Comments (21)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, March 2, 2010 11:51 am

One of my fellow RD’s, MaryAnn Tomovich Jacobsen, runs the blog Raise Healthy Eaters.  This blog is dedicated to providing credible nutrition advice to parents.  As a parent myself, I am focused on making sure I’m providing the best nutrition for my daughter.  A huge part of this is raising her to have a positive relationship with food and with herself. 

This week marks the beginning of MaryAnn’s new series:  Eating Disorder Prevention: 3 Things Every Parent Must Know.  The goal is to provide parents with the information we need to raise children who have a healthy relationship with food and their bodies.  I hope you will join me in reading along with this series and gain valuable information on raising a healthy eater.

This is week 9 of the 12 Weeks No Diets Series.

This week I wanted to talk about letting go of the cheat day.

There are thousands and thousands of diets out there that have a “cheat day”.  We are supposed to follow rigid guidelines all week and then have that one-day where we can eat whatever we want.  What this can do is eventually lead to an all out binge day (trust me, I’ve been there).  We feel we have to eat everything we can’t have during the week on that one-day.  This leads to a last supper mentality where we think to ourselves “tomorrow I’ll start over again”.  The problem is that this mentality can spread to days other than our “cheat day”.  If we go off our diet, it’s so easy to “just call it a cheat day”… which leads to a full on binge, which leads us back to the thinking “tomorrow I’ll start over again”.

Letting Go of the Cheat Day

Another common way of thinking is to eat healthy all week and “splurge” on the weekends.  I definitely went through a phase of thinking this way.  Don’t get me wrong… I enjoy a good splurge every now and again… it’s the quantity of the splurge that matters.  Eating healthy during the week and allowing ourselves to eat out more on the weekend is perfectly healthy, but what we need to watch is the amount of food we splurge on.  We still need to listen to our bodies, listen to our hunger, eat food we truly love, and stop eating when we’ve had enough.  Remember… it’s all about the portion sizes.   If it tastes so good you want to keep on eating, keep in mind that you can take the rest home to enjoy the next day. 

How to Splurge the Right Way

Be realistic in terms of the calorie content of your food.  I’m not going to encourage full on calorie counting, but think of calories in a very loose and realistic way. If we order a dish of fettuccine alfredo, we know that dish has upwards of 1,600 + calories.  Realistically, we do not need to be eating that much food.  Think about the bread, side salad, and wine we’ve already consumed prior to our dish arriving.  This can put us way over a 2,000-calorie dinner.  Have a game plan and assess the menu before you order.  If you really want the fettuccine, you can pass on the bread and/or wine, or, you can order it all and have a small taste of everything, but in reality, you’re not eating much food at all.  It’s the amount of food we eat that matters the most.

Never Deprive Yourself

If we let ourselves eat the foods we love whenever, we don’t need to have a designated day to enjoy them.  Eighty percent of your diet should be healthy, and 20% is whatever else you want (healthy or not).  As long as you are honoring your body, eating when you are truly physically hungry, and being mindful of your portion sizes, you can easily reach and maintain your healthy weight all while allowing yourself you daily “cheats”.

Don’t forget your workout of the week!

Click here for Jessica’s No More Resolutions Workout!

No More Resolutions will run for 12 weeks along with No Diets in the New Year

There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced workouts for everyone!

Comments (26)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, February 24, 2010 12:50 pm

(quoted from the clever & witty Fat Nutritionist)

This week is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week.  Eating disorders are life-threatening illnesses, not choices. Prevention is key in the fight against eating disorders.  Although I’ve never had an eating disorder, I did go through a period of being a little too concerned with what I was eating.  Here is one of my favorite handouts from NEDA.  I love this message in particular.

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY:

Eat what you want, when you are truly hungry. 

Stop when you’re full. 

And eat exactly what appeals to you. 

Do this instead of any diet, and you’re likely to maintain a healthy weight, and avoid eating disorders.

This is where normal eating comes in.  Normal eating is basically eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re satisfied.  Do this and you will naturally control your weight while falling into your natural healthy weight.  For a more detailed definition we can go to Registered Dietitian Ellyn Satter:

• Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied.
• Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food.
• It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful.
• Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating.
• Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life
• In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your hunger, your schedule, your proximity to food and your feelings.

This is a very good definition of normal eating and sounds relatively easy, but for some, it’s harder than you think.  An article in the New York Time’s Blog addressed normal eating with Ellyn Satter’s definition.  There were over 300 comments.  Everyone’s view of normal eating is different.  Someone’s view of normal eating could be eating fast food only once or twice per day.  It’s really important to clarify that it’s both quantity and quality that matters the most.  Eating healthy is very important, but how much you eat is even more important.  If you want fast food, eat fast food, just don’t order and consume the entire supersized value meal.  Normal eating as mentioned above is “going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied.”  This can be difficult for some, but it’s all about having the right attitude.  Food is fun, delicious, and satisfying.  Forget trying to lose weight… carry your head high and your attitude positive.  Let yourself eat what you want when you’re hungry and stop when you stomach isn’t hungry anymore.  Like Ellyn Satter says… “Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps it’s place as only one important area of your life.

I leave you with a question… “What is your description of Normal Eating?”  Let me know… I’d love to hear!

Comments (5)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, February 15, 2010 8:09 am

My website is fixed! Please update your Google Readers http://weeklybite.com/feed/

We’re past the halfway mark and into week 7. How did we do with the goal last week? Giving ourselves unlimited permission to eat whatever we want can be scary… but it’s so important in order live without dieting.

To recap, these are the goals we’ve covered so far:

1. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re satisfied
2. Make water your beverage of choice
3. Break mindless eating routines
4. Increase fiber intake by increasing fruit and veggie intake
5. Pay close attention to meal timing and portion control
6. Pay attention to your body – focus on eating consciously
7. The importance of meal planning
8. Making Peace With Food

This week we will be focusing on calorie counting… or lack there of. Part of embracing “not dieting” is to stop counting every piece of food that crosses our lips. I know calorie counting works for a lot of individuals. If you can count calories and not let if control your life or become obsessive about it, thats fine… but for most, its very easy to become a slave to this.

When I talk about stop counting, I mean calories, fat, carbs, grams, etc…

When we count, measure, weigh, or calculate food, we’re not listening to our body. We’re letting other factors control how much and when we eat… not our body. How can that be fun? Having to count, weigh, and measure everything can become exhausting and time consuming.

For a life-long food counter, not counting can be scary.

The goal for this week is to start small.

Start with one meal without counting anything. Just listen to your body. Let your body tell you when to start eating and when to stop.

After a few days, try to eat two meals without counting. Continue at your own pace until you’ve stopped counting all together.

The ultimate goal is to start eating in response to your body, not the calories counted in your head.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me.

*Don’t forget your workout of the week! *

Click here for Jessica’s No More Resolutions Workout!

No More Resolutions will run for 12 weeks along with No Diets in the New Year

There are beginner, intermediate, and advanced workouts for everyone!