Mini Healthy Eating Guide
Do you find yourself unable to stop eating certain foods once you’re begun? Hello compulsive eating!
For some it’s sweets, may be chocolate. For others, candy is no problem, but put a loaf of hot French bread in front of them and it will disappear before your eyes.
Compulsive eating can easily become compulsive dieters, and you want to avoid that syndrome. But if you recognize that you are drawn strongly to certain foods, you can make those foods your allies rather than your enemies.
How? Well, if you must eat that chocolate-chip cookie, work it into your diet. For example, if I love chocolate-chip cookies, I know that any diet I undertake must include them. I choose to eliminate other foods in order to fit them in. You can do the same with your favourite foods. If you include “passion” foods in your diet, you will still be successful in losing pounds.
Steps to Change the Way You Eat
-When you eat, make it a pure experience: no TV, no reading, no other distractions.
-Eat only in the dining room; never in the kitchen where food is being prepared.
-Eat nothing while you’re not sitting down.
-Eat slowly. Put down your fork mouthfuls.
-Savour every bite (especially when there are fewer bites)
– While you are on a diet, avoid all parties and restaurants. These are environments where you can too easily be tempted to lose control.
– Do your supermarketing with a shopping list. Buy only the items on your list. Don’t make any impulse purchases.
– Never go grocery shopping when you are hungry. The best time to shop is after breakfast or lunch.
Smart Food Planning
1. Plan ahead: determine the number of cookies, pretzels, pieces of anything, you will eat.
2. Plan all snacks (carry them with you if possible).
3. If substitutes are not available for your day’s plan, don’t eat anything. Wait until you can eat those foods you planned for.
4. Keep low – or no-calorie “free foods” snacks in the fridge for easy grabbing.
5. Always leave something on your plate.
6. Learn to identify your hungry times versus your non-hungry times. (There must be ten minutes in a day when you aren’t hungry.) Have “emergency” snacks to eat at these times, but never eat if you aren’t hungry.
7. Do your eating publicly: don’t be a closet eater. Even if it means bringing those candy bars out of your pocket. Eat them in public.
8. Reward yourself with non-food prized: have your hair done when you’ve lost some weight, buy a dress, a new tie, go to a movie, take a bubble bath, etc.
A Few Words About Food Preparation
1. Try to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. If you can get someone else to prepare the food for you, better still.
2. All foods are prepared as simply as possible. All meats (including poultry and fish) are to be broiled, baked or poached, with little or no added fat. All vegetables are either steamed, baked or boiled.
3. Again, no fat.
4. Wherever possible use pots and pans that are coated with non-stick surfaces. This will enable you to add the very minimum of additional fat while cooking.
5. If you are preparing poultry, you may cook it with the skin on, but remove the skin before eating. All fat on any meat or poultry should be trimmed well before cooking.
6. If you don’t know what is in your plate, don’t eat it. That eliminates foods drowning in sauces, most casseroles and all other foods you can’t easily identify.