Choices
In this section: A Balanced Outlook, Proportionally Thinking, More or Less, Simple Steps and Cravings
Part 2 is about giving you additional tools and knowledge so you can make choices to support your new, healthier relationship with food.
By completing Part 1 you will have broken the cycle of compulsive and habitual eating and will have new feelings of control around food. You are able to choose what you really want to eat when you are physically hungry and stop when you are full.
Now you can build on your new positive relationship with food and maximise the nutritional benefit for wellbeing - helping you to feel and look great. This section is about giving you simple nutritional information to guide you towards making healthy choices and the means to make those preferences unconscious. That way, healthy eating will become a part of your normal day-to-day lifestyle.
Be sure to carry out the Actions, incorporate new suggestions into your focused thinking and listen to the accompanying recording. As before, the recording can be found at http://www.inside- outweightloss.com from the Client Area using password WL125a
A Balanced Outlook
Throughout Inside-Out Weight Loss I refer to respecting your body’s naturally balanced state. Being able to maintain this naturally balanced state requires us to give ourselves what we need mentally and physically and eliminate factors that upset the balance.
In Part 1 you have already re-set your emotional balance, learnt to recalibrate and respond to your physical signals and developed effective ways to deal with external factors that impact on your internal balance.
You will probably be aware of the fact that eating or lacking certain types of food can also upset your internal balance. Sometimes the physical symptoms of imbalance can be quite dramatic (pain, bloating, skin breakouts etc.), but other symptoms of imbalance can manifest as irritability, tiredness, low mood or energy and a general negative impact on wellbeing.
Some of the more extreme diets that restrict food groups or focus on only particular types of food have such dramatic physical and emotional side effects that it is no wonder that hardly anyone can endure them for long.
My advice is to respect your body’s naturally balanced state - how it was designed to be- and eat a balanced range of foods from all of the food groups. Eating a broad range of foods will maximise your nutritional intake and therefore maximise the likelihood that you will get all the recommended levels of vitamins, minerals and macro nutrients (fats, carbohydrates and protein).
Proportionally thinking
Eating a balanced range of foods means balancing your intake in relation to what your body needs to stay healthy. The British FSA (Food Standards Agency) and American USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) both recommend a diet high in vegetables and fruits (approx. one third of your intake) and starchy whole grain food (another third of your intake). The remaining proportion of your food intake is ideally split between protein and dairy foods.
Eating healthily can be very simple indeed - just remember to keep it simple! All of our food falls within 5 major food groups: vegetables, fruits, starchy foods (including grains), non-dairy protein and milk/ dairy products. My 3 golden rules for keeping healthy eating simple are:
More or Less
There are lots of myths around eating fats, carbs and protein and a lot of the ‘miracle diets’ are based on these myths. The truth is that eliminating entire macro-nutrients (fats, carbs and protein) from your diet can result in severe malnutrition and life threatening medical disorders.
Fats (and oils) are necessary for many processes in your body such as forming cell membranes, for nerve and brain function and in hormone formation. Fat is also necessary so your body can process vitamins A, E, D and K -essential for healthy skin, hair, eye sight, bones, blood and as anti-oxidants. However, not all fats are equal!
In general fats from animal meat and products (including most full fat milk products and cheese) is high in saturated fat that can be damaging to health if you have a lot of it. Fats in processed food such as pastries, cakes, cookies, biscuits etc. can be ‘trans-fats’ which are also damaging to your health if you consume a lot. On the other hand, fats found in oily fish, nuts, plant oils and seeds are beneficial to health (especially the omega 3 and 6 oils), and you can get all the necessary dietary fats requirements from them.
Carbohydrates (carbs) are the main source of energy in the body and come in many forms. If you deliberately restrict carbohydrates in your diet, your body eventually starts to use protein for energy and literally starts to eat your muscles - this is very dangerous and could result in a heart attack and death. The absorption and distribution of carbs around the body impacts on blood sugar levels giving you that boost and slump in energy and the cravings for certain foods. The carbohydrates that are converted to blood sugar more slowly to give a more stable source of energy are preferable to the ‘quick fix’ carbs which result in a ‘spike’ in energy followed by a dramatic slump.
The Glycaemic Index (GI) is how carbohydrates are classified in terms of how quickly they are processed and absorbed by the body. Foods that have a low GI contribute to more stable blood sugar levels (therefore minimising the spikes and slumps) and those with a high GI are digested more quickly, giving a quick energy boost but a rapid decrease in blood sugar shortly afterwards. Low GI foods make you feel full for longer and high GI foods will result in you feeling hungry again soon after eating.
A lot of the foods we buy in supermarkets have their GI rating indicated on the packaging, so it’s good to look for low GI foods. These include new potatoes, oats, pulses, wheat pasta, sweet potato, apples and oranges. High GI foods include white and whole meal bread, crackers, chips, cakes, biscuits and sweets. It’s a good idea to include a low GI food with every meal, as this will have an overall stabilising impact on your blood sugar levels.
