5 December 2011
Hey!
I’m headed to a wedding in the Dominican Republic in a couple days — that sounds nonchalant, but it’s actually a big deal. I’m PSYCHED! — so the blog is getting a little vacation too.
Here are some vacation-related posts for your perusal while I’m gone:
Four Ways to Have a Healthier Vacation
Can I Take a Diet and Exercise Vacation?
My Florida Vacation in Food
Nutritionista in Traverse City
My 10 Favorite Things I Ate in NYC
Nutritionista-fy Your Trip
My Favorite Buenos Aires Restaurants
I’ll be back next Wednesday with normal Nutritionista programming. If you’ve emailed me in the past couple weeks, please forgive my non-response. I haven’t forgotten!
17 November 2011
For this month’s Health with Intention post on MML, I’m taking you through an exercise I mentioned in my review of The End of Overeating. The book inspired me to make a thoughtful list of foods I’m just not that into; foods which inspire me to say “meh.”
You know how sometimes you “forget” that you don’t really like a food when you’re hungry? Or when that food is right in front of you? I’ve found that a lot of people (myself included) don’t really know which foods they’re just not that into. I’m going to tell you about an exercise that will help you figure out which foods you don’t really enjoy.
First, start by making a list of foods you HATE. You know the ones I mean — foods you wouldn’t eat even if someone paid you. Those are the easy ones because you’ve probably disliked them all your life. There are only a few foods like that on my list (Brussels sprouts is the main one).
Then, move on to foods you just don’t really enjoy. You can tolerate them, but after you eat them, you don’t think, “Wow, I’m SO glad I ate that.” It’s more like, “Meh, that was just okay.” Often, those foods aren’t really worth eating! This is the difficult part of the exercise, but if you’re like me, you’ll find that once you get going, it becomes easy. Just think of any food you’ve eaten in the past week that wasn’t very satisfying and didn’t give you much pleasure. It’s okay if you can’t think of many, but make it a point to pay attention in the future. While you’re eating a food you know you don’t absolutely adore, ask yourself if this food falls into the “SO Glad I Ate That” category or the “Disappointing” category.
To inspire you, I’m going to share a portion of my “foods I’m just not that into” list with you.
See the list of foods I’M just not that into and read the full post on Makeunder My Life!
11 November 2011
I thought I’d knock out part two while the book is still fresh in my mind. If you missed part one of my review of David Kessler’s The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the American Appetite, definitely read it before you read this post!
Anyway, back to this book:
Now we know the combo of salt, fat, and sugar is addicting (frighteningly so) and leads to conditioned hypereating. But what can we do about it? What should we do if we’re already addicted, as I suspect so many of us are? Here’s what Kessler says:
- Learn new habits that are rewarding enough to keep you from engaging in the old ones. Try competing behaviors and visualize them before you encounter a problematic situation. For example, visualize yourself getting home from work and doing something other than going straight to the fridge (taking a walk, folding your laundry, whatever).
- Plan your response when you encounter foods that aren’t really a part of your diet (or foods you don’t want to be a part of your diet). These types of planned responses (“rules,” but I hate that word) will help you develop a context for your new behaviors, rather than just depending on “willpower” (hate that word too).
- The more you do it, the easier it will become. That’s because your brain is creating new neuropathways.
- Understand why you don’t want to eat certain foods. Create a script with things like, “This is what will happen if I eat X…”
- Create a way of eating that’s simple enough to fit with your busy life, but specific enough to remove uncertainty from the food equation.
- Practice “just-right” eating. Figure out exactly how much food you need to be satisfied (not full). Consider taking a break after you’re halfway done with your meal to truly assess whether you’re still hungry. Do this again when you’ve eaten 3/4 of the meal.
- Choose satisfying, real foods — and foods you actually enjoy.
- Make a decision quickly! The longer you spend debating “should I or shouldn’t I?” when it comes to food, the more time your brain is occupied thinking about food. Kessler says you’ve lost the battle as soon as you start debating.
And here are a few things I’d add:
- Make a list of foods that you don’t hate, but that aren’t ever as good as you expect them to be. A good litmus test is, “Am I happy I ate this?” (from an enjoyment standpoint, not a caloric or health standpoint). I did this exercise the other day, and it was so eye-opening! Who knew I didn’t really like flour tortillas or juice? If you’re drawn to something on this list, you need to remind yourself that you really don’t love it! Sticking to the goal of only eating things you truly enjoy, you’d probably be able to refrain from eating it. More on this in another post!
