The Path to Food Freedom - Part 2
Balance Your Meals
We need to start with another warning (a reminder from the introduction).
WARNING - this section may seem too easy if you’re used to following restrictive diets. Your brain might fight back. That’s okay…give your brain some space to list its concerns and reach out to me if you’d like to talk through them. Dieting culture can be hard to break free from, but it can be done!
This section, as easy as it might seem, is VERY effective. One way to convince your brain, if you’re used to dieting, is to try it as an experiment. Just give it a try and see how you feel…you might just feel fantastic ❤️
And, to tell you the truth, if your habits aren’t balanced, then you’ll be battling cravings all day long. But, with a few habit tweaks, your energy will come up, you’ll have less cravings, and you’ll enjoy your day a little bit more ❤️
First - Nail Breakfast
Caveat - Nail breakfast IF your stomach accepts breakfast. If not (the idea of eating breakfast might make you queasy), then have a mid-morning snack and nail lunch.
By putting some effort into finding a breakfast you, your body, and your lifestyle loves, your entire day finds balance. This is the meal that can put you on the blood sugar rollercoaster…or keep you off it. It’s the meal that can calm your cravings…or trigger them. Don’t miss out on the power of a great breakfast.
It’s magic. It really is.
(and I often hear from former dieters that they tried this to humour me, not expecting it to work…and were shocked when it worked really REALLY well!)
To me, a great breakfast is one that you enjoy, balances your body, and works inside your life. A breakfast isn’t great if it’s time consuming and your morning is busy. It’s also not great if it looks good on paper but you don’t really enjoy it.
And, there isn’t a magical breakfast that works for everyone, so this takes a bit of experimenting to find yours. For some people, it might be a carby breakfast and for others, it might be a high protein breakfast. And, for some, it might be a combo.
To find your perfect breakfast, try a bunch. Try:
- Carby breakfasts – toast, potatoes (or root veggie) and veggies, oatmeal. Make sure it’s high in fibre so your blood sugar stays balanced
- High protein breakfasts – eggs, smoothies.
- Carb/protein combos – egg & toast, fruit & granola on yogurt, etc
There are more ideas here in our Recipe section.
During your breakfast experiments, pay attention to:
1. Which style of breakfast keeps you full for at least 4 hours?
2. Which style of breakfast do you enjoy?
3. Which style of breakfast keeps you feeling good all day?
Once you know your body’s preferred style of breakfast, then try out a bunch of options inside that style. What do you like and what’s easy in your morning? If you’d like some ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Attn: Sugar Cravers, Let Me Tell You About Breakfast Dessert
I’ve got a little secret for you…I regularly add dessert to my breakfast.
Here’s the thing, my body loves sweet flavours and when I have something sweet along with my carby breakfast, my body says “ahhhhhhh…thank you for giving me what I need to feel balanced”.
My dessert is a homemade treat like a black bean brownie (high fibre and low sugar) or a piece of fruit or a square of chocolate. And lemme tell ya…this was life-changing for me and my cravings.
My sweet breakfast addition mustn’t spike my blood sugar, so a square of dark chocolate is as sweet as I get. But man, does this work for me!
I wanted to let you in on my little secret just in case your body might like a bit of dessert with breakfast too ❤️.
Next – Always Have an Afternoon Snack
How do you feel when you’re thinking about making dinner in the early evening? Are you happy, full of energy, and ready to make something great?
Or…are you tired, hungry, and the last thing you want to do is start cooking?
If the latter feels like you, then there’s a very good chance you just need an afternoon snack. This magical snack also solves the “get home at the end of the day and want to eat everything out of the cupboard” problem. And even helps the “when I get home I just want a glass of wine before doing anything” style of symptoms.
Yes, it might be simple, but an afternoon snack has magical powers.
Why
Your body needs a snack in the afternoon because two important hormones are heading south.
Your blood sugar is dropping after lunch, and your cortisol (stress hormone) is making its natural late in the day drop to prepare you to sleep at night. This one-two punch of dropping hormones is why the late afternoon can be a difficult time for patience & creative work. It also makes you HUNGRY (a.k.a. hangry) if your blood sugar drops too low.
When?
Have an afternoon snack around 3:30 – 4:30, or about 30 mins before you normally have any of the above symptoms. If I’m out of the house all day then I eat mine as I drive home.
What?
This is a good time for an easy, high energy snack. Your body may want something sweet or salty, depending on your common cravings. Fruit is a great high energy sweet treat, and crackers and hummus might satisfy a salty craving.
But, it’s more important to eat SOMETHING before your energy/blood sugar crashes, so don’t worry too much about this being a perfect snack. Once you get into a good afternoon snack habit, then try to find the snack your body loves the most.
Portions and plate sizes
I get A LOT of questions on portion sizes. A LOT!
After years/decades of dieting, it can feel really normal to measure your food. But, measuring food can make your brain feel like you’re not going to have enough to eat. Our brain plays a big role in our hunger hormones and affects how full we feel after eating. Measuring your food can trigger your brain to send out a signal of “not enough!! Eat more!!!”.
There are two easy and surprisingly effective ways to manage that. These techniques work incredibly well and are backed by research. But…there’s one big problem. Your brain was trained by the dieting industry and might fight back. It might think that this is way too easy to work. Just a warning that you might get some backtalk from your brain.
Let’s start with the most effective one:
Use smaller plates
This technique works around your brain and keeps it very happy. I use this technique myself every day and I LOVE IT!
