Diet Survivors™ newsletter July 2006

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Technical vs. adaptive change

Portion Control and Food Balance

Remove the fats, count calories, go to the gym, use smaller plates. Dieters usually psyche themselves up for technical changes, which are changes to their food or their lifestyle. These are external changes, and some of them do help a little.

But without an adaptive change, a dieter will eventually return to his old ways. That's because distorted inner beliefs and self-talk get in the way:

"Once I lose the weight, I won't have to grin and bear this anymore."
"I can't wait to reward myself. A binge sounds good right now."
"I'll make a rule that I can only eat desserts when I'm in a restaurant."
"If I just stick to a certain number of calories each day, I can succeed."
"I don't have to think about weight maintenance right now. Just let me first reach the milestone of weight loss."
"I must always use fat-free sour creme or I'll get fatter."

Some beliefs are not only distorted—they're downright irrational. It's no wonder so many diets fail. These beliefs, rules, edicts, and self-talk are eventually our undoing.

How about instead if we focus in on the adaptive, or inner changes, we need to help us become normal, wise eaters? When we examine our beliefs and self-talk, we begin to recognize which of our beliefs are really helping, and which are not. We begin to form our own judgment, or "inner food wisdom" that will turn us into normal eaters.

The goal, then, isn't so much to teach you a new way to eat, or a new method of dieting that's come to be known as "intuitive eating." Rather, the goal is to help you become so in tune with yourself that you know precisely what your body needs in order to achieve and maintain the right weight. This effort has little to do with rule about restaurants or counting fat grams.

That said, it is not enough to tell a dieter to simply change his lifestyle or quit his diet mentality—some of us have carefully crafted our irrational beliefs for years. You'll need to do a little work.

Food addiction and chronic diet failure are caused by, or exacerbated by, faulty beliefs about dieting and body image. One of the most egregious beliefs fostered by the diet industry is that if you already have weight problems, you need to be told what to do in order to lose the weight. Dieters get hooked on rules: rules for portion control, meal size, points, calories, gram counts, when to weigh, and more.

What's the right amount of food to eat?

Sensitive yourself

If you've been on the dieting track for a while, you're used to being told what to do, how much to eat, and what to eat. But by now you may have noticed that your body and mind eventually rebel. The answer is to take back your own judgment. Listening to your own body is what will make it happy.

It's time to subject all weight loss advice, even the advice contained herein, to your own judgment. It's time to judge for yourself what to eat, how much, and when. You might not know this yet, but you really do know these things.

Finding your own food wisdom is a balancing act of learning what "normal eaters" do, while learning to tune out external rules. You may say, "But I've never known how to eat. How am I supposed to figure it out for myself?" You might want rules, but general guidelines about what's normal are better.

Make sure you are hungry before you start the meal. Eat slowly if it's practical. Once you sense that you might not feel so hungry anymore, try stopping. If, in a few minutes, you feel hungry, then top off your tank with just a little bit more (sometimes a single piece of cheese will do the trick). Wait until you are good and hungry again for your next meal.

It may take a while to develop the level of sensitivity to discover you need one more slice of cheese, but it will come. Keep at it. In the meantime, you might find yourself faking it a bit. That's okay. You can end your meal somewhat arbitrarily for now. There will be mistakes along the way.

Remember, however, that these are technical changes. What's more important is to question your beliefs, such as "I must be have a food plan or I can't succeed." What evidence have you really seen of this? Is it really true? Is it time to take a risk and try another way?

The first recommended adaptive change for this month is to tell yourself this, as many times a day as you need to:

I do have the ability to judge how much to eat. At first, stopping at the end of a meal will feel a little arbitrary, but I'll catch on. After a while, knowing when to stop eating will feel instinctive again, or perhaps, for the first time in my life.

The second recommended adaptive change for this month is this self-talk:

My negative self-talk and its resulting negative feelings are only an annoyance. I can still make positive choices.

The four basic food groups

"Tune in" to your own tastes in food!

This month's suggested technical change is to learn, or rather, relearn, what you like to eat.

Waiting until you are hungry and stopping when you are no longer hungry are the keys to weight loss. But it doesn't end there. Following your appetite's desires to the extent that food availability allows is just as important. If you've been on diets for a long time, the idea of eating what you want may seem counterintuitive. However, we're not suggesting that you swing the pendulum to the other extreme and only indulge on chocolate eclairs. There is an in-between.

Within the bounds of hunger and fullness, and within the bounds of taste, there are some good, sensible guidelines which your grandmother probably followed. Picture the old-style basic four food groups. We suggest updating the old four food groups to reflect the health and diet value of whole grains and healthy fats. The suggested technical change for this month is to think in terms of the basic food groups described below.

