Listening to your body can help you lose weight
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Updated: July 15, 2009 2:08 PM
By Tanja Shaw, Special to The Progress – In my last article, I discussed how practicing mindful eating, or being aware of the foods you are eating and how you eat them, leads to long term weight loss success. While following a strict menu, or eating pre-packaged (and often over-processed) meals will take the weight off, most dieters end up gaining the weight back within five years. Successful, enduring weight loss requires changing your mindset and changing your relationship with food.
A key step in mindful eating is to become aware of physical hunger and to let your body become hungry before eating. The principle is simple; the practice is a little more challenging. Have you ever found yourself rummaging through the cupboards for something to snack on because you were bored, or having a second helping because the food tasted so good, even though you were full? Have you ever searched for something sweet after supper even though you already loosened your belt buckle two notches, or relieved your stress with a bowl of ice cream? If so, you are well aware that eating when you are not hungry is easy to do. Often, we eat because we are bored, stressed, happy, or depressed. Using food to satisfy urges or to mend or emotions ultimately leads to weight gain.
To master mindful eating and become aware of physical hunger, I recommend using a hunger scale. Throughout the day you should rate your hunger:
1- You are ravenous! You feel light headed, you can’t focus.
2- You are grumpy.
3- Your have the grumbles.
4- You are slightly hungry. You are starting to think about food.
5- You are neither hungry nor full.
6- You are comfortably satisfied.
7- You are more than satisfied- but you know you can probably squeeze in a few more bites, or at least dessert.
8- You are full and need to loosen your belt one notch.
9- You are stuffed like the turkey you just ate.
10- You feel like you might get sick. Never want to look at food again.
Ideally, you should eat when you are a 3-4 on the hunger scale. If you get to the 1-2 range, your physical need for food will trump your desire to make healthy choices. You will be susceptible to overeating, or eating anything in sight. Throughout your meal, reassess your hunger. You should stop eating when you are a level 6-7. With practice, you can train yourself to stop at 6 at each meal. Practicing techniques of mindful eating, such as chewing your food 20-30 times, or putting the fork down between each bite will make it easier to stop eating once you are comfortably satisfied.
Like any new skill, becoming aware of your physical hunger takes practice. In time, eating when you are physically hungry and pushing your plate away before you need to put on your stretchy pants will become second nature. Mindful eating, in combination with making healthy food choices most of the time, will lead to long term weight loss success.
Tanja Shaw is a Kinesiologist and personal trainer, specializing in weight loss, golf fitness, pre and postnatal fitness, and exercise therapy. She owns Ascend Fitness Coaching, which offers personalized fitness coaching, group fitness, and in home fitness in the Chilliwack area. Reach her at tanja@ascendfitnesscoaching.com.
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