The Other Side of the Leaf
If you watch how nature deals with adversity, continually renewing itself, you can’t help but learn. – Bernie Siegel, MD
Spring is the time for rejuvenation. Migratory birds return with their song, buried flower buds begin to peak out at the world, leaves begin to sprout forth, and your entire landscape transforms. Your environment is literally turning a new leaf. Which is the perfect opportunity to follow suit!
Many people try time and again to get to their optimal weight but never find true transformation. Diet after diet, any success is temporary at best. Still, every spring there is hope things will be different this time. If this sounds familiar, this spring may finally be the time for permanent change!
The problem with many diets is that they only focus on one or two things – food restriction or calorie restriction. This is a generality, but if you look at those diet books on your shelf, you could easily boil them down to these two messages. Paleo? Just restrict grains, dairy and legumes to reach your optimal weight. Pritikin? Just restrict sugars and fats and you’ll lose weight. Vegan? Just avoid all animal products and you will reach your weight and health goals. This is not to say that any of these diets are bad per se. Instead, it is the overt message it presents – you need to restrict this and that to reach your goals – that is bad. It is this intention that you focus on, and it is this intention that sets you up for failure.
So how do you get to your ideal weight without restricting something? By thinking differently. There are three simple yet powerful concepts that can literally change your weight and your health.
Eat Slowly and Mindfully
This gets mentioned in some diet books, but it is rarely emphasized. Nevertheless, eating slowly and mindfully can be one of the easiest ways to achieve optimal weight and health. By eating slowly and mindfully you will:
Really taste the food you are consuming. Is it rich or light? Does it have a chemical aftertaste or a nice finish? Is it overly salty or too bland? Does it tastes amazingly delicious or just ok? When you slow down to really taste your food, you start to understand which foods you truly enjoy, whatever those foods may be. Then you can sit and savor those delicious foods any time you eat them. Why waste your taste buds on anything less?
Enhance digestion. The act of smelling, tasting and chewing your food actually initiates the first phase of digestion called the cephalic phase. When you stop to smell, taste and chew your food, it signals the brain to stimulate production of different enzymes and chemicals that help you break down your food and absorb its nutrients. When the body feels nourished, it no longer feels hungry. But if you rush through your meal, not only do you improperly break down food from lack of chewing thoroughly, you also inhibit production of the necessary digestive enzymes. This can make you bloated and ironically more hungry from lack of nutrient absorption.
Understand when enough is enough. It takes 20 minutes for the stretch receptors in your stomach to tell your brain it’s getting full. If you eat a big meal in 10 or even 15 minutes, you might not realize how overly stuffed you really are until it’s too late. But when you eat slowly and mindfully, taking over 20 minutes to consume your meals, you may find you can easily push that plate away before you clean your plate.
Eating slowly naturally controls portions, improves digestion and helps you choose tasty whole foods over chemical tasting processed foods.
Eat to 80% Full, or Just Satisfied
Eating to 80% full, or just satisfied, is another building block that is the foundation to finding and maintaining optimal weight. What does 80% mean or even feel like? It should feel like you could eat another bite, but you don’t need to eat another bite. It’s that sweet spot between not feeling hungry anymore and feeling full. By eating to 80% full or just satisfied you will:
Naturally reduce calorie intake. Counting calories is painstaking, inaccurate and ultimately a fruitless endeavor. But, if you eat until you are no longer full, you are naturally controlling your food and calorie intake. There is no need to count calories when you are listening to your body.
Understand your hunger cues. Becoming aware of what it feels like to be truly hungry, satisfied or overly full can start shifting your thinking about how much you really need on your plate at each meal. Practicing eating slowly and to just satisfied can gradually chip away at your need to finish everything on your plate.
Control your blood sugar and energy. You’ve heard it’s beneficial to eat several times throughout the day. However, thinking you need to do this sets the wrong intention just like “restrict this and that.” Instead, let’s turn over that leaf and look from a different perspective. When you eat to just satisfied, you will naturally digest your food quicker than a bigger meal. Digesting quickly means you will likely feel hungry again within 2-3 hours. So when you focus on eating to 80% you naturally want to eat consistently throughout the day.
Eating to 80% full or just satisfied helps you distinguish true hunger, naturally controls calorie and food intake, and provides consistent energy for your day.
Know Your Intolerances
There are six major food allergens – gluten, dairy, corn, soy, eggs and peanuts. If you have a true allergy you would know it – eating that food could send you to the hospital. However, having a food intolerance is a subtle thing. You could have a food intolerance and not even know it. There are several reasons for this. First, if you eat the food daily and you feel bad every day, you can’t equate it to anything specific.
This makes you feel like there is no rhyme or reason to your symptoms. Second, a food intolerance can present as a myriad of symptoms, not just digestive. Fatigue, headaches, brain fog, irritability, depression, anxiety, chronic colds, respiratory issues, gas, bloating, IBS and more may indicate a food intolerance. This makes it difficult to pinpoint a certain food as the culprit. Lastly, I believe there are degrees of intolerance, especially if there is underlying gut health issues. You may be able to eat gluten once a week without issue but you can’t consume it several times per week. Without knowing your tolerance level, you may be inadvertently damaging your gut lining which then leads to more and more symptoms. By knowing your intolerances you will:
Lose and maintain weight more easily. Eating a food you’re intolerant to can lead to constipation, water retention, excessive gas and inflammation – all of which can add weight to your body. Eliminating your food intolerances can help you shed weight and reduce those symptoms.
Gain energy and motivation. It’s very difficult to feel motivated to do anything when you’re tired, irritable, depressed, sick, bloated or gassy. When you remove intolerant foods from your diet, you reduce and remove the symptoms related to them. Feeling better gives you more energy and motivation to be active and stay on track with your health.
Optimize your health. Consuming foods your body cannot tolerate leads to chronic inflammation in the body. Inflammation from an acute injury is meant to be part of the healing process, however, chronic inflammation is the main contributor of disease. When you remove your food intolerances, you start to decrease that systemic inflammation. This not only reduces any symptoms, it also starts reducing your risk of disease.
Knowing your food intolerances helps you achieve your optimal weight and health.
Although these steps seem very simple, they are probably three of the hardest concepts to practice on a daily basis. We live in a very fast paced society, so spending time to eat slowly and to only 80 % full is harder than it sounds. Additionally, avoiding a troublesome food in certain social situations can be difficult. Do not take these three steps lightly, but with diligent practice you can achieve your weight and health goals!
Turning over a new leaf in your thinking about how to optimize your weight and health can truly rejuvenate your body!