: you are not the one that failed; the diets are what have failed.

Should I say that again? You are not a failure, nor will you ever be with intuitive eating.

You need to start working on a NEW PUZZLE.

THE INTUITIVE EATING PUZZLE. There are only three pieces to this puzzle.

Puzzle piece #1: A Healthy Non-Diet Mindset

Puzzle piece #2: Nutrition Education

Puzzle piece #3: Caring Support

Does it sound difficult? Well, nothing in life comes easy. But it is truly your solution if you want to finally break free of the pain of dieting and achieve the body that you love.

Now it’s your turn to take action: Contact me for your FREE Break Free of Dieting Strategy Session so you can put your INTUITIVE EATING Puzzle together effortlessly.

The Guilt of Food Talk

Do you have a set of unreasonable rules that dieting has created? Is your head constantly filled with chanting words that promote or demote you from eating food that you love? This is the food police voice that is constantly telling you what you should and shouldn’t eat. It’s sort of like the angel and the devil sitting on your shoulders, one telling you it’s okay to eat the chocolate cake, but the other yelling “NO” don’t do it.

You decide to have that chocolate cake, while the devil sitting on your shoulder is beaming with pride because you followed his advice. As soon as you eat that cake you feel guilty about the amount of calories and fat that you just consumed. Even though you enjoyed the chocolate cake, you still feel guilty. Most chronic dieters have this sense of guilt each and every time they eat something that the food police is saying they shouldn’t.

The media and various companies place thoughts in your head related to nutrition and ways to “cheat” and make yourself feel guiltless because of the way these food items are advertised. The slogans and jingles are created to convince you that this cookie will prevent you from being “bad” on your diet, and will keep you on track. These are the advertisements that cause you to have negative food thoughts and judgments towards food.

You are not born with these food judgments, you develop them over the years of dieting and being influenced by the media penetrating these images of good versus. bad in your head.

The next time you pick up a food item that you enjoy and you contemplate “should I or shouldn’t I”, take a moment to listen to your body and the food talk going on in your head. Push away the negative thoughts and change the tape that plays in your head. If this is a food that you truly desire, go ahead and enjoy it without guilt in a very mindful way. Realize that this one food eaten in this one moment will not make you gain weight or have a nutritional deficiency. You may actually find that you don’t love the chocolate cake as much as you thought you did.

Your turn to take action: How will you replace the negative self-talk that plays in your head? Post your comments below!

How to Wipe Out the Foods on Your “What-Not” to Eat List

I love lists. I live by lists. Just ask my family members. I have a lot of lists. They help me to prioritize my tasks, stay organized and accomplish what needs to get done.

How often do you make lists throughout your day? To-do lists, shopping lists, what-not to eat lists?

Lists play a prominent role in the life of a chronic dieter. Some of these lists are written out, others are likely engrained in your head. The good versus bad food lists draws a line between the foods you allow yourself to eat and those you don’t, which inevitably establishes a barrier that you “cannot” cross.

Do you overindulge when you allow yourself to eat from the “bad food” list? Most likely you do because you are experiencing deprivation from this particular food item that has become taboo for you. This is exactly why you overindulge; it’s called deprivation backlash.

I say it’s time to thrown away these food lists so you can make peace with food once and for all.

How?

Write down all the foods that you don’t allow yourself to eat. Then plan out one by one when you are going to purchase that food and when and where you are going to eat it. Make sure you plan to do this when you feel calm, not stressed and you are in a calm, relaxing atmosphere.

Explore how you feel when you eat each food on your list. Is it as good as you expected? What surprises did you experience?

This is a process, so be patient with yourself. You might just find that what you thought you once loved you actually do not like at all. And, what you thought you didn’t like has become your new favorite.

Making peace with food takes time, but it is well worth the effort. If I can help you on this journey, feel free to reach out by requesting a strategy session here.

Your turn to take action: Write down all the foods that are on your ‘what-not” to eat food list, and share in the comments below how you are going to start incorporating these items into your menus.

Take A Stand Against the Scale

Do you find yourself hopping on the scale every morning? Do you rejoice on the days you’ve lost a pound, and scold yourself on the days you stayed the same? The scale starts to have the ultimate power of how you feel and treat yourself during the day. This leads to a cycle of under and overeating, weight gain, and body dissatisfaction – four things that lead you down the wrong path when it comes to food.

