How to Develop Unbreakable Habits
Our daily habits are the bedrock upon which our entire lives are built. That's a huge statement. But the excellent news is that any habit can be altered. This blog post is all about understanding and transforming our habits around food and eating, and how it can make a world of difference in our lives.
How You Eat & Where You Eat
How you eat and where you eat is just as important as what you eat. Actually, it might be more important. Do you eat on the run? Do you eat while you're feeding your kids? Do you eat in the car? Do you prepare an actual meal? Do you eat chips and salsa for dinner? Do you eat whatever is left over? Do you eat late at night? All of these behaviors are habits that contribute to our overall health and well-being.
Breaking Free from the Six Meals
I'm really not sure who exactly popularized the 6 meal a day plan. I know there are medical uses for it. However, for busy people with full lives, kids, school pick up, sports, pets, family trips, etc. Six meals a day is insane. You might think you don't eat 6 meals a day, but aren't we told that this is the norm: Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Snack. That's 6 meals!
This is a great idea in theory. If we ate at the same exact time every single day. But for most of us, we eat when we can because we have very full schedules. Because we have full schedules and we eat when we can, with 6 meals a day, this can mean we're eating THROUGHOUT the entire day! Oh, geez. The habit we cultivate there is constant eating. And that is a slippery slope. What if we only allowed ourselves 3 meals. Three full, luxurious, satisfying, juicy, elaborate, calorie-dense, beautiful meals? Do you think we would feel so deprived?
Breaking Promises to Ourselves
When we break a promise to ourselves, we lose hope. When we lose hope, we lose stamina, when we lose stamina we fall deeply into our comfort zone, we grab a bag of popcorn and we sit there. It's not because we're lazy. It's because in our eyes, we failed. The truth is there are a million legitimate reasons for this: we were up late at night with our babies or kids because they were sick, work was overwhelming and needed an incredible amount of our attention. And so, we eat the leftover pizza, skip the workout and check out on the couch because, honestly, we damn deserve it. And I would never argue about that. You do deserve it. You deserve rest.
But the funny thing about exercise and eating appropriate portions of food is that we actually feel energized. It may not make sense logically, but our bodies love it. Our bodies love working hard physically - it's our minds that struggle with it. Why? Because it's uncomfortable and it takes a lot of work.
Our bodies love a break from digesting food all day, it's our minds that struggle. Why? Because that feeling of a hunger pang is so triggering! It can elicit feelings of fear that we're starving ourselves, or fear that we won't have enough, anger that we have to give up one.more.goddamn.thing. Seriously? So, now I can't even eat what I want?
Practical Habits to Cultivate
Here's the thing, our satisfaction is in OUR HANDS and no one else's. And yes, that means food too. This is why I beg people, do NOT eat your kid's leftovers! Do not eat that last 4 bites of Mac & Cheese, do not eat the pizza crust and the leftover half bagel! Absolutely do not. Why? Because you can eat a full, real and totally SATISFYING portion of the Mac & Cheese! You can eat a totally SATISFYING portion of the pizza! You can eat an entire bagel smothered with decadent cream cheese. Eat, by all means, eat!
It's when we have these rules and these ideas in our minds that we aren't allowed certain foods that we start to sneak them and this sneaking allows our brains to tell us that that tiny of a portion doesn't count towards our daily calories. But the truth is and the point is that we aren't satisfied at all by that tiny amount and so all we want is more food! As we should! If we had just eaten a full serving of the Mac & cheese along with a small kale and arugula salad with a few nuts and a bit of chicken we would feel totally satisfied at the end of that meal.
No food is off limits. Make a plate. Sit down. Take your time. So, half the battle is habits. Some practical habits you can start cultivating include plating your food (not eating from the bag, even if it's pretzels) and eating only 3 meals a day.