Does Eating Healthy Mean Deprivation?

In a simple word answer NO!

Depriving yourself of your favorite foods will only lead to cravings and binging. If you allow yourself a little of what you want when you have the desire then you are more likely to satisfy the desire and less likely to eat to excess.

Eating healthily is a part of self care and Self Care means being kind to yourself and finding a balance.

Would you continually deny a child ice-cream in the midst of summer?

Would you let them have one every time they ask (every hour!)

Just think how you would respond to a child and treat yourself the same way.

Buen proveche!

Treats - does it have to be food?

We had a conversation on one of my telecourses this week around food being used as a 'treat'. And as I was 'googling' an image for this blog, using the search field 'treat' all that came up were images of cakes and chocolates. I find this really interesting.

Why is it that when we think of rewarding or treating ourselves for something well done, it involves food?

As with everything in our life, our habits develop from an early age and the more unconscious our habits are then the more likelihood that the habit is very old...
Can you remember back to your childhood, to when you did something well or behaved in a manner that was judged as good? how were you rewarded? was it with food?

I remember quite often hearing the phrase 'if you're a good girl and be quiet I'll buy you chocolate' 'if you eat up all your dinner then you can have a desert'. Basically I was learning that sweet yummy things like chocolate and cake were 'rewards' for being a 'good little girl' - so it only follows that in my subconscious mind I am going to make this association, it might come up when I feel I have achieved something or even if I feel a failure - as a way of 'cheering me up'.

If you find that you reach for food to deal with your emotions wither positive or negative you might want to explore the childhood habits and family beliefs around this.

When you become aware of using food as a reward or treat I would like to invite you to sit, think and listen to your body for a few minutes before reaching for this food. Give yourself time to think what it is that you would really like as a treat.

Too busy to eat healthy

Do you find yourself using this reason for not eating healthy? That you are too busy. That it's easier to grab a sandwich or burger than to sit down with a salad.

I too used to use this reason for many years, I was way too busy in my job and then too tired when i got home however what i can now see is that by eating unhealthy was contributing to my tiredness. And when tired, can we really perform at our best? I now know that this was just an excuse not a reason - I actually just couldn't be bothered to prepare a meal just for me.

And what does 'couldn't be bothered' mean. It means not putting myself or my health first, it means not caring enough about myself. it means considering my job more important than me.

When we look at what's on offer with 'fast foods' today, we really cannot use this as an excuse anymore, there are many prewashed and pre cut salads available, there are many healthier versions of prepared foods. Whilst I am not an advocate any more of such 'tv dinners' as they contain far too much salt, and other unnecessary unhealthy extras, If you really do not have time to prepare your own meal then maybe you could consider some of the alternatives to bread & buns.

It's not so much that YOU are too busy rather than your thoughts are too busy to consider the healthier options.

If you're ready to challenge your beliefs and thoughts around healthy eating so that you can move forward with a diet that reflects who you really are then contact me, the Conscious Eating Coach for a sample session and lets see how much change you can make in your eating simply by changing your thoughts about eating.

Fad Diets versus Listening to YOUR Body

A friend brought me a copy of a blood group diet the other day for me to see what foods were recommended and what were thought detrimental to my particular blood group.
As a vegetarian, and someone who not only doesn’t eat meat but dislikes it intensely I was surprised to see that it recommended several kinds of meat including bunny rabbit! and scavenging bottom feeding seafood like prawns, whilst my staple breakfast of banana and almonds were not.

This, to me is just another reminder to listen to MY body and to not blindly listen to information published for profit by someone no matter what their qualifications.

There is much information out there and all sorts of ‘diets’, some that have been written by doctors and have been proved to be not only ineffective long term but detrimental to one’s health and are preying on the many people who are looking for the ‘miracle’ or ‘quick fix’ diet.

I’m not saying don’t use these, I’m just saying don’t take blindly, the information. Just because someone has letters after their name does not necessarily mean they have your best interest as heart – especially if what they are sharing with you means financial profit for them.

There is much healthy eating information published by organisations such as Heart Foundations, Cancer Research and the Nutritional Society who willingly share their information for free. Government websites for different countries also publish advice and information.

One thing for sure that you need to hear is that there are no ‘quick fixes’ so stop looking for them!

The only sure way is to listen to your body, get to understand what your body can tolerate and what it cannot and when it is full and when it is hungry and when you are eating for your body or eating because of your emotions. And learn a little about nutrition, about why sugars, most fats and refined products are so unhealthy and why raw, unprocessed foods are so good.

The only sure way to lose weight and feel healthy in your body is to make a PERMANENT change to your eating. This doesn’t mean depriving yourself of the occasional snack or your favourite food but eating these in moderation and teaching yourself to ‘like’ the foods that better support you.

Weekend eating Versus Weekday eating

After writing last Friday's blog on seasonal eating it left me thinking about how we can also often eat differently at weekends compared to during the week and so this is where my focus went this weekend.

Why should eating be any different or more difficult to control at different times of the day, week, month or year?

I have had several conversations on this topic over the past couple of months and the consensus seems to be that it is harder to stick to 'healthy eating' regimes at weekends because that's when the family get together - parents are usually not at work and kids not at school.

...But what about those of us who are single and still have this challenge of unhealthy or over eating at weekends?

...And what about those in employment where 'weekends' are not 'weekends', for example emergency services - fire/police ambulance, just to name a few. Even when I worked shifts, Sundays always seemed to be a day for 'pigging out' - in the summer it meant large quantities of icecream and in the winter cooked breakfast baguettes.

So this leaves me with the question - Is it the change of activities at weekends that causes the difficulty in maintaining 'diets' or healthy eating? or is this just the excuse we tell ourselves and in fact it is yet another limiting belief that we have 'hooked' into?

Usually our unhelpful habits are triggered by either a limiting belief, as mentioned above or an unmet need and what I actually identified for myself this past weekend is that my eating WAS emotional and triggered by unmet needs. Having become exceptionally busy over the past month except for weekends I now feel at a loss and alone especially on Sundays and as a way to compensate for these feelings yesterday, I overate. How interesting this was to witness and to do in full consciousness, knowing that I had a choice to go and find something else to do or someone to be with that would have taken me away from the need to emotionally eat. Yet I chose to eat unhealthily.

So my challenge to those of you who find weekends tough to maintain healthy eating is to spend sometime thinking and journalling and explore what is REALLY going on for you. Once you know the truth you will be empowered to change it, or not.