The number on the scale does not reflect the person you are, or the person you are becoming. No one and no thing can tell you how you feel about yourself. With intuitive eating you cannot fail, it is a lifestyle and learning process every step of the way. The scale is a false idol. There are many factors that influence your weight which do not reflect body fat, such as fluid retention, fluid shifts within your body and water loss from sweating after a workout.

Forget the scale; it does not represent who you are, or who you are becoming. Intuitive eating teaches you to become compassionate toward yourself, and helps you to get past dieting. Listen to your internal cues telling you what you want to eat, and when you want to eat it. The scale does not determine your food or exercise schedule for the rest of the week. Your inner cues won’t lead you astray, have confidence and listen to what your body is telling you.

The next time you go into the bathroom to weigh yourself, STOP! Remember the scale is not your measure of success on this intuitive eating journey. Take that scale and put it away. Just take a look at the image with this blog…a woman standing on the scale yet the scale registers zero pounds.

Now it’s your turn to take action: Put away the scale and make a commitment not to weigh yourself. Please share your success in the comments below.

Did I Eat It?

I constantly find myself thinking where did the time go? Or, I have so much to do, there just are not enough hours in the day! I am sure you can relate. Society has put so much emphasis on rushing around and getting as much as we possibly can get done in 24 hours. It is no surprise that you may find yourself eating on the go, or eating in the mists of preforming other daily tasks. Did you know that eating while doing other things such as driving or getting the kids ready for school is mindless eating?

Many of my clients are unaware that they are mindless eaters. Whether you are eating on the run or eating while relaxing at the end of a busy day watching your favorite show, you are only semi-paying attention to what you are eating. You are not paying full attention to the flavor or the pleasure your meal or snack is providing. You are missing out on all the wonderful sensations that food brings to the experience of eating. So what do you do? You reach for more due to dissatisfaction and eat more calories than you need, which leads to weight gain.

Let me give you an example from my own personal experience. I’m taking you back many years to when I was newly married with a newborn. I went to graduate school at night and therefore ate dinner before I left. One evening I was eating dinner. The baby was in his crib, my husband was still at work and I sat down to eat my dinner. I was watching T.V. while I was eating. At the end of the show, I looked down on my plate and thought to myself “I’m pretty sure I had a baked potato on my plate. Where did it go? Did I eat it?”

Well, I realized the baby certainly didn’t eat my potato, and it wasn’t on the floor so I must have eaten it. I ate the whole thing without even realizing! I remember feeling like I wanted another. From that moment on, I told myself I would share this story with my future clients to reiterate how important it is to enjoy what you are eating without distraction to ultimately achieve meal time satisfaction.

Once you learn to be mindful of what you are eating, you will find that you will be more satisfied with less food. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

– When you eat, just eat!

– Sit down at the table to eat, not in the living room, den or bedroom.

– Turn off all distractions while you eat, such as the T.V., cell phone, email, Facebook. Let your voicemail take messages during mealtimes instead of answering the phone.

– At work, eat in the lounge, or go outside and find a park bench, weather permitting. Try not to eat at your desk. If you must, put the work aside and take time to enjoy what you are eating.

Remember eating should be a pleasurable experience!

Now it’s your turn to take action: What steps will you take to be more mindful in your eating?

International NO Diet Day

Today is a very important day: International NO Diet Day!

The purpose of this nationally recognized day is to raise awareness of the harmful effects unhealthy dieting can have as well as the importance of respecting and accepting body types. The goal is to teach people how to have a healthy relationship with food and ditch restrictive eating habits.

May 6^th has been the designated day for NO Diet Day ever since it was created in 1992 by Mary Evans Young, director of the British Group “Diet Breakers”. After overcoming anorexia, Young worked to help people appreciate themselves for who they are and the body that they have and established the following set of goals for this very important and meaningful day:

GOAL: Celebrate the beauty and diversity of all our natural sizes and shapes.

GOAL: Declare a personal one-day moratorium on diet/weight obsession.

GOAL: Learn the facts about weight-loss dieting, health and body size.

