Healthy Eating Habits

Introducing Healthy Lifestyle Habits


Habits cannot simply be dropped they have to be replaced by something else so if you find yourself simply wanting to not do something anymore think what can I replace it with?

Habits take about 30 days to change so you need to practice persistence. If you are finding it difficult to change the habit then there is something deeper like an unmet need or limiting belief that you haven’t yet identify, however you don’t need to wait until it is identified to move forward – changing your habit and replacing it with a more supportive and healthy one will simply be initially, a change of behaviour rather than a shift.

Practice lovingly letting go of your old habits when they appear. Acknowledge how they have supported you up until now. Embrace the choice you are now making to let go and do things differently knowing that the old way is always there if you wish to choose it.

I am your constant companion.
I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.

Half of the things you do you might as well turn over to me
And I will do them – quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed – you must be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want something done and
After a few lessons, I will do it automatically.
I am the servant of great people, and alas, of all failures as well.
Those who are great, I have made great,
Those who are failures, I have made failures.

I am not a machine though I work with the precision of a machine
Plus the intelligence of a person.
You may run me for profit or run me for ruin –
It makes no difference to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and
I will place the world at your feet.
Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who am I?
I am a habit.

- Businesssuccessbuilder.com

Sensory Eating

Do you Eat with your senses or sense what you're eating?

Do you choose your food based on what your body needs & wants and what you know will keep you healthy and then when eating it really see, taste, smell, touch and hear it or do you choose to eat someting based purely on what your eyes/nose/tongue are saying to you - ie because it looks, smells, tastes appealing?

Big fast food and soda companies spend large amounts of money on their advertising campaigns appealing to our senses knowing that many people will be attracted to their product because of it's sensory appeal.

How often, when watching television, reading magazines do you come across adverts and then suddenly think 'I fancy some....' and go to the fridge and get something to eat or drink?

How many times have you actually stopped to think am I hungry/thirsty? Do I really want this? ...and more importantly, what is the qualily of this so called 'foodstuff', is it healthy for my body or might it actually, in the long term, cause some harm?

Further to this, how many times do you find yourself eating more than your body actually needs or wants simply because you like the look or taste of something?

Sensory Eating is I believe, like a two sided coin, one side is eating consciously, using each of your senses to savour and enjoy your food, with the other side making your food choice based solely on one or more of your senses. Which do you do?

So here's my challenges to you,

1. Next time you notice that you 'fancy' a specific food whilst seeing it in an advert, stop and think for a minute about what is really going on for you? Why is it that you have a sudden desire for this? What is it that is making it so attractive right now?
2. Over the next week, choose one specific meal per day and consciously eat it using your senses. What do you notice?

Hunger Versus Craving

Hunger V Craving

Whilst both hunger and food cravings are caused by the release of certain chemicals in our body, the chemicals and the process of their release are completely different.

Feelings of hunger are produced by the release of the hormone ghrelin when our blood sugar and insulin level drops, once we eat and these regulate, another hormone, leptin is released to suppress our appetite. Basically it is our body that is triggering the release of the hormones.

Cravings, on the other hand, are triggered more by the mind. They are much more complex and can be triggered through eating certain kinds of food, through sensory memories and through emotions.

Eating - Have you ever known anyone (other than pregnant women) to crave foods such as celery? Cravings through eating, result from eating sugary or fatty foods which release a chemical called opiods into our bloodstream which give feelings of pleasure. The more you eat the more you want.
Sensory memories - this ranges from memories stored deep in the brain from when we were in the womb, to seeing a picture of a chocolate cake or a Macdonald's advert in a magazine. Sensory memories trigger a part of the brain that releases the hormone dopamine, also producing a feel good factor that has been described as similar to that of a drug addiction in that the more you feed this craving the more you need to keep your craving at bay.
Emotions - Studies on mood have found that our emotional state normally has a greater impact on cravings than hunger [source: Hill 2007]. What this means is that there is a direct correlation between our emotions and our cravings. The hormone seratonin, also known as the 'happy hormone' is released in response to balanced emotions, supporting our continued emotional stability. If our mood is low or negative then the release of seratonin is restricted and the higher the chance of us having cravings, especially if our diet too is not particularly healthy.

So you can see from this small excerpt how complex and individual cravings are and how, more often than not, it is cravings that get in the way of people maintaining a diet or healthy eating regime, especially in the early stages.

Working with a Conscious Eating coach will give you the support to explore what is going on for you as a unique individual to empower you to make better choices.

5 tips on Dealing with Cravings

1. The more fat your body has the more cravings you are likely to experience, losing body fat will reduce the cravings.


2. Don't deprive yourself - a little of what you fancy, occasionally, will satisfy the craving.


3. Vary your diet - boredom and anxiety with what you're eating contributes to craving.


4. Less emotional stress and more balance in your life will not only reduce cravings but support you in maintaining a healthier diet.


5. There are many factors to cravings - each are unique to you as an individual, working with a coach to explore yours will empower you to make better choices.

Food Cravings

Late Night Munchies

Do you find that no matter how committed you are to healthy eating or weight loss diets, there's a specific time each evening that you get the 'munchies'?
...and that small square of chocolate or a cookie or two does nothing to alleviate this craving?
Have you really stopped to think about this or do you just accept that this is the way it is?
Because it doesn't have to be this way.

If you have eaten sufficient nourishment during the day then a need for food is not what this is about...it rarely is in our society.

What is happening is that there is some other need, some psychological/emotional need that is not being met and because that need is going un-noticed, un-acknowledged or even denied, it is seeping out like like water through a crack in a glass, and the more this need goes unmet, the emptier the glass gets, transforming itself into the dreaded 'munchies' or as is more commonly known in this profession as emotional eating or 'putting food on feelings'.

To get to the source of this need often takes some time and exploration but when you finally do acknowledge the true source of this need and take the appropriate steps to get it met then you will notice that the 'munchies' just disappear.