Psychic Blog

Concerning our diet, many of us have turned to food by way of comfort during recent months. But now thoughts are turning, perhaps to a pre-planned holiday, returning to work and meeting up once more with friends and family.

If casting off your elastic waisted trousers (that you have cunningly convinced yourself is athleisure wear), but in reality, is more pyjama/sloth hybrid wear! Then, now might be the time to turn your attention to getting back on track diet wise.

Diets to Choose

There are of course may types of dietary advice to choose from: Low carb, low fat, low calorie, to name a few. There are also different approaches from organised diet clubs to going it alone.

In reality, most dietary approaches work. But the reason we perceive them as failing, is because we often can’t stay on them in the long-term. The food is either too bland and boring, the restrictions are too hard to fit around real-life. It’s expensive to buy the produce and so on…

So, it may be more helpful to create a framework of healthy eating/living that can be adopted in the long-term. Rather than going on a restrictive way of eating, that naturally causes an eating plan – where you are ‘on a diet’. Followed by the inevitable – very much ‘off the diet’!

Reframed Thinking

• Savour Meal-Times

Creating proper space for meals is important. It helps us to get back in touch with food, for both fuel and pleasure. Try laying the table, eating with family, and eating your meals without the distraction of mobile devices and television.

• Hunger

Many of us are fearful of being hungry. Carrying around snacks for all eventualities. Eating in-between meals etc. This often means, that we have forgotten what it really means to feel hungry, and we have gotten out of the habit of ignoring that hunger, instead immediately heading it off with readily-available food.

Hunger can be ignored, and will fade back, especially when you distract yourself. Take some time to re-learn what it really means to be hungry, and only eat when you genuinely need food. It’s also helpful to not satiate your hunger until you are absolutely full to brimming.

• Fasting & TRE

Before you even think about food, you can adopt techniques that help you to lose weight. One such example is intermittent fasting, and another is time restricted eating (TRE). Both can limit the window of time per day that you can actually consume food. It can help to reduce in-between meal snacking, or late-evening TV snacking for example.

If weight issues have been a long-term problem for you, then you might be interested in Woman’s Hour – Jenni Murray’s book, titled: Fat Cow, Fat Chance: The Science and Psychology of Size.

In an interview for the August 2020 edition of Good Housekeeping UK magazine https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/. Jenni discusses 6 pieces of advice in terms of making peace with food:

Losing weight in a slow & steady manner.

Focusing on portion control.

Re-phrasing the language around food.

Totting up alcohol calories.

Casting aside old habits, like always clearing a plate.

Recognising what hunger really feels like.