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!

It it that some foods are bad for us or simply just not good for us?

I had an interesting conversation today with a cook. The cook wondered how we can know specific foods are bad for us, her thoughts being that unless we just eat or drink only one particular thing each day how can we know which of the things that have gone into our body are not good for us?

Interesting question.

How do you know what your body likes/dislikes?

By listening to it of course!

When you listen to your body you become aware of your body’s needs, likes & dislikes, you learn what is good for it and what is not.

The conversation continued to certain foods that are known to be less healthy for us for example white bread and pasta and here the conversation turned to the question - is it that this food is BAD for us or just NOT GOOD for us?
And what’s the difference?

It is certainly not good nutritionally as this kind of ‘food’ has been stripped of all the nutrients…and so does it follow therefore that this food is bad for us?
I think that it depends on each persons body and toleration level and whether you are getting the nutrition you need from else where or relying solely on this processed ‘food’ under the illusion that because it is edible it is food and therefore good for you.

What saddened me about this conversation, was her attitude to her own health in that she would look to change her diet, if and when she had to as a result of ill-health. I find this attitude most common with people in the west, that they will continue to put into their bodies what they like to eat judged by taste and look rather than by quality and contribution to the health of the body. In the western world, in the so called developed world, we seem to have lost the meaning of food, we have lost the primary reason why we eat – to sustain our life not to gratify our senses. This saddens me and encourages me to continue with working with people on conscious eating. For every person I can support, maybe they can support/encourage/influence at least one more.

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.

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.