So your ready to start changing your eating habits but wondering where to start. Eating healthy can seem overwhelming in the beginning but starting with 2 simple habits can help to overhaul the way that you eat and you don’t even have to even change the food that you are eating to start. Say that again Ashlee…yep that’s right you don’t have to change what food you are eating. No cleaning out your cupboards, no ditching the less healthier foods, no making different meals for you and your kids, none of that…it can be more simple than that. Are you ready…
Step 1, eat when you are hungry. Step 2, eat until you’re about 80% full instead of stuffed. Okay…to be honest it seems so simple when you write it as two sentences like that, and I do realize that it’s not quite that simple.
Both of these two habits tune into the your hunger and fullness cues. It sounds simple right…you eat when you’re hungry and stop when your satisfied not stuffed…but when we are constantly on the go we start to lose our ability to notice these cues. Think about sitting down in front of the TV with a bag of chips for example. When you grabbed them you likely weren’t intending to eat the whole bag, but all of a sudden your show is over and you realize that’s exactly what you did. It takes some practice and some effort to re-learn these skills but once you do you can change your nutrition practices without having to change the foods that you are eating. There are going to be some days when you will need more nutrition and there will be days when you need less. This will depend on a lot of things but mostly how active you are in any given day. When you depend on how hungry and full you are your food intake will adjust to this energy output naturally. No counting calories, no food diary’s or tracking apps and no food measuring devices.
Habit 1: Eat When You Are Hungry
When was the last time you ate because you were truly hungry? Do you eat at 12:00PM each day cause that’s lunchtime or because you’re hungry. Do you eat dinner at 6:00PM because that’s what time you get dinner on the table after work or is it because you’re hungry? Do you have your 2:00PM snack because your looking for an afternoon pick me up or because you’re hungry. You get the picture…I know for myself sometimes I can’t always honour my hunger cues. Sometimes there are small windows of opportunities to eat at work and you have to take those so I do understand that there are extenuating circumstances, however waiting until your stomach is actually growling to eat allows you to experience true hunger before eating. Not sure if you are actually hungry? Try asking yourself if you are hungry enough to eat a chicken breast and a side of steamed vegetables. If you can’t answer yes to this then you may be experiencing appetite instead of true hunger. Appetite is created from your mind…generally when something sounds appealing to eat even if your body isn’t looking for food and fuel. Think you might be experiencing appetite instead of true hunger…try waiting 15 minutes and then re-evaluate the situation. Appetite will generally pass but hunger won’t go away.
Habit 2: Eat Until You’re 80% Full
Eating until you’re 80% full or satisfied and not stuffed will require you to slow down and to tune into how your body is feeling. This is generally the harder part because we are often eating while we are watching TV, working or scrolling social media all of which are distractions and cause us to tune out. When you are distracted with these things your body tends not to hear the cues saying that you are getting full (remember the whole bag of chips example). Getting rid of these distractions will help you tune into how your body is feeling and will make it easier over time to notice the cues your body sends you when you are getting full.
We also are usually eating on the go or rushing through eating which doesn’t give us the opportunity to slow down and listen to our body telling us that we are getting full. It also doesn’t give our brains time to even register the fact that we are full. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register that you’ve had enough food…when was the last time that you spent more than 20 minutes eating your lunch at work…I know for me work is probably the worst one…I don’t ever take a full 20-30 minutes to eat my lunch at work. Trying to slow your eating down? How about setting your utensils down between each bite of food and make sure that you chew each bit thoroughly and swallow it before picking up your next bite. Try setting a timer and enlist your friends and family to help you out and focus on slowing down.
Taking the time to eat when we are truly hungry and to stop when we are satisfied seems like such a very simple concept and yet many of us have been tuning these cues out for years. It will take some time and will require some practice to get back into listening to your body cues but once you do you will start eating better portion sizes for your energy output and you will feel better as well. Have other questions about healthy nutrition tips? Reach out here and I would love to chat with you about them!
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