Take control of your eating, lose weight and boost your energy
Let’s cut through the lies and come out and say it. If you are overweight it’s because you consumed more calories than your body needs. That’s a fact but it’s also sort of useless information if you are trying to stop over consuming your calories. It’s like telling someone the reason they are drowning is because they are in a lake and can’t swim… “oh now you tell me (jerk!)” tell me something I don’t know.
Knowing that you over eat your calories won’t change anything. Becoming aware of the factors that lead you to over eat will. For a very small percentage of my clients, I can simply help them become aware of how much they are eating and they can naturally lower their portions and lose weight quickly. But for most of us, it’s not that easy, there are other factors in play including why you eat and what you eat that play a role and getting to the bottom of those factors are important. But one question about eating seems to get left out like the geek in school who is always “there” but no one pays any attention to. Funny how those are the ones that grow up and become the “Bill Gates” of the world. (Successful on a world class scale)
The question that I am eluding to is “How do you eat?” The very nature of how you go about your eating behavior has the power to change the what, why and how much you eat. So maybe it’s time to start focusing on making changes to how you eat and start making true lasting results. Here are 4 simple ways to do that.
1. Meal planning
– Become proactive with your eating by having a meal plan. It starts with a plan of what meals you are going to eat for that day or week and building out a groceries list to get what you need for the plan. I suggest to start planning just a few meals each week (maybe just breakfasts to start). You can build from there and as you practice this you will get better at what and how much you need to buy. To make this a habit simple review your plan each day and check mark if you are on plan or “x” if you are off. Aim for 90% check marks before adding more meals to your plan.
2. Eat slowly and mindfully until satisfied
– Stop racing to see who can eat faster you or the dog. Slow down gosh darn it! It takes your body time (15-20mins) to sense fullness. Now I don’t know about you but I know I can sure as hell chow down a lot of food in that time span. By slowing down and learning to listen and stop when you are satisfied and not stuffed (think 80% fullness) you can naturally eat fewer calories. In fact this one habit has served me well for years even when my eating isn’t the healthiest I practice this as much as I can and when I do i’m successful and when I don’t… well lets just say it’s a tie between me and my dog, the only difference is he has no choice in his portions. The bonus to this also comes from being able to savour each bite, enjoying the taste and texture of your food. You’ll be amazed at how your palette for junk food diminishes.
3. Change your environment
– Perhaps the easiest way to eat better is the change up your environment so you have fewer options and temptations. Make home a “safe” place to eat by keeping tempting foods away, instead of eating in front of the T.V. eat at the dinner table, eat on smaller plates, take a different route to work if you can’t help but go through the drive through for breakfast and order the high sugar, high fat, high calories meal. Eat your lunch at work in a place that’s quiet and away from the desk (I know that’s a tough one). In any case become aware of the environment that you are eating in and the choices you make with your eating, seek to change up any situation that commonly causes poor decisions.
4. Change the routine
– Over eating calories can stem from not eating enough… for most the day anyways until you catch up with the lick sip nibbles and bites through the day and a giant dinner after little to no breakfast and a fast food lunch. Instead change your meal frequency in a way that gives you energy, satiety and eliminates that low energy but starved feeling you have by the time you get home from yet another stressful day at work. Another way to change the routine is make a habit of going for a 10minute walk before each meal, it’s amazing what that can do for the psyche and the decisions you make while eating, but don’t take my word for it, give it a try for two weeks straight.
Taking control of how you eat is such a game changer. The confidence you get from actually being in control of your eating can cause you to make better food quality choices, eat fewer calories and even get emotional eating under-control. Now I know I just gave you a bunch of tiny actions you can take. I don’t want you to get overwhelmed and try all of them at once. Instead pick one thing to do and move forward. If it was my choice without knowing your specific situation I would suggest start with the meal planning but go in with the mindset of it being an experiment in which you can learn about what works for you. From there your experiment will reveal what other factors of how to eat will work for you. Give it a try, let me know how it goes, and if you need help along the way, I am here to help.