Hand to Mouth
Choose the right foods by confronting the skeletons in your dieting closet
With fast-food dollar menus around every corner, making an unhealthy eating choice is about as easy on your wallet as it is bad for your waistline. In front of the TV, the healthy snack option isn’t easy to do either.
An analysis of the foods eaten, the reason for doing so and a determined mindset can help change those unhealthy eating habits and make the battle of the bulge less of a one-way domination.
“I can say from experience in working with my patients that a change in eating habits is very difficult,” says Jennifer Nelson, a registered dietitian and director of clinical dietetics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “It’s not impossible. It’s difficult cause there are thousands of different foods we eat in numerous settings everyday. We’re bombarded by food advertising … compound it with our psychological makeup that food gives you comfort and pleasure … sometimes it’s just plain old overwhelming.”
Each person has their own unique challenges, says Nelson, and identifying those challenges can help individuals pinpoint the areas they need to improve. Is it snacking, emotional eating, eating out of boredom, stress and lack of routine? Identifying the stumbling blocks will target a starting point and boil it down to a manageable task.
“Sometimes it’s helpful to keep a food diary and write down why you did or not eat healthfully on a certain day or weekend or several days in a row,” she says.
Once that recognition is established, a healthier food like a fruit, vegetable or whole grain always is an option, says Nelson. But, she adds, a healthier food choice, just as much as an unhealthy food choice, is not going to be the answer to the problem. Take each episode as it is and do something different with it to bring in something positive. Go for a walk, call a friend or take up a hobby to combat temptations brought on by boredom or stress.
An article in the July issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource offers more tips on avoiding a food splurge and staying on track with weight-loss plans, such as:
• If dining in a restaurant, ask for a box at the beginning of the meal to cut the large portion in half. Save the rest for next day’s lunch.
• If you take in a rich dinner, plan on low-calorie meals the next day.
• If some foods are irresistible, find a way of incorporating them into your healthy-eating plan.
• Reward yourself. Not with food, of course, but add money to a jar for each temptation overcome or go see a movie after a good stretch of snack-free days.
“I think it’s [about] creating a more positive mind feel for what’s going on,” Nelson says. “In other words, recognize that you’re going to have setbacks and says, ‘OK, I blew it, I’m not going to beat myself up over it.’”
Think positive, she says. Negativity is a vicious cycle that can lead to giving up entirely. And that will just help the bulge keep winning.
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