Dairy This includes milk and cheese. If you eat soy products, you can think of them either in this group or in the meat group, since they are technically not dairy and are bean-based. But it doesn't much matter.
Meat and other protein sources This includes all high-protein sources, such as nuts, seeds, beans, eggs. Vegetarians and vegans (vegetarians who don't eat dairy) can find plenty of protein sources that are not animal-based.
Fruits and vegetables This includes fresh, canned, and frozen vegetables and fruits of all kinds. If you eat table sugar in your diet, you can think of sugar as belonging to this category, or to the category of breads and cereals. Fruit has a form of sugar in it, too.
Breads, cereals, and starches This category includes all grains, such as hot and cold cereals, whole-grain breads, potatoes, and sweets. It is helpful to all of us as we age, whether we need to lose weight or not, to steer away from foods made with white flour, such as pasta and white bread. But more importantly, keep your portions small, as you are learning to do with all the other food groups as well. Sweet foods could be thought of as belonging to this category, since this is the carbohydrate group, and sugar is a simple carbohydrate. But it doesn't much matter.
Fats You can think of fats as a fifth category. Fats house the flavor of foods, and offer appetite satisfaction. Have you ever tried a pancake with syrup but no butter, and then compared it to a pancake with syrup and butter? The butter intensifies the taste of the syrup, thus leading to earlier appetite satisfaction. In other words, you might be content with two pancakes instead of five, if you include that pat of butter.

Some fats are beneficial to your health. They include olive oil, the fats in fatty fishes (such as salmon), the fats in nuts such as (macadamia nuts), and the fats in fatty vegetables (such as avocados). Some other fats, such as canola oil, butter, coconut oil, vegetable oil, and some others, may prove to be less beneficial to your heart, but may not be harmful, either.

A form of fats that have now been found to clog arteries are the manufactured trans-fatty acids found in in processed foods, and used by restaurants. Many margarines are made with these fats, rendering them less healthful. There is a recent movement among fast food restaurants to promise they will do away with cooking with these fats. These may be the only unhealthful fats after all.

Sample meals

With the understanding that we are not recommending any particular plan, we also recognize that if you've been living a dieting life for a long time, it might be hard for you to translate the above advice into sound, small, normal meals. Following are some examples of meals eaten by a woman who is 120 pounds, or will eventually slim down to 120 pounds as a result of eating this way.

Of course, your meals could look very different. Eat only what you find delicious, and use your own judgment about portion sizes.

Breakfast samples

a fried egg, one whole wheat waffle (with syrup and a perfect dot of butter on it), one big fat strawberry, and a cup of coffee with real half-and-half
a bowl of instant oatmeal (made with two packages), two sausages, and a glass of whole milk with ice to make it cold
a fast-food egg and muffin sandwich (Eating white bread once in a while won't hurt your weight control. Just be careful that for the rest of the day you stick to whole grains. Better yet, make your mcmuffin at home, with a whole-grain English muffin.)

Lunch samples

a big bowl of salad with plenty of oil and vinegar (Add tomatoes, some avocado, shredded cheese, canned beans or nuts, and some crumbled whole grain crackers of your choice instead of croutons. The addition of the crackers adds a balance of carbohydrates to the salad, thus helping you reach "rapid satiety." After the meal, your body won't feel as if it's missing something. If you like something sweet in your salad, add raisins or some cut up fresh pears.)
cheeseburger with ketchup or mayonnaise on one toasted slice of whole-grain bread, cut in half, with tomato and lettuce and plenty of cheese
a deli cold cut sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, and real mayo or mustard on whole wheat bread (but not one of those giant heroes!)

Afternoon or after-dinner snack samples

If you start feeling weak before dinner, then have something small, or have something before going to bed.

two slices of cheese
two crackers with peanut butter on them
a small bowl of whole-grain cereal with whole milk and some brown sugar added for perfect sweetness

Dinner samples

two dinner sausages with plenty of fried peppers, a fistful of brown rice sauteed with onions and steamed green beans
a fistful of salmon with broccoli and some whole grain buttered toast, or a small mound of wild rice
a fistful of corned beef with two small potatoes and the liquid from the corned beef poured over the potatoes, sweetened applesauce, and steamed asparagus

These Web pages provide sensible advice on healthy diets, nutrition, and weight loss. However, no advice given here is intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor when deciding to make significant dietary or lifestyle changes.

Direct all technical questions and comments about this site to webmaster

Last Modified: Wednesday, 06-Feb-2008 07:12:49 PST Betterway Press
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