GOAL: Honor the victims of eating disorders and weight-loss surgery.

GOAL: Help end weight discrimination, size-ism and fat phobia.

These are a great set of goals to set not only on International NO Diet Day, but for every day of the year. Learning ways to eat intuitively by honoring your hunger and satiety cues is the best way to ditch the diet mentality and develop a healthy relationship with food.

Chronic dieting and the perpetual obsession with food and body weight is something that we are faced with constantly, especially in a culture that glorifies the notion that thin is beautiful. This misconception has caused food to become the enemy for most people. This is sad because food is something we should all cherish and enjoy and view as a means to nourish our bodies.

If you have been struggling on and off diets, let today be the day that you say NO MORE! Contact me for your FREE Break Free of Dieting Strategy Session and let’s turn this around for you. I will help you transform your relationship with food, your mind and your body so you can achieve the body that you love!

Your turn to take action: Click here for your Break Free of Dieting Strategy Session.

Intuitive Eating: Make it a Family Affair

Many of the eating behaviors that you are trying to change have likely been behaviors and habits you learned while growing up through your childhood. Statements such as “you can’t leave the table until you clean your plate” or “clean your room and we will go for ice cream” puts food in the category of either punishment or reward. It is so important to think about how these statements mold your children’s thoughts and beliefs about food.

It’s very important to me, as a mom of 4 children and 1 grandchild, to help my family respect their individual food preferences and inner signals of hunger and satiety. They need not eat what they don’t like, nor should they eat when they are not hungry or continue eating when they reach satiety. That doesn’t mean, by the way, that I don’t ask them to be open minded and taste a food that they “think” they won’t like, or that they didn’t like years ago. Tastes change, especially in growing children.

Let me share a story with you. Last week we were eating a family dinner. My youngest daughter (11 years old) stopped eating and put her fork down. There was a little food left on her plate (I think it was potatoes) and my husband asked her why she didn’t finish. She said that she’s no longer hungry and that she had enough. She looked at me when she said it, as if to say “mom, aren’t you proud?!” Yes, indeed, I was beaming. I quickly said that I will put away what she left over and she can eat it tomorrow. This was important as my husband doesn’t like to waste food and as long as he realizes I wasn’t going to throw her food in the garbage, he didn’t say a word other than, “oh, okay”.

Practicing intuitive eating should be a family affair. In this way, your kids will grow up with a healthy attitude towards food, their mind and their body.

Your turn to take action: Please share in the comments below one of your dinner table stories depicting intuitive eating.

My Experience with Comfortable Satiety

When working with my clients, it is often hard for them to identify what comfortable satiety feels like. This is truly understandable. If you have been eating mindlessly and/or cleaning the plate without consideration if you’ve even had enough (“how can I leave food over, I’m entitled to eat this amount on my diet?”), then that would partly explain why this part of your journey might be difficult.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I have incorporated intuitive eating into my own life. I want to share an experience with you that I had yesterday when I was eating lunch.

I identified that I was “gently hungry” and decided to take my lunch break. I remembered that I had some soup left over in the fridge from dinner the night before, that I did not eat but that my family raved about. While the soup was heating up, I prepared my sandwich, which is what I often eat for lunch.

I sat at the kitchen table, took a deep breath to center myself, and began eating my soup. Yum, it was truly delicious. The texture of the vegetables, the flavor of the spices, and the temperature really hit the spot. I noticed the trees and the sunshine out my bay window (it was a nicer day yesterday than today…brrr, its cold today).

I finished the soup, rested a moment to check in with my stomach. I felt good, but was still slightly hungry so I picked up half my sandwich. I ate focusing on each bite. It too, was delicious. After I finished the half sandwich, I once again checked in with myself. I was feeling content. I didn’t need to eat the other half of the sandwich. My son had left me a small bowl of 4 peeled grapefruit sections with a note “Enjoy, Ma, Love Jason”. How sweet. He knows how I love grapefruit sections.

At this point, I decided to wrap up the other half of the sandwich and finish off my meal with the 4 grapefruit sections. What a wonderful experience. I was being intuitive, listening to my body, and being mindful. And I enjoyed every bite.

Now it’s your turn to take action: Tune into your internal signals at mealtime, and share your experience in the comments below.

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