Eat Enough
Calorie-restricted diets are proven to fail. Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Plan to have healthy snacks throughout the day. This is important, as skipping nutritious foods may make you feel uncontrollably hungry!
Here are some words of wisdom from my friend Kris Carr: “If eating healthy feels like deprivation, lean into it. Do it because you want to feel good. Do it because you love your life. Do it because you want more energy. If smoking and drinking and eating fast food is what you do for fun, know that it is not real fun, it is covering up sadness.” I promise that if you embrace healthy eating for more than 60 days, your taste buds will change and you will start to fall in love with real food.
Eat Protein with Every Main Meal
Protein has the ability to release satiety hormones faster than fat or carbohydrates and causes you to feel fuller while eating less. A study published in Nutrition & Metabolism indicates that increasing your protein intake to 30 percent can reduce total caloric daily intake by up to 450 calories. Michael F. Roizen, M.D., writes, “Drinking 2 glasses of water and eating 1 oz of nuts or seeds [equivalent to 2 tbsp hemp seeds or 12 almonds] when you’re hungry between meals can extinguish cravings by changing your body chemistry and controlling hunger hormones.”
Learn to Recognize Your Hunger
Before you automatically pop something into your mouth, rate your hunger on a scale of one to five, with one being ravenous and five being full. Make an effort to avoid going long enough without food to become ravenous. Also, avoid eating when you’re at four or five.
Pray for Consciousness
Thich Nhat Hanh, one of the best-known and most respected Zen masters in the world, often talks about a craving being like a crying baby who is trying to draw our attention. When the baby cries, the mother cradles the baby to try to calm it right away. By acknowledging and embracing our cravings through a few breaths, we can stop ourselves from going on autopilot and reaching out for the cookie or the bag of chips.
Without talking, smell your food for one minute before eating. Look at it closely. Notice the color and texture of the food or how the steam rises from it. Look at your food as though you are seeing it for the very first time. Try saying a version of this conscious prayer: “I offer up my heartfelt gratitude for this meal and this day. Thanks to the farmers who created it and the cook who prepared it. I ask that any pain or negativity be removed this food. I ask that this food be filled with love and healing energy. Let me absorb what I need and easily let go of the rest.”
Now take a mouthful of food, put your fork down, and chew patiently. It’s not easy, but try to slow down. Taste and savor each bite, aiming for 25 to 30 chews per mouthful. If you master the art of eating slowly, you will eat less food and absorb more nutrients, and your body will thank you.
Hypnosis for Stubborn Cravings
I have found incredible results with hypnosis. My hypnotherapist, Josie Driver, explains: “Hypnotherapy can help with food cravings and attaining health goals. It can effectively assist with helping to change old patterns of how we view food, lifestyle habits, and ourselves. Sometimes, we have blocks to our conscious desires because somewhere in our subconscious mind is a very old program from childhood, we have a belief system about our bodies and what
we are capable of physically doing, how and when we ‘use’ food, et cetera. The core of motivation, success, or self-sabotage is our subconscious beliefs. Hypnotherapy allows us to place suggestions in the subconscious mind that can allow more healthy patterns to develop, replacing old, unhealthy patterns and beliefs that stop us from having the health and life that we want.”
Tap Your Troubles Away
Sometimes it’s hard to get over our anxiety or upset and stay conscious about what we are eating. In those situations, the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), also known as “Tapping,” is an incredible tool.
We become so dependent on food to help us feel relaxed and comforted that even the thought of letting go of that dependency can make us panic. How can we feel comforted and relieve stress without using food? When you find yourself with a strong impulse to overeat, it’s time to take a deep breath and take a close look at the stress that’s triggering your cravings. EFT is a great stress-relief technique that helps lower anxiety and the craving itself.
When you focus on what is bothering you while stimulating certain acupressure points, you send a calming signal to the amygdala part of your brain that is firing that “fight or flight” response. You are literally communicating with your brain, letting it know that it is safe to relax.
Drink Up Between Meals
Try a non-caffeinated herbal tea, fruit-flavored water, or cup of broth. There are several drinks on the market with no caffeine or sugar—buy a lot of all different kinds—and keep it on hand. Before you have a snack, drink 8 ounces of your favorite drink, then decide if you’re really still hungry.
Find Alternatives to Eating
Prepare a list of activities that are appealing and accessible to you. Go for a walk, listen to nostalgic music (anything that brings you back to a happy time), take a hot shower or bath, clean your house, surf the Internet, schedule outstanding appointments, clean your purse, organize your closet, or look through a photo album. One of the most relaxing and detoxifying activities you can add to your program is infrared sauna therapy. Studies show it reduces heavy metals while combating stress. Look for a reputable company that uses sustainable wood, ceramic plates, nontoxic finishes, and stainless steel.
The simple act of watching TV encourages mindless snacking. You’re sitting there watching your favorite show, and every 10 minutes, pictures of unhealthy comfort foods flash in front of your eyes. It’s no wonder we snack while we watch! Find something you can do with your hands when enjoying your favorite show: paint your toenails (with nontoxic nail polish), take up knitting, do a puzzle, sew, or perform a light stretching workout. I find that recording a show and fast-forwarding the commercials while stretching or doing light exercise reduces nighttime eating.
Keep a Food Journal
Logging your food intake will help to identify your toughest time frames. Consider sharing your food journal with a friend via e-mail or text. It will make you accountable, and you’ll be less apt to reach for unnecessary food.
Get Enough Sleep
Research shows that sleep deprivation can increase hunger by decreasing levels of leptin, the appetite-regulating hormone that signals fullness. Most snacking happens late at night. If you go to bed early, you automatically stop eating earlier. With those extra hours of sleep, you’ll have more energy and more resolve to fight off the urge to grab foods for comfort. If you struggle to fall asleep, consider yogic meditation.
Move to Heal
A Chinese proverb says, “Walk five hundred steps after every meal.” It’s good advice! By moving, you will start to burn some of the calories as fuel and take the pressure off the digestive tract. Daily exercise relieves stress and puts you in a positive mindset, which provides greater strength to pass on unhealthy fare. In the post-workout window of time, carbohydrates are stored as glycogen, so even if you do cave to temptation, it will have far less impact.
Let Go of Guilt
Next time you find yourself eating something that does not line up with your health goals, take one step back and two steps forward and, before you know it, you’re dancing! The most important thing you can do is to stop beating yourself up and let go of the guilt about your food choices or lack of motivation to get moving. When we replace negative self-talk with an empowering context, we have the strength and self-love to shift the “death drive” into a “life drive” and cultivate juicy vitality! I am sending you off with confidence, energy, and determination to begin this awesome journey.
© 2014. Julie Daniluk. Adapted with permission from Slimming Meals That Heal. Hay House Publishing.
