Do you have an eating habit that you would love to change? May be you are not sure where or how to start. Perhaps you have tried to change your eating habits before, but are now ready for a forever solution. The Eating for You approach offers that solution by getting you to focus on the right thing.
Continue reading Eating Habits Can Be Changed With the Right Focus
An eating habit forms without us even realising it. A habit is defined as, routinely undertaking a task or action on autopilot. These types of decisions may also be referred to as mindless or unconscious. In this post I reveal three myths about eating habits.
I often hear stories about struggles with overeating, commonly expressed as “I am always hungry”, and “I just don’t know when to stop eating”. A number of different factors influence our natural hunger and satiety mechanisms. In this article, I share 7 ways to control appetite naturally.
If you feel that you have been overeating, a common reaction is to start restricting what you eat. Please avoid fad or restrictive diets to control appetite.
Our natural appetite mechanisms work best when we have regular amounts of whole foods, based on how active we are. Our body and mind respond to both the quality and quantity of the food that we eat.
Restricting our food, generally leads to distress and overeating or binge eating.
Restricting our food, generally leads to distress and overeating or binge eating.
I always promote whole foods, or minimally processed foods, because they come with natural fibre, protein, and fat. Plus, they retain most of their vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, depending on harvesting, storage and the cooking methods. Eating whole foods is a positive way to control appetite.
Dietary Fibre
Scientific research indicates that dietary fibre slows down the digestion process, helping us to feel satisfied for longer. It also has other benefits, such as slowing down the absorption of dietary sugar.
Good sources of dietary fibre are:
Eating whole foods is a positive way to control appetite.
Protein
Protein appears to be “the boss” when it comes to satisfying hunger and keeping us feeling satisfied for longer.
There is also considerable ecological research demonstrating that the protein content of food influences how much apes eat.
Protein appears to be more important than energy (calories or kilojoules) in determining the quantity of food we eat.
However, we don’t need to overdo the protein-rich foods—legumes and lentils, lean meat, fish, poultry and dairy foods. Just keep to the recommended guidelines for whole foods.
Healthy Fats
Foods containing fat are better at reducing hunger than carbohydrate foods. Dietary fat slows down the emptying of the stomach. We also feel satisfied for longer.
Nutritious choices:
Again, keep to the quantities in the recommended guidelines for these foods.
Eastern medicine, including Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine, recommend eating most of our food before 1pm, as our digestive function is strongest between 5am and 1pm.
There is also growing scientific evidence that eating most of our food by lunchtime assists in the maintenance of healthy body weight and blood sugar levels (for people with type 2 diabetes).
The Eating for You approach to mindful eating encourages you to tune into your appetite, what you feel like eating and how you feel after eating.
It provides guidance on how to tell the difference between physical hunger and non-hunger reasons for eating.
The Eating for You approach to mindful eating encourages you to tune into your appetite.
You can learn more about mindful eating through the Introduction to Mindful Eating Workshop.
And you may register your interest in the online Mindful Eating Introductory Course here.
Being physically active provides a number of health benefits. Research also shows that our appetite hormone, ghrelin, is lowered by exercise, whereas appetite suppressing hormones such as leptin, are raised.
Sleep is essential to a well functioning mind and body. And the quality of our sleep impacts on appetite hormone levels, in particular, ghrelin and leptin.
Poor quality sleep increases ghrelin, making us feel hungrier and reduces leptin, which means we eat for longer until we feel satisfied. We also desire fatty and sugary foods.
Adults require 7 to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Stress and other emotions can lead to comfort eating and the overeating of fatty and sugary foods.
For some, stress causes a loss of appetite or drive to eat.
Learning techniques to de-stress helps you to control appetite in a healthy way.
Mindfulness practices, such as meditation, and mindful eating help to quieten our mind and help to reduce stress.
Quality sleep and spending time with loved-ones also help to reduce stress levels and calm our mind.
Learning techniques to de-stress helps you to control appetite in a healthy way.
If you are unable to calm your mind, due to depressing thoughts or feelings of being overwhelmed, then please seek advice from your healthcare practitioner.
Controlling our appetite is not just about food. It is about creating a mindful way of eating and living. You can find out more about mindful eating here.
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is a great example of why it is important to know your gut. We can often make excuses for slight changes in our digestive function—bloating, irregular bowl movements or fluctuations in appetite. But if these continue long term, there can be serious health consequences.
Continue reading What is Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)?
This is part 2 in the series of “When should I eat”. Answering, “Why should I eat?” helps you to uncover what drives the way you eat. At some stage in your life you may have lost touch with your natural appetite and satiety signals, or you handed the power of eating for you over to a DIET. Perhaps you have never really considered the value of eating well. On top of these conscious or unconscious choices, we share our lives with others, and have commitments that impact on what, when, why and how we eat.
I am often asked, “How can I trust my food choices when I have ended up here (unwell, overweight and feeling deflated)?” Building trust in your innate ability to choose what you need requires taking a mindful approach to eating and living. Trust your food choices through observation, choice and reflection.
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