A Wellness Model for Weight Management
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- Learn to Enjoy Food and Eating. In our “chronic dieting” society, we often classify foods into “good foods” or “bad foods,” and thus develop a love-hate relationship with food. You feel deprived if you “have to” eat foods like lettuce and raw vegetables, or guilty and ashamed it you weaken and eat the bad foods like cheesecake. Thus you often develop cravings for them and end up going on “eating binges” where you eat way more of them than you would normally. Eating is meant to be an enjoyable process where you are relaxed, aware of your limits, and allow yourself to eat without guilt reasonable quantities of a variety of food. It means being willing to try new foods or new ways of preparing them. If you don’t like boiled carrots, try something new like roasting them in the oven with a small amount of olive oil coating until brown and crispy which gives them a whole different flavor.
- Learn to listen to your hunger and satiety signals. Many of us lost our ability to follow physiologic cues to hunger when we were children and were told to “clean our plates” or a treat for good behavior was a candy bar or ice cream (instead of fruits or vegetables). We use cues in our environment for eating like the time on the clock says its twelve o'clock noon and our lunch break, or we are at a social function like a wedding where lots of sweet and rich food is presented and we don’t want to insult the hostess by not eating—it doesn’t matter if we are actually physically hungry or not. One way to start regaining your hunger/satiety cues is stopping midway through a meal and checking to see if you are still hungry or not. It takes about twenty minutes for the signal from the stomach to reach the brain and say “I’m full.” Check again after consuming more of your meal. If you are rapidly eating a fast food meal, you can down it and be out the door before this mechanism kicks in.
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Note some of your food behaviors. Often food is eaten in response to stressful situations like anxiety or the feeling that you are a worthless person. People have described this as trying to use food as a means to “fill up the emptiness” inside. If you have had a stressful day at school or work, you could be “treating” yourself to high calorie foods like pizza and a large soda pop to help yourself feel better. Food is also used for celebrations such as friends’ birthdays or a victory at a sports event. Management of eating behaviors involves looking at when, why, where, how, and how much food is eaten. Recognize thoughts like “I have to take servings of everything at a buffet meal and go back for more because it is there and included in the price of the meal." Emphasize eating a variety of foods, watch portion size, and distribute food intake evenly throughout the day. Skipping meals is a poor weight control measure, as often you are so hungry by the time you do eat something you tend to overeat or eat high calorie, high carbohydrate foods like candy bars or chips.
- Daily activity patterns and individualized exercise have been stressed as an important partner in long term weight management. A big problem with many resolutions to increase physical activity is that it has a high drop out rate. You need to set realistic exercise goals. The best health benefits results from thirty minutes or so done three or more times (preferably daily) per week. It helps to have access to a variety of activities that you personally enjoy from walking, participation in school sports programs, swimming, bicycling, or even cleaning out your room. Remember that one doesn’t have to have a runner’s physique to experience the benefits of physical activity.
- Learn stress reduction exercises. As mentioned previously, stress can become your body’s cue to overeat. Practice using muscle and mind relaxation methods like increasing physical activity, talking to a supportive friend or family member, using guided imagery, or tapes of natural sounds or calming music. In our “fast-forward” society, often people do not know how to relax or feel guilty if they do.
- Find a personal interest area. Often a person feels that they are always trying to meet other people’s expectations of them and do not take time to do something that they enjoy doing just for themselves. Developing a personal interest area like participating in a rock band or community theater group or hobby of collecting items (i.e. like items with Coca-Cola emblems on them). Find something that engages your creative energies and stimulates your mind.