How to make “Good Eating Days” your Norm.

This is going to be a rah-rah/what to eat to lose weight post.  Fair warning.

smurfHad a good email the other day from a beautiful woman who says that blue moods cause her to eat all day.  I can relate to that,… I’ve been there.   I used to eat all day because: I had some time alone (unusual w/ job and 4 kids), felt happy, felt tired, wanted to read and eat, had great food in the pantry/fridge, and… the opportunity presented itself.   It made sense, since I was usually hungry from my small to moderate sized “mini-meals” of protein and carbs.  I actually used to watch the clock, and worry that the “time” to eat my next “meal” could be somehow compromised by another person or an obligation and Oh No, how was I going to squeeze it in?  Really though,  due to my “insufficient” diet ( high on some nutrients, like protein, carbs, but COMPLETELY lacking good fats in the right amounts),  and my Brain Training of eating every couple of hours, I just got used to always eating.  The eating led to the desire to keep eating, despite the amounts of food I’d take in.  That was always followed by guilt, self-recrimination, and a plan to eat really really well starting tomorrow.

It’s the perfect way to make yourself crazy – ever tried it?

I can’t remember the last time this happened and I had a “bad day” – honestly.  If you experience bad days frequently, and can’t imagine normal life free of bad days,  KEEP READING THIS BLOG, because I want EVERYONE to be free of bad days!

Here’s the drumbeat again: If you want to get off the Diet Rollercoaster – and just have NORMAL days,  you’ve got to let go of old, failed, FALSE ideas that low fat/low cal and tons of exercise are the Keys to Weightloss Success, because they’re not. That old dinosaur paradigm screws up your thyroid, insulin, cortisol, and your sex hormones.  Low fat / low cal eats away at your muscle tissue.  Low/fat low/cal really messes with your metabolism – in a very long term way.  Low fat/low cal messes with your mind(emotionally and structurally).  Between 95 and almost 100% of ALL dieters GAIN THEIR WEIGHT BACK.hungry:full:hungry

Change the way you think and just try something new.  Give up the notion that Fat makes you Fat.  Give up the notion that Saturated Fat, from healthy animal sources or coconut, creates plaque in the arteries or high cholesterol, because scientifically – that’s NEVER been proven.  When you see headlines like “Meat causes heart disease/diabetes T2/etc”, go look at the foods included in the study.  You will ALWAYS see pizza(including crust), burgers (including bun), and lunch meats (loaded with who knows what plus nitrates and chemicals) classified as “meat”.

Want to read a little more about it?  Try here, and here.

Fats fill you up.  Fats are used by the body to do hundreds or thousands of jobs, from literally making up the membrane of EVERY SINGLE CELL IN YOUR BODY, to assisting fat-soluble vitamins to their rightful places, to building EVERY SINGLE SEX HORMONE, to feeding your heart (the heart muscle loves fatty acids!), to building brain neurons (the brain is 60% fat), etc etc etc.
When you skimp on fat, your body and mind rebels.  They will get what they want.  Those cravings you can’t deny?  That weird desire to keep eating even though you’ve had plenty of food?  That’s a cry for NOURISHMENT, and fatty acids are INCREDIBLY nourishing.

If you’re afraid of gaining weight on a diet that includes more fat and less carbs, put that fear aside and try it.  Give up the crackers, bread, pasta, pretzels, beer, and sweets, and replace it with more protein, more vegetables and a LOT more fat.  Drizzle olive/avocado oil on your salads, saute meats and vegetables in coconut oil or grass-fed butter (kerrygold’s a good one), eat REGULAR fat/unadulterated dairy products if you digest them well, roast your chicken with the skin ON, add a whole avocado to your salads, make a treat out of coconut butter or nuts.  Go for it.  chicken on bike

And ask yourself, are you really afraid of fat, or are you sad at the thought of giving up the low fat/low cal munchie foods that allow you to indulge in your food desires while convincing yourself you’re eating health food?  Because I think that’s often the reason.   CHANGE YOUR DESIRES.   Sitting in front of the TV after dinner with a bowl of popcorn, potato chips or ice cream?  Change that desire.  Love to stop at your favorite coffee shop for a sweet drink and a sweet treat?  Change your desire. Love your big bowls of pasta?  Change that desire. Think cereal is from heaven?  Change that desire.   Work on creating another line in your brain that focuses on something else.  Maybe you need to watch tv in another room, or go to bed and read;  drive a different way home from work or listen to a podcast to distract you.  Start thinking that all your sauces would taste great on zucchini or eggplant or spaghetti squash.  Become appalled at the amount of carbs on your cereal box label. Work on your thoughts, and satisfy your body with foods that provide that nutrients that it needs.

Here’s a little ammunition, a Looks Healthy But Isn’t, actually, a few LHBI:  Ruffles Light Potato Chips (which contain Olestra/might cause leakage stuff), 10 chips are 17 grams of carbs/0 fat;  Quaker Oats Natural Granola, 1/2 cup has 38 grams of carbs;  and a slice of Starbucks Reduced Fat Berry Coffee cake has 54 grams of carbohydrate!!   These are weight disasters waiting to happen, and Health disasters waiting to happen.

Let’s go back to the beginning.  Want your life to be a string of “good eating days”? Ditch the empty refined, processed carby foods, and any thoughts of “mini meals”, and fill your plate and body with Real Whole Foods:  good fats, good proteins, tons of vegetables, some fruits, some nuts and seeds, some dairy.  Feed your body what it needs and the self-sabotage will end.

 

 

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