Reasons to avoid certain foods.. ⛔️

It can be hard to accept that all foods can fit into a healthy diet, especially in this heavily influenced diet-culture world full of social media ‘experts’. Every week you’ll see very convincing social media / news posts cherry picking bits of research to suggest certain foods or types of food should be avoided. In fact if you listened to all of them you probably wouldn’t eat anything at all! Usually they’re linked to someone selling a product or book of some sort so there’s often an ulterior motive too. You really don’t need and shouldn’t be avoiding any foods. It is possible to find a balance between nourishing and fuelling our bodies and enjoying and celebrating all foods.

The only reasons to avoid certain foods are as follows:

• medical reasons – if a Dr (an actual medical Dr who has examined you, not someone who’s book you’re reading/instagram page you’re following has told you to e.g. reducing saturated fats for heart issues, or reducing added sugar for diabetes etc.
• Moral/ethical/religious reasons – if you’re vegetarian/ vegan or have ethical reasons for not eating certain foods ,or if you’re religion has food related rules you follow.
• Allergies – if you have a genuine medical allergy (not an ‘intolerance’ – as discussed recently).
• Dislike the taste – if you honestly don’t like the taste of a food.
• Following a supervised elimination diet – if you’re under the care of a registered dietician and following a strict elimination diet.

Otherwise, there is absolutely no need to deprive yourself of your favourite foods just because someone told you to avoid it. Stop fearing foods and placing bad labels on tasty foods that can fit into a healthy, balanced diet.

🤗
Xx

‘I’m going to be so good…..’ 😇

How many of us do this? You start a new ‘diet’ or decide today’s the day you’re going to be so ‘good’ so maybe you skip breakfast and just have an americano, have a light salad for lunch, an apple for a snack and then a dinner of a piece of protein and some veg…. And then…. after dinner the flood gates open and you scoff biscuits, a brownie, sweets, chocolate etc.

For some reason we often equate losing weight/being on a ‘diet’ to restricting foods and eating like a rabbit! By skipping meals, cutting carbs and basically all foods you actually enjoy all you do is set yourself up for failure. Not only will you be starving but you’ll be feeling deprived which means once you get to the evening you’re likely to binge on all the things you think you shouldn’t have. Then you’ll feel guilty and ashamed no doubt and start it all over again tomorrow…

Instead give yourself permission to enjoy ALL foods when you’re trying to lose weight – just adjust the quantities. Have a proper breakfast, a lunch with some carbs in it (you need them for energy and brain function), a snack you enjoy and can fit into your calories and a proper dinner. You may find you then don’t feel the need to eat the world afterwards! You’ll probably also be eating fewer calories than the restrict:binge approach and it’s a far healthier and sustainable way to approach diet and weight loss.

🤗

Xx

Instead of saying ‘f*ck it’ try this instead… 🤷

I’m sure we all do this – we over eat and instantly think we’ve blown it, give up for the day, over eat even more and think we’ll just start again tomorrow. Many of us experience feelings of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and stress after over-eating. These emotions typically do nothing but contribute to a continued downward spiral and for most of us they’re not productive emotions or thoughts.

So what can we do instead? We can try to learn from what happened so we can be better prepared when faced with a similar situation in the future. So when you’ve over eaten here are a few things to ask yourself:

⁃ What led to me over-eating or over-indulging? Was there a trigger? A person, location, situation, or emotional state? Did I wait too long to eat? Was I stressed, bored, sad, upset, or lonely

⁃ Was I seeking comfort or a way to escape or disconnect?

⁃ Was there another way that I could’ve coped with the trigger?

⁃ What can I do differently next time the same situation is in front of me? What plan can I develop?

⁃ How can I implement and execute that plan next time?

Say you come home, stressed from work, and you immediately go to the cupboard and dig into a family size bag of crisps and throw down a glass of wine. Before you even notice half the bag is gone and you’re pouring a second glass. First, ask yourself what you were trying to gain from eating the crisps/drinking the wine. Were you hungry? No. So, perhaps you were seeking relief and comfort from a stressful work day. Next, what are other ways you can relieve your stress besides turning to food? Perhaps it’s going on a walk? Doing a home workout? Listening to a podcast? Calling a friend? Playing with a pet? Having a hot shower/bath?

Finally, when you come home the next day and you’re feeling those same emotions, rather than walking immediately to the cupboard , pause & ask yourself:

Why do I want that food?

Do I really need that food right now?

Will I be happy with this decision in an hour?

Tomorrow?

You’ve realized that you’re not hungry and

are seeking relief from stress. The next action will be to walk to a different room and execute your plan – call that friend, do a workout, run the bath etc.

This isn’t easy, and won’t happen immediately – it takes practice and you won’t always manage it but over time you will make progress and changes and remove the guilt. The goal is to acknowledge, adjust and

move forward.

🤗

Xx