- Similarly, make a list of foods you LOVE, always. Meaning, you’re always glad you ate them afterward. Use this list to decide when it makes sense to indulge.
- Practice intuitive eating by getting in touch with your body. I think foods high in that lethal combo of fat, sugar, and salt numb your body’s ability to tell you when it’s full. Eliminating as many of those from your diet as you can will help you get back in touch with your body. Somewhere, deep down, your body knows when it’s satisfied, even if YOU don’t.
- Get professional support if you need it. Never underestimate the power of having someone to be accountable to. That’s the main premise of YNC.
Kessler points out again and again that it’s HARD to break the addiction from salt, sugar, and fat — I agree! Don’t beat yourself up when things don’t go perfectly (definitely don’t slash all your tires). Be patient with yourself and give yourself credit for trying to break an addiction that has so many people in its grips.
Theoretically, I think junk food and chain restaurant food is gross. But give me a bag of Doritos and I’ll be singing a different tune. Those puppies are FINE-TUNED to be addicting, I’m telling you. Just knowing that fact will probably help me turn down a neon orange chip in the future. I feel like it’s just a trick; the food industry’s little game they’re playing with people’s tastebuds and health. Not that Doritos are the enemy — food definitely ISN’T the enemy. It’s the food industry and your own addicted body that are to blame.
So remember that the food industry is trying to get you hooked, and that the chemicals in their food are designed to make you want to eat more. Hopefully it will help you reach for whole foods and foods you truly enjoy in the future!
9 November 2011
So, for some reason, I’m still subscribed to Glamour. I never read it, and really have no desire to. I think I just outgrew the magazine and its concerns (“Eyeshadow creasing is ruining my life!” is an actual quote from the latest issue). It tends to make me feel like if I’m not buying $250 boots, I’m making poor life decisions. I’ve just been too lazy to figure out how to cancel my subscription, which I’ve probably had for three or four years.
Recently, Ashley mentioned a somewhat controversial article on something called the “Snob Diet” from the December issue. Intrigued, I searched for the article online unsuccessfully before I remembered I actually get Glamour.
From what I can tell, the “Snob Diet” is sort of like the concept behind French Women Don’t Get Fat: eat small portions of “upscale,” decadent, full-fat food and you’ll be more satisfied and lose weight. The principles of the diet:
- Choose high-quality food
- Enjoy that food
- Don’t deny cravings
- If it’s not truly delicious, don’t eat it
Okay, I’m fine with all of those concepts. In fact, they mirror many of my own previous posts, and the ideas behind intuitive eating. We all know I hate diet food, love fat, and think you should spend as much money on groceries as you feel you comfortably can given your budget.
But I take issue with a few of Glamour’s basic assumptions that everyone has the time/mental energy, to make a homemade omelet for breakfast, a homemade salad and brownie for lunch, and homemade pot roast for dinner (or something along those lines).
Sometimes, you have five minutes to grab breakfast on the way to work. Sometimes, you don’t get home until 8:30, an the idea of even thinking about a pot roast is just out of the question.
So while I’m 100% behind the principles of the Snob Diet, I’m not sure it would be feasible for many people. There are real, satisfying foods that don’t require a week’s worth of menu planning. Given Glamour’s suggestions above, here’s how I’d modify the Snob Diet to fit a busy/stressed person’s lifestyle.
- Breakfast: a couple pre-made hard-boiled eggs (either make ‘em the night before or buy ‘em) and an apple
- Snack: handful of trail mix (dried fruit and nuts)
- Lunch: Chipotle steak or chicken salad (or similar)
- Snack: piece of your favorite cheese and baby carrots
- Dinner: pre-cooked chicken sausage and baby spinach microwaved with a little butter (just zap the sausage in the microwave with the spinach)
- Dessert: berries in a little cream
None of the things on my menu take more than five minutes to throw together, but they’re all real, satisfying foods.
If you have the time to make pot roast and omelets, by all means, DO IT. Sometimes I have time, and sometimes I don’t, but I need to have options. Most people need to have options.
What I do agree with? The quote at the end of the article from a dietitian: “No one’s investing millions into making women want cave-aged cheese and shiitake mushrooms. Instead, 10,000 new diet products are marketed heavily each year.” Word.
14 October 2011
Contributor Post
Intuitive eating is one of those things that’s SO much easier said than done. Nutritionista contributor Ella Q. wants to help you get started. Read on for 10 things you can start doing right now to eat more intuitively.
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