Tag: Eating

Any of these Overlooked Dieting Errors Will Sideline Your Weight Loss

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This article was updated on 04/09/22.

In order to lose weight or improve health, a lot of people are ditching traditional diet fad methods and turning to intermittent fasting (IF). There are many motivations for doing this but two seem to pop up over and over. First, traditional diets are hard. They are too food-restrictive which leads to just giving up. Second, the “diet foods” are expensive or hard to come by.

Intermittent fasting solves both of these issues. It is very user-friendly; there are a variety of methods to choose from to accommodate preferences and lifestyles. None make you cut out your favorite foods. You don’t have to be constrained to buy programmed prepackaged meals (as seen on TV) or search high-and-low for specialty items. Eat what you like or check out alternate and affordable dietitian-recommended foods. But, weight-loss on any diet can plateau, and IF is no different. Here are some intermittent fasting mistakes to be aware of.

Intermittent Fasting Trip-Ups

Triggering Insulin Spikes. When we are on an IF regimen, the whole point is to keep our metabolism train rumbling along without ingesting anything that causes an insulin spike. Unfortunately, these may not be obvious; hey, it’s just a little thing, right? But no. Consider that splash of coffee creamer. Or, consider that pain pills like Advil that have sugar in the coating. Or, how about swallowing a bit of toothpaste whilst staring gloomily at the mirror? All of these things seem inconsequential, but they effectively break-your-fast (ever wondered where the word “breakfast” came from?).
Not Drinking Enough Water. Fasting without drinking circumlocutions your intention. Your damaged cells and/or other wastes that hang out in your body cannot be expelled without H2o giving them the old heave-ho. How much water per day day do you need? It depends on who you ask. But, the Mayo Clinic tells us, “About 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day for men and About 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids a day for women.”¹ If you just find this much water boring, as many people do, just add some Mio liquid water enhancer drops to it. It has 0 sugar, 0 calories, and tastes great!
Breaking Your Fast With Incorrect Foods. When coming off your fast, ingesting the proper types of foods is important. Since your stomach shrinks during a fast and your stomach lining is moderately thin, too much food is a bad idea. Further, you will want to break your fast with a clean protein. Think Bone broth, protein supplements, or milk alternatives like almond milk.
Choosing the Wrong Intermittent Fasting Plan (Method). Don’t shortchange yourself and set yourself up for failure. There is a reason there are so many plans. Choose one that suits both your goals and your lifestyle. For example, I started with the 16/8 method. Basically this involves skipping breakfast and eating nothing after 8 PM. It just suits my schedule working from my home office.

Eating Too Much During Your Eating Window. This is recognized as the most common trap people fall into with IF. If you’ve chosen a particularly restrictive regimen (ah, optimism) that leaves you hungry for hours of the day, you’re most likely to go a little bit overboard the moment the clock says “It’s time to eat.”
Or, You’re Not Eating Enough During Your Eating Window. What? Sure enough, not eating enough is also a real cause of gaining weight, and here’s why. As well as setting you up to eat too much of less-than-healthy items during your eating window, not eating enough cannibalizes your existing muscle mass which in turn causes your metabolism to slow down. Who knew?
Ignoring the What in Favor of the When. Yes, this diet plan is time oriented rather than food-choice oriented. But that doesn’t mean all junk food is mana. McDonalds is not your ultimate destiny! When you eat, focus on nutrient-dense food choices. If you are like me, cooking at home with the spirit of invention is fun!

So there you have it; these are the intermittent fasting mistakes. Some are obvious, others are slap-your-forehead so not so much. Remember that if addressing these issues isn’t turning you into the fat-burning machine you want to be, you can always try another IF method.

References

Mayo Clinic Staff, Mayo Clinic, Water: How much should you drink every day?, https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256

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Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Everyday Feasting to Excess

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This post was updated on 04/17/21.

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It may seem odd — many of us eat way too much at Thanksgiving dinner. And then again on December 25th as if it was a Christmas tradition. And then what? According to the site Wild Simple Joy, the number 1 New Years resolution is to practice intuitive eating. This means, “Make a resolution to sit down and focus on your eating instead of multitasking. Practice listening to your body when you are thirsty, ACTUALLY hungry, and full (or something else, like just tired!)”¹ Basically, pay attention and stop overeating!

