Diet Talk - Making Appropriate Food Choices

DIET TALK is a series of 56 topics addressing the psychological and social aspects of successful, long-term weight management. DIET TALK is based on my NPR series. This lecture addresses making appropriate food choices.

Transcript

Making Appropriate Food Choices Most of the intentional weight management approach is the result of my work with clients.

Each person who comes to me brings with them barriers to weight management that are universal while being manifested in a personal manner.

Over the years I have seen patterns and continuity of issues.

It is these patterns and issues and their physical and emotional solutions that have evolved into intentional weight management.

One such issue is the difficulty of translating good intentions into consistently appropriate food choices.

While making food habit and attitude changes,

You have so many new perceptions to practice to make into habits that often frustration overtakes everything when you are faced with even a fairly non-threatening food choice.

You become overwhelmed when attempting to sort through and separate what is now appropriate and inappropriate.

I will be guiding you through the seven steps to making appropriate food choices.

I'll provide you with the questions you will need to ask yourself at each step along the way in order to successfully move on.

By practicing these questions you will be assured of developing the habit of quickly and accurately assessing each eating situation and coming to answers that you will be able to look back on and feel comfortable about.

And it is making consistently appropriate food choices that allows you to lose weight and keep it off.

I'll start by first stating the seven steps.

Then I'll explain them in detail one at a time.

The first step is to evaluate the eating environment.

Second,

Determine your hunger level.

Third,

Assess the food options.

Fourth,

Review your food guidelines.

Fifth,

Decide what you expect from this eating experience.

Sixth,

Determine which food options meet your requirements both physically and emotionally.

And seventh,

Decide if you are doing maintenance or loss and choose quantities accordingly.

Now let's get to the details.

The first step is to evaluate the eating environment.

This means taking a look at where you will be eating.

In doing so,

I want you to determine how you feel about where you will be eating.

Do you like the atmosphere?

How do you respond to it?

Does it make you feel relaxed,

Enthusiastic,

Romantic,

Uncomfortable?

What goes on in this environment?

Is it a place where you'd like to eat?

What about the emotional aspect?

How do you feel about the people in this environment?

What impact will they have on your eating experience?

Are there too many people,

Not the right ones?

Do you want to be alone but won't be?

Does this environment meet your needs?

There are those who just don't like eating any meals in fast food establishments,

With their hard plastic booths,

Bright lights,

And peppy music,

While others find it fine for lunch.

I've had clients who prefer eating lunch at home rather than at the office.

They will go out of their way to leave work,

Regardless of how little time they have.

For them,

Eating in the peaceful,

Quiet of home is worth the time lost in travel.

Some would rather wait to eat than go to a cafeteria,

While still others really enjoy the variety and ease of the cafeteria environment.

You need to find out which eating environments you feel are appropriate at which times.

Use this information to help you evaluate each eating environment you find yourself in.

The second step is to determine your hunger level.

Do this by first looking back to your previous eating experience.

How long ago was it?

Was it a meal or a snack?

According to your personalized eating plan,

Is this eating experience supposed to be a meal or a snack?

Are you hungry?

How long before this eating experience did you begin getting hungry?

Is your current level appropriate for this experience?

In other words,

If you are maintaining your weight,

You need to start feeling hungry approximately 30 to 45 minutes before a meal and about 15 minutes before a snack.

If on the other hand you are losing weight,

You should start to feel hungry about 45 minutes to one hour before a meal and about 30 minutes before a snack.

This time frame allows your body to burn stored fuel.

An important thing to remember is that you should never get too hungry.

All this leads to is overeating,

Eating food you'd rather not,

And feeling guilty.

Your current hunger level is a clear indicator of your situation.

It lets you know how effective your previous food choices were.

In other words,

Did you get hungry too quickly,

Not in time,

Or just at the right time?

Your current hunger level also helps you gauge what your next food choices will be.

If you have discovered that your last eating experience provided more long-term fuel than you expected,

Then you'll need to eat a bit less than you normally would in this situation.

