Posted by
Devon Lee
Thursday, October 06, 2011 03:47 PM EDT
There was a little black skirt; the only one left on the rack and it was in my size. Obviously I bought it even though it was a little tight. Easy enough, I would lose a little weight and then it would fit. As we all know, watching what you eat is not easy.
As a constant snacker and an exercise slacker, my favorite foods started to outweigh the priority of fitting into that skirt. Being hungry and miserable did not sound like my piece of cake, not even if the reward was the effortless slip into the perfect skirt. It’s a well-known conundrum: to satisfy or to restrain our appetites, all for the sake of looking good.
Shouldn't food lovers should be able to enjoy good food without being nagged by guilt? Calorie counting and overly cautious consumption can be just as psychologically unhealthy as overindulgence. To quote Anton Ego of Pixar’s Ratatouille, “I don’t like food, I love it. If I don’t love it I don’t swallow.” But without going to extremes, it’s amazing how many calories can be cut by make little changes in your consumption habits. Easier said than done, but we are creatures of habit, and changes in your daily routine can stick pretty quickly.
Everything in moderation. Practicing self-control when faced with an array of deliciousness is a challenge to human instinct. Just like shopping, the get it while you can mentality still prevails in our eating patterns. In a 2006 study, the rule of chewing each mouthful 15-20 times proved you could eat less, enjoy your food and stay fuller longer by simply resisting the urge to eat everything at once.
Take your time. Studies have shown that our increasingly hectic lifestyles over the past twenty years have reduced the average meal time from 30 minutes to a mere 14 minutes. People are also prone to eat faster and socialize less in loud, busy all-you-can-eat settings, consequently consuming an unseemly amount of food. Similarly, buyers are likely to buy more and opt for the more prestigious labels when browsing with friends and other shoppers (Enough by John Naish). Avoiding the frenzy of the eating and shopping without reflecting to keeps both your wallet and waistline happy.
Budget friendly home cooking is an easy way to make up for eating out the night before. My cooking skills being elementary at best, I recommend sticking to unambitious recipes with easy preparation and the possibility for multiple variations. Being lazy in kitchen is actually a good thing—meaning lots of low-effort snacks of fruits and raw vegetables. These types of food are in fact key components to natural weight loss, keeping you satisfied longer with their low calorie and high water contents.
The 2003 University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter recommends the conscious choice to consume foods with low energy density. Eating foods high in protein, water or fiber will help you stay full longer unlike foods with more sugar, starch or fat. Whole grain bread and baked potatoes are examples of filling foods in contrast to high fat and sugar foods such as donuts which are likely to leave you feeling hungry sooner.
Weight management will always be an uphill battle: while self-denial and extreme calorie tracking is one way to go, the moderate view of less is more seems like best the well-tested advice. To sum up, this foodie is accepting the fact that the skirt in the back of the closet might not fit just yet.