Strategies to Stop Overeating

Don’t wait until you are starving. Many of us are not very good at knowing when we’re hungry until it’s too late. This leads to overeating by over-filling the feed bag and then scarfing it down, going past our fullness level before we realize it.
Pose the question — am I hungry enough for an apple? Why? Most of us can always find room for more desert but a piece of fruit? Not so much.
Drink a glass of water, ice tea, or cold brew coffee. This will partially fill your gut and trigger the “full” signal sooner. It will also begin to kick in your digestion process.
Enjoy your first few bites of your meal. Really tune in to the first few mouthfuls. “Your taste buds desensitize to food within the first few minutes, which make food not taste as good after that last bite threshold,” explains Stephanie Grasso, RDN. “Chewing slowly during those first few bites will not only delay overeating, but also allow you to appreciate the flavor of food at its peak.”
Remember that your eyes are bigger than your stomach. Swedish researchers found that, “When blindfolded, subjects ate 22% less food (p < 0.05), had shorter meal durations (p < 0.05), and had less decelerated eating curves (p < 0.05). Despite a smaller amount of food consumed when blindfolded, the reported feeling of fullness was identical to that reported after the larger meal consumed without blindfold.”² This is most likely because when blindfolded, eaters relied more on internal satiety signals.
Eliminate distractions. Turn off your TV, get away from your computer, put your cell phone on silent. It’s difficult to tune into your body’s quiet taste and satiety cues when digital distractions take our focus off of the task at hand: simply eating. It’s easy; just sit at your table with a chair and a plate. This will ground you in a good environment and mind-set for eating intuitively.

Balance your meal. The ideal meal includes a mix of carbohydrates, fat, and protein. This is more likely to satiate you more rapidly and keep you feeling full longer. When meals are balanced, we get shorter-term energy from starchy veggies and grains and longer-term energy from healthy fat and protein. Furthermore, healthy fats (olive oil, avocados) and proteins slow your digestion process, giving your satiety hormones a chance to multiply, signaling that you are getting full. As far as carbohydrates go, shoot for a mixture of whole grains, starchy vegetables, and non-starchy vegetables.
Take your time already. As you eat your meal, take time to pause and put your fork down. This will give you an opportunity to pace yourself and determine how full you are. Engage in conversation if you’re dining with someone. Take deep breaths, and have a sip of water or wine. Repeat this process as you eat. Allow yourself visual reminders; after you’ve finished a quarter of your food, to set the fork down and so forth.
Manage your stress in other ways. Many of us eat as a reaction to stress as much as we do when we are hungry. The solution? Siphon off that stress at regular intervals. Take myself for example. Here I sit all day long producing hopefully interesting content for you, esteemed reader. My Garmin 235 watch sends me a “move” signal when I’ve had too much butt-time. So I go for a stroll and listen to Audible.com audio books on my iPhone. Sometimes a quarter mile, sometimes a mile and a half. When I get back, bingo! Stress gone, the well of creativity duly refreshed.

Avoid “The Last Supper Effect.” Whenever we put a particular food on the banned list, the desire for it goes up. That’s just human nature. If you forbid yourself from eating certain things, you are very likely to overindulge in them while you still can, a phenomenon also known as the “last supper effect.” This can also carry over after you stop eating a given food, during those furtive calorie-sneaking episodes.
Be aware of and manage trigger foods. We all have foods that trigger overeating and avoiding them can help minimize your chances of overeating. For example, if you know ice cream is likely to trigger a late-night binge or a ravenous episode of overeating, it’s not a good idea to keep it stocked in your freezer. The more difficult it is to get at something, the less likely you will be be to overeat that particular item.

Keeping these tips in mind will help you to stop overeating, during the holiday season and beyond. Get a head start on those New Years resolutions and get a handle on that weight management program you keep telling yourself about.

References

Dawn Perez, Wild Simple Joy, New Year’s Resolution Ideas for Your Best Life in 2021!, https://wildsimplejoy.com/new-years-resolution-ideas-for-personal-development/
Dr. Yvonne Linné, Britta Barkeling, Stephan Rössner, Pål Rooth, Wiley Online Library, Vision and Eating Behavior, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2002.15

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Tag: Eating

Intermittent Fasting Mistakes

Any of these Overlooked Dieting Errors Will Sideline Your Weight Loss

Intermittent Fasting Trip-Ups

References

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