How to change your relationship with food – Part 1

Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 12:54 am

It is Friday night, the end of stressful week and the pepperoni pizza you ordered for dinner has been polished off. Now halfway through the rented movie, you hit the bottom of the nacho bag and you realize you have munched your way through the family size bag. Sound familiar? Everybody pigs out once in a while but if are gaining extra pounds you cannot shed or if you are worried about your health, it might be time to look at your relationship with food.

We eat to provide our bodies with the nutrients our bodies need to function well. However we also eat because we are depressed, stressed, lonely, bored or even just because we are in the habit of eating. Working out how, why and when you eat will help you identify the good habits you have that you can build on and the bad habits that need tackling.

The diet industry provides a myriad of solutions to people looking to lose weight and get trim however most diets have high failure rates. Maintaining a healthy weight over your lifetime requires adjusting your lifestyle and devising your own eating plan that fits your individual needs. A little bit of thought and planning and you can take control of your relationship with food.

The first step is to write down everything you eat in a week. Be totally honest, you are only cheating yourself if you leave snacks out. As well as writing down what you eat, write down when you ate, what the circumstances were and how you felt. After a week, analyze your food diary and highlight any patterns you see. Did you eat for reasons other than hunger or do you are making bad choices because you let yourself get too hungry? Once you know your downfalls it is time to tackle them. Pick one pitfall and design a strategy to avoid it that will fit with your lifestyle. So if you hit the cookie jar when you get in from the office why not stock up on alternative healthy snacks. If Friday night is a danger zone, why not cook a tasty casserole on a Sunday and freeze it ready for Friday night. Then when you are too tired to cook, there is a healthy tasty option available.

When it comes to losing weight we all want quick fixes and that is why diets are so popular. However strict regimens cannot be maintained for a lifetime and so once you are off the diet the weight piles back on. Pick one pitfall, snack or meal to change at a time. This month you might switch from full fat to skim milk, next month you might work on having a healthy breakfast. Once the new healthy meal or snack has become part of your lifestyle tackle another bad habit. That way you avoid feeling deprived and you are building up sustainable healthy habits. The results may be less dramatic initially but over time your new healthy relationship with food will result in a healthier happier you.

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