Over the last 30 - 40 years our plates have gotten bigger and research has found that we can eat up to 70% more if our brain thinks that the food on our plate is the “right” amount of food. That’s almost DOUBLE!
A few years ago I started to eat my dinner off of a side plate. My plate isn’t as small as it sounds, it’s just about the size of a plate from the 1950s or 1960s. And, I’ve found that I can fill that plate up and I feel wonderfully satisfied by that amount.
…but, at first, my brain fought back. BIG TIME!
The first few times I pulled out a side plate and filled it up there was a little voice in my head that said, “that’s not enough, you need more food”. To quiet that voice I said to myself, “if I’m still hungry, I’ll go back for more”. I also told my husband to leave me some food in case I wanted seconds.
Then, I left the kitchen and enjoyed my meal. Wanna know how many times I went back for more?
It was once. Just once.
And, that once was a special occasion. We had made a meal kit and it was AMAZING food. I wasn’t hungry when I went back for seconds, I just wanted to enjoy more of the deliciousness.
Where to find smaller plates and bowls:
If your side plates seem WAY too small, look for old-style dishes for your plate experiment. Do you have an old china set from your mother or grandmother? Those plates and bowls will be just about the right size.
If you don’t have access to an old set of china (or have a friend that will loan you some), check a thrift store. 1 or 2 plates and bowls should cost less than $5.
Once you have your smaller options, try it out! Calm your brain with the promise of seconds and notice how you feel after you eat your meal. Do you feel satisfied with less? Do you still feel hungry? Use this as a guide to find the right amount of food for your body.
impt point -
If you’re looking to lose weight you might have developed a belief that it’s bad to feel full or satisfied after eating. The dieting industry gave you this belief and it’s wrong. If you don’t eat enough in your meals your body will later try to tempt you with cookies, chocolate, and potato chips. But, your body would rather have more dinner, so be sure you’re feeling wonderfully satisfied when you’re.
Organizing your food on your plate
Setting up your plate can also be helpful to make sure your brain feels there’s enough food and your body gets all of the nutrients it needs.
Think of your plate in 4 quadrants -
one section for protein
one section for starches (starchy veggies and/or grains)
2 sections for non-starchy veggies
This works for basic protein/starch/veg meals, but harder for more combos (like soup, stews, or casseroles), so use it when you can ❤️
And Finally – Focus on Adding
Don’t worry about any sugar, refined, or processed food that might still be hanging out in your diet. Removing food creates a very loud and demanding food. If you say “I’m not going to eat potato chips anymore”, then your brain will spend all day trying to convince you to eat them. Remember that stubborn, tantrumming inner 2-year-old? Ya, it’ll never give up until you eat some chips.
Instead, put your focus on a more positive idea, one that won’t awaken your inner 2-year-old. Focus on adding more nutrient-dense food to your diet.
When you focus on adding more fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, beans, and whole grains (if your body tolerates these foods), then you automatically squish out some of those processed food without having to say no to them. There’s simply no room in your diet for them. But, if you crave them and want some, go for it.
Nutrient-dense food helps to balance your cravings because many cravings are triggered by a specific nutrient your body is looking for. If you’d like to dive a bit deeper into what different cravings mean, check out Chapter 8 in my book Undieting or, email me and I’ll send you an e-version of this chapter.
How to:
Start by looking at your diet right now. How many fruits and veggies are you eating each day? How about beans? Or other plant-based whole food?
Then, set your sights on adding one more. Which meal or snack would be easiest? Or which one would be best effected by a nutrient-dense food? From my experience, lunch and your afternoon snack are really good spots to start.
If you’re feeling T-I-R-E-D and totally burned out right now, then consider adding some fresh-pressed juices as a way to up your nutrient levels.
Juicing is great for a tired body that’s needing a big energy boost, but it’s not usually good for a body that’s already pretty happy and healthy (whole fruit or veggies is better). To see if your body will like it, head over to your favourite juice bar and pick up a juice. How does it feel? Did you like it? Listen for the quiet sign of your body lighting up a bit when you drink it.
If you feel this way, consider adding a regular juicing habit for a few weeks or a few months. Ask a friend to borrow a juicer if you don’t have one (so many people have one collecting dust in their cupboards) and get juicing! Stop whenever it stops feeling good or you just don’t wanna anymore :)
IMPT point - Every nutrient-dense food is a win.
Grab a bunch of asparagus and sauté them in olive oil and salt…it’s so easy to eat a ton. Or steam a few handfuls of spinach or some chard and add a bit of olive oil to pull out the fat-soluble vitamins. They wilt down into about 2 or 3 bites and they’re chock-full of nutrients.
Try new fruits or veggies you’ve never bought before. Grab one at a time and do some recipe googling to find a delicious way to cook them.
Once Your Habits are Balanced
A healthy diet isn’t a perfect one, but it is one that feels good and one that you enjoy. Once your habits are balanced and you’ll find yourself adding more and more nutrient-dense food to your diet.
Head over to Part 3 to learn to embrace your beautiful and wonderful body. This part includes important information about metabolism and hunger hormones. Head over there and after that, pause and be patient.
Part 4 are practices that you can dive into whenever you’d like, whenever you feel this is something that feels good to try.
Feel free to read through Part 4 now to see if there’s anything you’d like to try, or just read through Part 3 and then close this masterclass for now. Focusing on building strength and eating nutrient-dense food is a powerful way to find balance in your body. Part 4 is the advance practice :)
Got any questions or comments? Comment below, jump to our private Facebook Group, or the Ask Lisa page :)