About Food

If I asked you how many times this week you ate without any distractions, what would you say?

How many of those meals weren’t interrupted by cell phones, TV shows, work emails or driving the kids to soccer practice? Our busy lives have made us change our eating habits, and not for the better. So, when I challenge my Rebels to eat without any distractions, they all say the same thing: Eating is BORING. But is it really? Without something to distract us, we become aware of early ‘full’ signals and learn that we don’t have to eat until we’re stuffed[i]. More importantly, we learn that those foods we hold as ‘off limits’ and ‘treat’ foods, may not actually taste very good[ii]. The right food for you will be enjoyable and tasty, so why shouldn’t it also be fun? As a culture we’ve lost this wonderful appreciation for good food. I’m here to remind you to find the fun in food again.

 

Step 1: Take the Challenge.

You can eat whatever you want, as long as you sit down without your phone, without a newspaper, without the TV, and without anything else that distracts you from the food (the only thing that I feel is okay is music in the background). Allow yourself to taste every bite, and savour every flavour; make it an experience[iii]. Listen to your body, and listen to its cues. After this first step, many of my Rebels report eating less because they lose interest in the food sooner.

 

Step 2: Check in with yourself.

Was what you ate totally delicious? Was it absolutely drool worthy? Some people, like me, really love a good burger. I eat them often. But I’m fussy over where I’ll get one from. I want to enjoy it, and not just scarf it back. While many consider them ‘junk food’ I don’t. I don’t because I REALLY love them. I’ve accepted that burgers are a perfectly healthy dining option that I don’t need to feel guilty about. There are other ‘junk foods’ that I don’t eat, or at least I don’t eat often, because I realized that I don’t really like them. So, it’s an easy no for me.

 

Years ago, I remember constantly craving the foods that the nutrition industry labeled as ‘bad’. Those foods that we ‘shouldn’t’ eat hold a certain allure, because let’s face it, we humans want what we can’t have. We love the idea of being able to have that ‘holy grail’. So even if I didn’t really like that certain ‘bad’ food, I craved it and ate it with a cloudy mixture of guilt and excitement. Only once I started to eat with attention did I find out what I like and what I don’t. Without the emotional excitement clouding my judgement, it came down to me, my body and the food.

 

Step 3: Eat What you LIKE.

Once you stop restricting yourself from whatever that special food is, you’ll find that the cravings and food thoughts become less intense. Keep it simple; eat what you want, when you want. Just remember to listen to your body, and avoid the distractions. Let me tell you from experience, it’s a much more peaceful existence.

 

So is food really boring? Maybe in some ways; I might have to grieve the loss of a food that I once thought brought me joy. But if the food or the act of eating has become boring then the question becomes “am I really hungry?” or “is food what I really need right now?”. These questions allow you to openly change your perspective and build a healthy curiosity. And if sometimes you continue to eat anyway, that’s OKAY. It’s okay because you’re now aware of what you’re doing. It’s not mindless. Let it go and move on. More than anything, be kind with yourself through this process. Know that making mistakes along the way means that you’re making progress.

Until next time,

Live Life. Love Food. Be Free.

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[i] http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/distracted-eating-may-add-to-weight-gain-201303296037

[ii] http://lifehacker.com/when-you-eat-focus-on-just-eating-1548927900

[iii] https://www.happier.com/blog/5-ways-to-practice-mindful-eating-aka-enjoy-your-food-more

Halloween can be a tricky dilemma for families who are trying to ‘clean-up’ their diets and create healthy eating patterns for their children.

• Do you let your kids go collecting and just limit how much they eat daily?
• Or maybe not restrict at all? Just let them have at it!
• Do you let them experience collecting candy but not let them eat it? Trade it for toys or cash?
• Do you just not let them go at all? Take them to a movie instead?

What kind of lessons are we teaching children with this tradition? And more importantly, what are they learning from our teachings?

There are more and more families trying different ways to limit the damages of trick-or-treating. Some believe we are teaching them to binge eat and there’s nothing healthy about it. While others believe that it is a childhood rite of passage.

My experience with Halloween was troubling as a child. I loved it! Right up until we had to hand over our candy and it was doled out in rations. It was so stressful picking the one or two pieces that I was allowed each day.

The best way to add value to anything is to put restrictions on it. This is true in all areas of life. If everyone and anyone can get something, it’s not valued. If it’s rare, then it’s revered and its value goes up. We want what we can’t have. And we know now from research that food restriction leads to disordered eating and secret eating.¹ That is exactly what happened to me.

Inadvertently, we are teaching our kids that candy is so special and so rare. For some kids like me, this turns into a habit of secret eating and food hoarding. These children feel ashamed because they know they “shouldn’t” but they just can’t help themselves. They will ‘steal’ food and scarf it back as fast as they can before anyone catches them. This type of obsessive food thinking leads to disordered eating behaviour.

If you think about it, when you start a diet how much do you notice the food commercials? How often do your friends meet over food, or bring food when you get together? It starts to feel like food is everywhere! When food is the focus, that is all we see.

