If you open any magazine you will see the next fad diet or super food claiming to be the solution to an expanding waistline. However, the reason may not be due to the food at all but the way you are eating. Behaviour around food can be your best friend or your worst enemy and below are three common behaviour mistakes which can be sabotaging your healthy weight.
- Mindless Eating.
Do you have a package of snack foods at your desk? A common one is nuts which can easily be picked at all day without thought of how much you have eaten, or the energy consumed. Mindless eating is not a good thing for many reasons and one is the food is often used as a cure for boredom rather than a solution to hunger. This means you end up eating more than you need over a day and if this continues will lead to your waistline expanding. The solution? Put snacks out of reach at your desk. Healthy snacks like nuts are great but they still contain energy. Try portioning a 30g or small handful in a designated lunch box or bag so you know and have a limit to both snacks and meals. Eating at your desk is another habit to break. You will probably end up doing more work while eating instead of focusing on the food and taking time to eat. Your body takes time to realise it’s full and if you scoff down any food you will probably eat more than you need and before you know it overeat and end up in a food coma.
- Exercise means calories don’t exist.
I often hear the phrase ‘I exercise so I can eat anything I want’. This is unfortunately not the case and you can’t outrun a cheeseburger diet no matter how hard you try. Except for athletes training multiple times and many hours a day most of us can fit our regular eating pattern and amount around exercise. If needed a small bowl of high fibre cereal with a banana or 2 pieces of wholegrain toast and a tablespoon of 100% peanut butter can help substitute the lost energy from your workout but this does not mean you can head to Maccas for an extra-large Big Mac Meal with a sundae.
- Too Much of a Good Thing.
Eating foods like whole grains, lean meats, healthy fats like extra virgin olive oil, avocado, nuts, salmon, dairy or alternatives like tofu and fruit and vegetables are vital for health. All foods and beverages except water, coffee and tea contain calories which do count to your overall daily amount. It is a common mistake thinking that these foods are needed for health so the need to balance and moderate how much of each group you eat, or drink is unnecessary. This is when I healthy plate model can help. With meals half of the plate should be 1-2 serves of vegetables, ¼ be a serve of whole grains and ¼ be a serve of lean protein. When it comes to snacks try to include one serve of lean meat or whole grains (or half of each) with one serve of vegetable or fruit. Knowing what a serve is can help, check out the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating website for information about how much is a serve.
Take home message: there is no doubt what you eat matter but how you eat could be the reason you can’t shift those extra kilos. The bottom line is energy in and energy out, if you are taking in more than you are using your weight will not shift in the direction you may want. Take note if you are falling into any of these three traps as it may be the reason you are not achieving your weight loss goals.