Protein is essential to build cells and tissue and for many basic functions. If you don’t get enough protein in your diet (which is rare unless a very low carbohydrate diet results in protein deficiency), your body starts to digest the protein present in your muscles and other tissues. Too much protein intake will put a strain on your kidneys and if a significant amount of that excess protein comes from meat, it may contain a high level of saturated fat that could put you at risk of heart disease. Some low/no carb diets recommend a diet consisting mainly of protein - this is not healthy. Good sources of protein are - eggs, lean meat, poultry, soya beans, nuts, seeds and pulses. Red meat is also a good source of protein but can contain high levels of saturated fat so other sources of protein are preferable.
Simple Steps
Following these guidelines and the following simple steps will help stabilise your blood sugar and metabolism and contribute to a healthy, nutrition rich food intake aiding weight loss. You could copy out these steps and keep them in your kitchen to remind you. A down-loadable version of the Simple Steps is also available at http://www.inside-outweightloss.com/resources-and-downloads
Action! 14: Simple steps for healthy eating
Cravings
No matter how good our intentions and well balanced our diets are we all still have the occasional craving for something that we would prefer to be able to resist. Maybe it is chocolate, cake or chips -something you think is sabotaging your progress and intentions to sustain a healthy, nutrition rich lifestyle. Your body is shouting out for it, but your mind is saying ‘no’. You can help your mind to control your cravings and convince your body it doesn’t need it with a simple and very effective technique. Read the next Action carefully before you carry it out.
Action! 15: Banish Your Cravings
Decide on the food that you often have a craving for and want to eliminate from your diet (it’s important that this is something that you would be happy not to want to eat ever again).
Close your eyes and bring to mind what that food looks like, what it smells like what it tastes like, the texture of it in your mouth and the sensation you get when you chew and swallow it. Imagine eating a huge portion of it right now -experiencing all the sensations that go with it.
Open your eyes and think of something that you would really hate to eat - something that is disgusting to you - like dirt from the ground, the scum that lurks in the drains, a ball of dog hair or the contents of your vacuum cleaner. Or perhaps there is food that you find truly disgusting - one that you just can’t stomach. Close your eyes and bring that to mind now - imagine its appearance, texture and smell - see it on a plate in front of you, as if it were really there.
Now, keeping your eyes closed, imagine a combination of the food you crave and the food or thing you find disgusting. Imagine them mixing together - combining all the smells, textures and tastes. Imagine a huge plate of the mixture in front of you - the smell wafting all around you. See that mixture coming towards you now and imagine the taste as you put it in your mouth.
Make a chewing motion with your mouth as you experience the texture of that disgusting mixture in your mouth, as you can taste the disgusting taste and experience the disgusting smell as you try to swallow it. Perhaps you gag as it reaches your throat and you think about swallowing it.....
Now every time you think of the food you used to crave you can imagine the same sensations and tastes and find the thought of it truly disgusting!
(Another tip that people find useful is to go and clean your teeth when you are craving something - you will be surprised how having clean teeth and fresh, minty breath can stop that craving.)
Focused Thinking
You can add new suggestions to your focused thinking in the same way you did in Part 1. These suggestions can help you to make healthy choices when you are shopping, eating out, preparing meals at home and selecting snacks.
For example:
“each time I shop for food at the supermarket I visit the fruit and veg aisles first and enjoy the variety and choice of bright, vibrant, nutrition rich fruit and vegetables” - “I make most of my purchases single ingredient items (i.e. not pre-prepared packaged food- or foods with added ingredients) that I can use to prepare healthy meals”
“I ignore the aisles in the supermarket that are packed full of biscuits, crisps, sugary drinks and processed foods - knowing that in doing so I am respecting my body and its naturally balanced state”
“When I eat out, I make healthy choices from the menu. I choose nutrient dense meals to appreciate natural flavours and good quality food”
“I prepare nutritious food at home for myself and my family. I enjoy preparing a wide variety of healthy ingredients - combining flavours, aromas, colours and textures. I am doing the best for myself and my family by maximising the nutrition in the meals I prepare.”
The recording
Listen to the recording that accompanies this section regularly (from the Client Area of www.inside-outweightloss.com password WL125a). It supports what you have learnt and helps to make changes at an unconscious level to make them part of your normal day-to-day lifestyle.
Part 2 focused on developing a healthy approach to what you eat in order to make your choices high in nutrition. Good nutrition is vital to staying healthy, looking good and maintaining energy levels. Following the steps, carrying out the actions, incorporating suggestions into your focused thinking and listening to the recording will result in an enhanced, healthy relationship with food that supports your weight loss outcomes.
You can now move onto the third and final part, which will support you to incorporate activity into your lifestyle.