Tuesday Tip: Manage food guilt đŹ
You succumbed to the biscuits, or had a bad day and had a pizza instead of the salad you planned and now you feel guilty that youâve ruined your âdietâ and sabotaged your goals right? We all do this! There is nothing wrong with indulging in treats. What is sabotaging your weight loss goals is indulging in food guilt about it.
Weâre conditioned to think that indulgences are bad, some foods are âbadâ and we should feel âbadâ for giving in to our cravings, or at the extreme that we are âbadâ for having them. This will often lead to the “wtf” effect, making you eat even more as you think you’ve blown it.
A healthy balanced diet includes occasional treats. What you eat doesnât affect who you are – indulging in treats doesnât make you a bad person! Your character, your identity and your values don’t change just because you ate a bowl of ice cream.
Food is not good or bad. There are just foods that are better than others in terms of their nutrition. You can incorporate everything in a sustainable way that doesnât leave you feeling deprived. Here are some ways to manage food guilt:
# 1 Donât label food as âgoodâ or âbadâ. Food should be pleasurable, so enjoy foods you love but focus on balance. Having a doughnut as a snack as part of a balanced diet is fine!
# 2 Donât be so hard on yourself. You are not good or bad because of what you put in your mouth. You wonât change if you have an extra piece of chocolate tonight.
# 3 Listen to your body. Are you eating that biscuit because youâre hungry, or are you stressed or bored and actually doing something else would be a better way to solve it?
# 4 Plan treats in. If you know your favourite treat is around the corner it is much easier to stay on track. Try either planning smaller treats in daily (e.g. a square of choc) or plan in bigger treats once or twice a week (e.g. a pizza at the weekend), but make it fit your calories
# 5 Be mindful when you eat and focus on the food not the TV, your phone etc. Put down your utensils between bites. Try to fit your favourite treat into your diet or find similar swaps that are lower calorie that you still enjoy.
Happy Tuesday đ¤
Xx