At www.goodfood.com.au today there are more great modification strategies in an article by Tara Diversi, a skilled dietician.
A diet is by its very nature a temporary thing. We go on it, we go off it (usually long before we've lost the weight we wanted to). However, making modifications to our everyday choices can lead to better, healthier life-long eating habits. Heed the words of the clever Ms Diversi.
How will you utilise this information and what modifications will you make?
How to kick bad food habits
by Tara Diversi. January 1,
2014
Creating a habit starts with a baby step in the
wrong direction. Breaking these bad habits can take a little more effort.
As a dietitian, I often feel like I'm hearing
confession from clients who speak of their “weaknesses” and the “wicked” foods
that tempt them, from chocolate to chips to cheese. The simple solution is to
remember the maxim, “everything in moderation”. But how do you put that into
practice when a habit has formed?
When it comes to combating your temptations, there
are tricks that can enable you to keep enjoying your food without gorging a
week's worth of treats in one sitting. For specific food habits, there's
usually a specific solution that can help reduce your reliance.
Sweet tooth
If you're eating sweets
as everyday foods rather than celebration foods, you may have a hard time
weaning yourself. Eating any amount of sweet food (from sugar or alternatives)
increases your desire for it, and if you've switched to artificially sweetened foods
in an effort to lose weight, it could actually have the opposite effect. Satisfying your sugar craving
can make you hungrier, and make you crave it even more.
Tip: Avoid eating sweet
food early in the day as this is likely to set you on the wrong path.
Chocolate
If chocolate is your
particular vice, there's no point feeling guilty. A recent study from
New Zealand found that those who associated eating chocolate cake with
celebration were more successful in reaching their weight loss goals than those
who associated it with guilt. If you have a treat planned, you're less likely
to overeat because you're feeling emotional, through convenience or boredom.
Tips: Always buy
single-serving chocolate bars. You can't eat half a block when you only have a
single serving in the house.
A want for chocolate
disguised as a need may in fact be a need to eat a more protein-rich breakfast. Swap
your usual cereal and toast for vegie eggs (an omelette or scrambled eggs with
vegetables like mushrooms, onion, capsicum and zucchini) or cottage cheese,
baby spinach and smoked salmon on a multigrain English muffin.
Cheese
Sure, most people find cheese and bacon delicious.
However, they've both become condiments added to flavour dishes rather than
being treated as ingredients in their own right. We tend to use them almost as
an insurance policy against a bad meal.
Cheese can be part of a healthy diet, but when it
is used with other high fat ingredients it just adds kilojoules and re-flavours
the food rather than enhancing the original ingredients.
Tip: A
slice of cheese can adds between 400-500 kilojoules to a meal or snack; two
slices gives us the energy equivalent of a medium chocolate bar.
Treat cheese as an ingredient, not as a condiment.Photo: James Davies
Soft drinks
I am often intrigued by the amount of supermarket
real estate devoted to large bottles of soft drink. While a two-litre bottle
may be the same price as a 375ml can, you're more likely to drink or eat the
first thing you see in the fridge, so as with chocolate only ever buy single
serves. Also if you've got some milk-a-holics in your household, put the milk
in the fridge on a shelf rather than in the door, and keep the door free for
storing water or sparkling water.
Tip: Wean yourself from
sweet drinks with sparkling water with a little lemon or lime added. You will
soon find soft drinks too sweet for your liking.
Salty snacks
When you have a
mid-afternoon craving for sweet or salty food it's easy to convince yourself
"my body must need it" and to eat food you hadn't planned to.
Salty food in particular can be moreish -
it's easy to stop at 15 raw almonds, but when they're toasted and salted, that
second handful goes down very easily.
Tip: Use flavours of foods
enhanced by herbs, spices or aromatic vegetables while you're trying to reduce
salt. Keep small portions of chips and nuts in individual serves. Mix salted
nuts with raw nuts to reduce overall salt, and swap salted snacks out slowly.
It is easy to eat a meal worth of kilojoules in a snack when it is salty like
chips or cheese and crackers.
Coffee
There are health benefits associated with drinking
coffee. Between two and four cups per day has been shown to reduce the risk of
some chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. The benefits are less
apparent when you add syrups, sugar, chocolate or enjoy milky coffees. Lattes,
flat whites and cappuccinos are more like snacks than drinks, and can add a
huge number of unwanted kilojoules that don't fill you up. Two regular lattes
per day above nutritional requirements will take the average person an hour of
walking to burn off.
Also, too much caffeine can cause an increase in
stress responses and sleeplessness. It may make you feel better at the time,
but for a long-term improvement on your energy, replace some of the
caffeine-induced energy with whole food energy at breakfast, lunch and dinner,
for example, by eating at least two serves of vegetables a day.
Tips: Treat milky
coffees as a stand-alone snack, rather than a drink. If you're drinking more
than four cups per day, try herbal tea alternatives. Peppermint tea is a great
pick-me-up for the afternoon. Beware of teas that have a lot of sugar added -
usually fruit-flavoured teas.
Give yourself a goal for number of coffees per day,
order the smallest size and gradually reduce the sugar you add. This will allow
you to enjoy a few cups per day guilt-free and savour the true quality coffee
taste.
Tips for fighting bad food habits
·
Plan when you'll eat your favourite treat, in small
amounts and preferably away from home.
·
Keep a barrier between you and the danger food. For
example, keep in drawers rather than on desks or in the fridge rather than in
the door.
·
If you buy food in bulk, separate it into
individual serves in reusable small containers.
·
Don't use fatty foods as condiments
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