Nutrition and Weight Loss

We all have our own weaknesses when it comes to food. The late night snack, the mindless eating, closet eating or sweet tooth. These bad food habits are often times not realized unless made aware and like all habits….are difficult to change. Today I am going to highlight some common bad habits and some good solutions to help over come them. When you find yourself doing hourly inventory in the pantry just to see if there’s anything new to eat, you don’t have to grab a bag of chips and make a poor choice to compound a bad habit.

Super Sonic Speed

I am going to start here not because it is the most critical or even most common bad habit but because it’s an easy fix. We are a society that doesn’t know how to slow down. At my worst moments in my journey, I would often times find myself eating at my desk in less than 10 minutes just so I could see the next patient. Eating too quickly can cause problems for several reasons.

• Doesn’t give time to send satiety (full feeling) signal from stomach to brain which can cause over eating
• tends to cause bloating and belching because you swallow more air
• interferes with digestion and absorption because of improperly chewed large food particles

Step Wise Tip

Try this:

• chew completely before you swallow
• takes sips of water or low calorie beverage between bites or every other bite
• put your fork or spoon down while chewing (put food down between bites if applicable)
• take smaller bites

Liquid Calories

There’s nothing I used to love more than a cold caffeinated high fructose beverage. I mean we were both “Drs”, right? Despite our many good times, our relationship grew toxic and I had to file for divorce. There aren’t too many choices worse than drinking sugar filled beverages. Even a single 12 once can of your average soda beverage will cost you 150 calories and 40 grams of sugar. 40 grams of added sugar is about 80% of the 50g of added sugar intake recommended by the World Health Organization based of a 2000 calorie diet.

Sweet beverages can wreck havoc on healthy eating. If you consume a moderate amount of these daily, you would be surprised at how quickly you would lose weight if you improved this habit alone. Let’s say you drink two 20oz. sodas per day. This is 480 calories and a whopping 130 grams of added sugar PER DAY. Doing the math of 480*7 (3,360 calories) and a pound is classical defined as 3500 calories per week, if you stopped this habit you could lose nearly 4 lbs per month!

Step Wise Tips

Try This:

• decrease your soda consumption by half each week by choosing a healthy alternative
• switch to diet (controversy alert) as you wean off and than ditch the habit all together
• drink more water or a fruit infused water
• drink a low calorie, zero sugar powder drink. my favorite alternative is Crystal Light with caffeine.

Zombie Food Hunt

Back to taking inventory of the pantry… It’s 2pm on a Saturday and you had a sensible, yet filling lunch at 1230 and now you find yourself at the pantry door searching for something… anything. You’re not hungry, You’re bored. We all do this from time to time and some do it more than others. While it is a bad habit, a poor choice does not have to be made. Recognizing your mindless zombie rummages is the first step.

Step Wise Tip

Try this:

• Pause and count to twenty before deciding to eat anything
• If you choose to eat something, pick a low calorie healthy snack like almonds, cheese, Greek yogurt or beef jer
• stay away from processed snacks like potato chips, candy, sweet and salty treats

In Your Feelings Buffet

Maybe you haven’t made the connection of emotional eating for yourself but this is an extremely common habit and it is sometimes difficult to recognize. The problem is not necessarily food, its the relationship we have with food. If food is the BFF your turn to to for all your emotional support then it’s time to get a new BFF.

Signs of emotional eating

• Urgency or need to eat that comes on rapidly (true hunger builds over time)
• Have cravings or urges to a particular type of food ie chocolate, cake, french fries, ice cream
• eating as a result of a mood. ie You have a stressful down so you wide down with chips and a soda
• eating at unusual times during the day (the bored Zombie Food Hunt is a type of emotional eating)

Step Wise Tips

Try this

• See if you recognize any of of these patterns to your own eating patterns
• Try to Pause and think before you eat
• Try to pick a healthier choose as you work to change
• If you are an emotional eater you may have an underlying mental health problem that you are self treating with food. Talk to you primary doctor or a counselor about what might be the real issue

Foreign Table

Often times we find ourselves eating out of our homes more than we eat in them. While it is fantastic to share a meal with our families in a restaurant, it is too easy to make poor nutritional choices while eating out. Even the “healthier” choices are no substitute for the controlled cooking environment found in your own kitchen. Now I have been down “the out to eat street” before. In fact, last year I was routinely eating out 4-5 days a week, twice a day. Besides being incredibly expensive, it was turning into a growing problem…me. Even if I didn’t eat at the restaurant, I would pick up some wings or pizza or pasta and eat it in my living room while watching TV.

Flash forward to today and I may eat out about twice a week and I generally pick a place that has healthier choices like hearty soups and salads. The bottom line for me was knowing I wanted to be healthier but always finding excuses why I couldn’t cook at home. Not enough time. I don’t know how to cook. It’s too expensive to eat healthy.

When I put the excuses away, I found that cooking does not take that much more time, I actually can cook simple healthy things, and it’s actually cheaper to eat healthy at home.

Step Wise Tips

Try this

• Set a goal number of days you will limit going out to eat and stick to eat
• Look for ready made meals if time is a factor
• Look for slightly to non processed meals
• Get your partner on bored with cooking and come up with healthy meals you both like

Like I said we all have our bad habits. Let’s work to make good choices while we are overcoming them.