However,

Remember that you always eat for the future.

Let me repeat that.

You always eat for the future.

You can't do much about the fact that you ate too much earlier except respond to a lower level of hunger by eating a bit less.

But,

You have to provide your body with the fuel it requires to take you to your next planned eating time.

It's just like filling up your car.

If you're going on a long trip,

You must fill up your tank to get there.

But,

If you're only going down the block,

You will need much less fuel.

And in the case of your body,

You want to run out of fuel at a certain time.

Let's say it's lunchtime,

But you aren't very hungry and you'll be having a mid-afternoon snack.

You are about to have a business meal at a nice restaurant.

Don't find yourself going with the crowd ordering a complete meal.

Assess your hunger level before you make any food choice.

Step 3 is to assess the food options.

Look around you to determine what your food options are.

If you're at a restaurant,

Look carefully at the menu and observe what others are eating.

Ask the server how the options you feel are appropriate have been cooked.

And if you aren't pleased,

Ask if it would be possible to have the item cooked in an alternate manner.

Don't hesitate to find out what really is available to you.

I had a client who never ordered from the menu.

He just asked the server if they had such and such and items or items and was specific in how he wanted it or them prepared and served.

Surprisingly enough,

He rarely had any trouble getting what he wanted.

If you are at home,

Hopefully you have purchased foods that meet your needs and are prepared to cook them in a manner you feel is appropriate.

However,

You still need to assess the options that are available to you at this time.

For example,

It's 5.

30 and you've just arrived home from work or an afternoon of errands.

You're tired and hungry.

What are your options?

Perhaps there's something quick like soup and sandwiches that would take only 5 to 10 minutes to prepare.

Or you could eat leftovers from a couple of evenings ago when you made a large meal.

This is also a quick solution.

Or you could make something more substantial.

Don't jump to an answer without assessing all the options and matching them to your current needs.

Be creative or ask the cook at the restaurant to be creative if you don't easily see something that meets your needs.

Step 4 is to review your food guidelines.

If you haven't already developed your philosophy of food,

Now is a good time to get started.

Because unless you have a philosophy,

You can't have food guidelines that will be sure to meet your needs.

Your food guidelines are a result of taking the time to answer some important questions.

They are,

What role do I want food to play in my life?

In other words,

Do you want to eat just three meals per day and use food primarily as fuel?

Or are you a person who loves to eat,

Who needs to interact with food quite often,

And who perhaps enjoys shopping for food,

Cooking,

And creatively presenting food?

These are examples of extremes.

You probably belong somewhere between the two.

The next question is,

In which facets of my life do I want my relationship with food to play an important part?

Some people use food to express political beliefs.

Others are spiritual and want their food choices to reflect this.

Some people feel that health is a priority and want to provide their bodies with fuel they feel will enhance their functioning.

The third question is,

What do I expect food to do for me?

More specifically,

What needs do you want food to fill?

Do you want it to fill social needs or to be a hobby?

Perhaps you want it to be the glue that binds friendships.

Take some time to determine what you want food to do for you and why you want it to fill these needs.

The fourth question you need to ask yourself is,

Which foods are important to me and must be a part of my life?

Then take each food on this list and decide how often you need how much of what kinds in order for that food to meet your needs and fill the role you expect it to in your life.

Next,

Ask yourself which foods you feel are inappropriate for you and will therefore be excluded from your life.

Then take each food on this list and explain why you feel it is personally inappropriate and doesn't fill the role you expect it to.

And last,

Take all the specific categories of food you can think of and determine how each will fit into your eating pattern.

By going through this process you will be prepared to decide what food you will and will not eat at this time.

Food choices should never be made in isolation.

They need to always be a reflection of your food guidelines that are based upon your philosophy of food.

If you just decide what to eat at this moment,

You will often find yourself regretting the choices because they don't meet your needs.

So take a minute to review your food guidelines before making a food choice.

