Reaching your health & fitness goals will require you to summon the inner nerd and try some self experimentation to discover the specific strategies that will help you improve your relationship with food, get healthier and feel comfortable with your newly, modified self (1).
Here are 3 strategies that may help:
1. Get curious with food
A lot of convenience & processed foods are designed specifically so they can be overeaten.
These types of food can be easily chewed, swallowed & can be eaten very quickly.
As an experiment, see how long it takes to chew an unprocessed food (fruit, vegetable, wholegrain, animal product etc.) vs something that is processed and note the sensation you feel in your stomach after eating it.
Do this with new foods in addition to those you enjoy. This way you can start finding out what your really like and dislike.
2. Look out for troublesome behaviour patterns
Many things drive us to eat.
Different events, emotions & situations that cause us to create patterns with food that are engraved for life.
For instance, sometimes you are going to want to make sure you don’t end up doing the 3 D’s:
Dive, Dig & Demolish.
‘Oh the Krispy Kreme box is out, I’m diving in head first.’
‘You’ve had a crap day so you’re digging into a large dominoes and that Ben & Jerry’s is defo’s getting demolished.’
And similarly, if we are tired or happy, busy or mad food may be the last thing on your mind.
Assess these habits and find ways to retrain yourself to change the outcomes of these situations in favour of your aims.
This is where coaching can really help (un-shameful plug – Book yourself in for a consultation – plenty more to come).
3. Learn to moderate by creating your own boundaries.
Failed at adopting a healthy diet before because you we’re too rigid?
Let yourself go once you went balls deep in some cookies?
Or are you able to have the slice of pizza and move on?
The all or nothing, black & white mentality people have, are at the core issues of the diet culture. The same diet culture that will divide those into those ‘on diet’s versus those ‘who aren’t’.
Division & conquering of your food choices, health & mind.
And what are those who are ‘on it’ doing?
Ketoing, low-carbin’, juicing (not juice fruits/veg), shaking & plenty of cold chicken in plastic.
Yes, we all need a kick up the butt to get going but once we’re cruising, maintaining & gaining we can stick on cruise control and if we need to slow down for a short while because there’s traffic, no biggie.
Don’t mind putting on the brakes to take a break from ‘dieting’?
This is where you learn to sometimes say yes to the cookie or no to the chips.
Yes to the beer but no to the late night.
As you head towards your goal or once you’re there (unless you’re on a really tight outcome schedule, going into competition or an extreme ‘restrictor type’) then this should be on your nutrition coaching menu (2).
Any good coach/program will teach you how to do that.
If they or it, are not, sack them off and hire or buy a program that will teach you what matters as well as how to get there & keep it.
Again, when you’re ready: you know what to do!
(Because of course you want to know what a ‘restrictor type is’) 😉
(Only apply if you're truly ready to haul ass and get into the best, strongest, healthiest version of yourself).
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5803575/
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