I understand that it is a big commitment to change how you eat, so how do you know if now is the right time? In this post, I outline three of the biggest reasons and motivations to change how you eat, now!
Eating Habits Leading You Astray
I talk to women every day about eating habits.
Eating habits are the food choices made on autopilot. And we make more of these types of choices than we realise.
Research suggests that we make over 200 decisions about food every day but only remember about 16 of them!
The types of habits that might be leading you astray are:
- Eating when you are not hungry.
- Eating whilst you are distracted.
- Eating after 7pm at night.
Having a good understanding of what healthy eating is, isn’t enough to overcome eating habits.
Am I right?
Mindful eating is key to changing eating habits, as it allows you to connect with and observe your habits.
It is the practice of pausing before you eating that helps you to change your habits!
A Change in Health
Having previously worked in diabetes care for a number of years, and completing my Masters of Science in Type 2 Diabetes,
I have heard many stories from people newly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
Unfortunately, one common story was,
“My doctor advised me a couple of years ago to start taking better care of myself when my blood sugar levels were rising.”
The next part of the story varied from not taking the advice seriously, “I will be alright”
or, not making time to invest in health, “I was just so busy and I didn’t make time for my health.”
However, I have some good news.
It is never too late to invest in your health. But it is important to set small achievable goals.
When faced with the increased risk of developing a lifestyle-related health condition or being given a diagnosis it can feel overwhelming.
And this is why it is important to take small actionable steps.
For example, with diabetes, the total amount and type of carbohydrates, including added sugar needs to be regulated.
So actionable steps might be:
- Tuning into hunger and satiety signals so you can work towards only eating when you are hungry.
- Changing the serving size of grains eaten with your meals.
- Having your main meal at lunchtime.
Another source of motivation to change is that you might be sick of feeling tired and lethargic and want sustainable energy to enjoy life.
Change in Life Stage
Women move through significant life stages, as do men, but for women during pregnancy, breastfeeding, perimenopause, and menopause, major hormonal changes are at play.
The impact of these varying life stages for women vary, but they usually require the fine-tuning of eating and lifestyle choices.
As I have shared in earlier posts, when I started perimenopause I felt like I had woken up in someone else’s body!
Like every other woman that enters peri-menopause, I had to make dietary and lifestyle changes to make the transition as smooth as possible.
And yes, I had several months when certain pairs of trousers no longer fitted, but I trusted my mind-body to navigate me.
Peri-menopause is a great motivator and reason to change how you eat.
The practice of mindfulness is very useful when transitioning to menopause, for both food and lifestyle choices.
By connecting with and observing how food choices impacted on hot flushes and my quality of sleep, I was able to fine-tune my choices.
And a few times, I realised that I needed extra support so I reached out to my healthcare practitioner.
Now is the time to change how you eat
Is any time perfect to change how you eat?
As shared by one of our members, Nicky,
“I have always held-off working on improving my health, wellbeing, and lifestyle, for the day when I have more time on my hands.
Now I realise that it doesn’t matter where I am in life, the mindfulness that you teach in your course can be practiced and implemented regardless of how busy outside circumstances are around me.
Sallyanne, I thank you for your wisdom and the fun, gentle way your course has helped to guide and shape my healthier new lifestyle.”
…the mindfulness that you teach in your course can be practiced and implemented regardless of how busy outside circumstances are around me.
The three key steps to making now the time to change how you eat are:
- Make health a priority, but be realistic with your time and choose small do-able steps. This way you gain confidence in making changes and avoid the overwhelm.
- Write a list of what you will achieve by making changes to your eating and lifestyle changes. This list will provide motivation along the way.
- Get support from an approach that offers longterm changes to the way that you eat. This way your efforts will be rewarded faster.
If now is the time to change your eating habits and you’d like my support, please book in for a free Foundations Mindful Eating call.
In the call we discuss your main barrier to changing the way you eat, we will put a plan together and if appropriate I will discuss our eight week program.