The fifth step in making appropriate food choices is to decide what you expect from this particular eating experience.

What bodily needs are at hand?

Do you need this eating experience to serve as your primary meal of the day?

Is this your time for a small snack to tide you over until a meal?

Is this the time you tend to eat vegetables or one of your daily fruits?

The answers to these and other similar questions are vital to your choice of foods at this time.

If you need a meal,

Now is not the time to have a snack.

What emotions do you want this eating experience to meet?

Is this the time of day you usually have an emotionally satisfying food?

Do you place a great deal of importance on this meal and the type of food you eat at this time?

Or is this the time of day you are primarily looking to fuel your body with few,

If any,

Emotional requirements when making food choices?

Unless you are aware of what needs you expect this eating experience to meet,

Your chances of feeling satisfied with an appropriate amount of food are very small.

We all eat until we are satisfied and this includes being physically as well as emotionally full.

So,

Be quite clear as to what you expect this eating experience to do for you.

The sixth step is to determine which food options meet your requirements both physically and emotionally.

Look at your options,

Then see if any of them fit into your food guidelines.

Eliminate those that don't.

Next,

Taking what you expect to get out of this experience,

Determine if any of the foods that fit your guidelines will promote satisfaction without overeating.

This will determine what your food choices will be.

The seventh and last step is to decide if you are going to be doing maintenance or loss and choosing quantities accordingly.

Perhaps I should give you some information about each of these states and how to successfully handle each one.

Maintenance is what you work on establishing first.

It is your baseline.

When working on maintenance,

You are determining what your needs are,

What sort of eating pattern you should have,

Until you have taken the time to determine what you are going to be doing for the rest of your life,

You are not in a good position to determine what to do to lose weight.

Therefore,

Achieving maintenance is the first step toward weight loss.

Maintenance is the most important weight management skill you can have.

Unless you want to go through your life yo-yoing,

That is losing and gaining,

Losing and gaining,

Time and time again,

Which is very dangerous,

Both from a physical standpoint as well as an emotional one,

You must learn how to maintain.

According to the intentional weight management approach,

Maintenance is the ability to eat in a way that is best for you,

To use food in a manner that is appropriate for you so you will be able to keep your weight at whatever level you feel is best.

It is the ability to feel comfortable about what you are doing with food so you will be able to keep your weight off.

Maintenance is knowing what your needs are and being able to follow through on them.

I am going to give you a quick overview of the steps to maintenance.

The first thing I have each person do is take a look at what they are already doing.

Notice what you are doing that feels right that you want to keep doing.

And notice what you are doing that doesn't feel right,

Regardless of how correct it is from a should and ought to perspective.

Remember,

There are no rights and wrongs,

Only what is appropriate and inappropriate for yourself.

Once you have taken the time to notice what is going on,

Then start determining what your eating pattern is going to be.

You will need to determine your philosophy of food to complete this step.

Third is to keep your eating pattern constant and assess the quantity you need at each eating time.

Since I already discussed hunger level during step 2,

I won't do it now.

Then determine your water drinking pattern.

Decide how you will drink 8 glasses of water each day,

Adding one glass for every 25 pounds you are overweight.

Next is weight loss.

Weight loss is a positive experience you have chosen to have.

It is an opportunity to come closer to being whom you really see yourself as being.

The first step to weight loss is to notice your weight maintenance eating pattern.

Then keeping that pattern constant,

Assess the quantity needed at each eating time in order to lose weight.

Again,

We have discussed hunger level,

So I won't do it now.

Be aware of your body's changing needs.

Always keep your eating pattern constant and be on the lookout for changes in your burn rate.

Be prepared to alter quantities if needed.

Weight loss should be an enjoyable time for you.

After all,

Your food needs are being met while you watch yourself get thinner.

Now that I have given you this information,

You are better prepared to determine which pattern you will be following at any given time.

Be sure to make a conscious choice regarding this issue each time you plan on eating.

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