When it comes to dieting everyone from the 3 AM infomercial to your grandmother has advice on how you should go about it. Some offer pills, others offer a magic exercise machine, others want to package up pre-portioned pre-approved food for you to buy. None of them offer the one thing that you need in order to lose weight and keep it off. Why? Because it’s something that can’t be bought and sold.
Map It Out
The first step is to pick up a pen and paper. You don’t have to do this in front of anyone, but every time you eat – even if it’s just a few bites – write it down. Write down the time. Write down the motivation. Were you actually hungry? Were you bored? Sad? Studying? Out with friends? Watching TV? Did your mother make something and ask you to have some? Did you have people over and feel like you had to serve them something? Were you babysitting and finish off what the kid didn’t eat rather than throw it away?
Do this for at least a week. Then take a few minutes to really look at it. Which motivational factor is listed most often? What times of day do you usually eat? Do you skip meals all day and then eat from the time you get home from school until you go to bed? Do you eat in the middle of the night?
Now, what did you eat? Lots of pasta or other white stuff like rice or crackers or potatoes? Snack foods? Big meals?
Deal With The Issues
You’re a bright girl. You know that if you regularly inhale a can of Pringles at midnight, you’re probably aren’t going to be wearing a size 4 anytime soon. Obviously, if you’re eating without thinking about it, like when you’re bored or sad or angry, or just because everyone else is, that you’re not eating for the right reasons. Clearly, these are the things that need to change.
Emotions
It’s a common thing for women, especially, to use food as a way of dealing with emotions. By suppressing anger or unhappiness and eating food instead, you activate endorphins, according to Dori Winchell, Ph.D., a psychologist in private practice specializing in eating disorders in Encinitas, CA In fact, the act of chewing alone activates endorphins which are soothing.
If emotional eating is the cause of your weight issues, the key is to find something to replace eating to soothe you. Some people jog. Others play music. Still others refuse to suppress anything and cry and yell and scream and whatever else they have to do to let the emotion go. Try a bunch of different things and combinations of things that are healthy until you find something that works for you instead of eating.
Time of Day
In general, doctors advise that eating late at night is a no-no. Another common problem is skipping breakfast and lunch and then gorging for the rest of the day to compensate. As far as times, the best way to fix this problem is to schedule your meals ahead of time. Eat until you’re almost full six times a day starting from first thing in the morning and ending about 30 minutes before you go to bed. This raises your metabolism and keeps it going. Plus, if you know you’re going to be eating again in a few hours and you just ate a couple of hours before, you likely won’t need to eat much food.
Habit
Eating because it’s dinner time and everyone else is going to the table is no reason to eat if you’re not hungry. Go sit down with everybody and keep your portions small. Or plan ahead and make sure that dinner will land on one of your scheduled meal times. When you go out with your friends, just get something to drink if you’re not hungry. When you’re studying, get something healthy to eat if you feel like you want to snack at the same time. Becoming aware of a bad habit is the first step to breaking it.
What You Eat
Of course, what you eat is important. But if you aren’t eating for anything but to quell your hunger and don’t eat beyond fullness, then you can eat what you want. Carbohydrates, fat, calories – you need all of these to live and when you listen to your body, you’ll find that you’ll be drawn to what you need to get the vitamins and nutrients to stay healthy.
