Eating Behaviors To Be Aware Of

Eating Behaviors to be aware of:
Mindless Grazing: typically learned during your teenage years when you couldn’t pass the fridge without opening it. No problem when you need calories for growth and higher activity levels.
Today it’s a sure fire way to pack on the pounds. Keep to 3 healthy meals and 3 healthy snacks per day.  

Cleaning your plate: As a child, cleaning your plate was a much lauded objective. Bribes or rewards of desserts or other treats were offered for finishing your meal. Unfortunately this leftover mindset from childhood often leads to eating too much. 

Eating too quickly:
Unlike many European countries, meals in North America are considered more as fuel stops. In Europe, families including children, treat meals as a social experience where time is taken to savor the food, drink and conversation. Interestingly obesity is far less of a problem there. It also takes around 20 minutes for your stomach to let your brain know it is full. If we bolt down our food then there’s the real risk of overeating. Slow down and at least put your fork down between mouthfuls. 

Breakfast:
Remember this is the most important meal of the day. You haven’t eaten for at least 10 to 12 hours, hence the name ‘break – fast’ and if you don’t fuel up properly, then your blood sugar has the potential to continue to plummet, leaving you grabbing for the biggest energy boost possible – more sugar laden foods.

Piling it on:
We eat too much.  Become mindful of the portion sizes of the food on your plate.  Infact, become mindful of how little nutrition dense food it really takes to energize, fuel and sustain our bodies for optimum health and weight. 

Suzy’s tips: Use a salad plate for meals. Never go more than three hours without eating a healthy something.  Keep meals of dense food, such as meat to the size of a fist. Watch this video to really grasp portion control. Click here to view!  Have an intense craving? Go for it.  Savor every bite, enjoy with pleasure not guilt and then move on.  Brush your teeth to remove scrumptious tempting tastes. Always eat mindfully!