Perhaps it would be easier if you did not allow your kids go out trick-or-treating at all. That could be a solution, right? Then there would be no candy to worry about. Unfortunately, being left out is really hard on a kids’ self-esteem. Halloween is talked about on TV shows, at school, and with friends. It’s big conversation – what will you go out dressed up as? What candy did you get? So, as a parent this isn’t a solution for our household.

What I’ve decided to do is to allow my son to go out and get his loot. Of course I will go through it to make sure that it’s safe to eat. Then when he is going to eat his candy, he can do it at the table, with attention paid to the candy itself. He cannot eat the candy, mindlessly, while watching TV or playing video games. He eats until he is done. What’s happened in my house using this approach? The candy is never gone. Every year there is always leftover candy getting tossed out in the spring. Only the candy that is really tasty and satisfying gets eaten. Over the years there has only been one tummy ache from eating too much candy. That stomach ache wasn’t enjoyable, so he hasn’t done it again.

How do you handle Halloween? Will you try something new this year?

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¹ Appetite. 2016 Jun 1;101:192-8. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2016.03.008. Epub 2016 Mar 4.

 

As parents, we work incredibly hard to make the life of our kids better than our own. So when it comes to their health, we do everything we can to make sure they don’t struggle the same way we do. But the problem often lies in our efforts. We tell them, “don’t eat too much cake, it’s bad for you” or “you don’t need all that Halloween candy, it will rot your teeth and give you a tummy ache!”. We believe that passing on our own food rules will help our children develop a better relationship with food and their bodies. But it won’t. Talking about food rules starts the mental chatter for kids, and those same food rules we hold so dear are even holding us back. This week, I encourage you to eat cake for breakfast, and let our kids do it too.

Think all foods we label as ‘bad’ are the enemy? Think again. A study produced in 2012 reveals the positive impact of indulging in our cravings, and not restricting ourselves. The study focused on 163 adults who were officially categorized as obese. Split into 2 groups, the first group was assigned to eat a large 600-calorie breakfast that included some kind of dessert item (like cookies, cakes or doughnuts). The second group was assigned to eat a small 300-calorie breakfast. Both groups consumed the same number of calories per day (1,600 for men and 1,400 for women). The group who ate the larger breakfast, then ate a smaller dinner. Over the 16-week period, both groups lost around the same amount of weight.

Following the completion of the study, participants were advised to follow the same pattern, but they could eat more if they had hunger cravings. After another 16-weeks, the “small breakfast” group gained 24 pounds, while the “big breakfast” group lost 15 pounds on average. They found that those who ate the big breakfast had lower levels of ‘ghrelin’ (the hunger hormone) and fewer cravings than those who ate the small breakfast without dessert¹. The reasoning is simple:

“When we diet, we’re hungrier, ghrelin levels rise and there’s a decrease in our metabolism. A large breakfast that includes protein, carbs and sweets may counteract these changes, so people are able to maintain weight loss over time” Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz of Tel Aviv University in Israel.”²

When it comes to your children, many of us try to shelter them from our own bad eating habits. We eat in private and we hide the evidence. Then we try to teach our kids how to stay on track and eat the healthy foods. But no matter how good your intentions, commenting on your child’s weight or food intake probably isn’t going to help. What does make a difference is presenting a positive role model for them. Change the conversation, and encourage a positive outlook on food:

• • 1. Reduce the amount of food and fat talk in the house. Your words have a huge impact on your child’s body image. It has been proven that women who recall their parent’s comments on weight and food as a child are more likely to feel the need to lose a significant amount of weight in adulthood³. What you talk about now, influences them for the rest of their lives.
    2. Don’t make food a reward or a punishment. Eating should be a way to nourish our bodies, not a bribing technique. When we use foods as a reward or punishment we encourage negative eating habits⁴.
    3. Don’t hide foods or prevent your child from eating certain ones. It will only make them want to eat them more. Instead, allow them to build trust between food and their bodies.
    4. Be the role model they need. Change your perspective. Find out how you can change your relationship with food and dieting so that they can see what healthy really means.

  Trust me when I say that one piece of cake will not kill you. No matter what you eat, however “bad” it is for you, if you truly sit and savour it, then it will get boring. Once you focus, you’ll realize you don’t actually want to eat a whole plate of treats, you only wanted a few bites. It’s at that moment that you will begin to build trust with yourself and with food. I encourage you to listen to your body, and recognize the cues when they come, then teach your children to do the same. Food doesn’t need to be the enemy. When you teach your children to truly enjoy a treat (and not how to diet), you save them a lifetime of negative eating habits.

  Until next time,
  

  Live Life. Love Food. Be Free.

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  ¹http://www.unilad.co.uk/grub/science-says-eating-chocolate-cake-for-breakfast-is-healthy-now/
  ²http://www.livescience.com/18436-cake-breakfast-sweets-diet.html
  ³http://www.businessinsider.com/how-parents-influence-childrens-eating-habits-and-weight-2016-6
  ⁴http://www.eatrightontario.ca/en/Articles/Adolescents-teenagers/Parent-and-Caregivers-Influence-on-Children%E2%80%99s-Eating-Habits.aspx