Fear of indulgence

Food is often viewed as a tool to manipulate the look of the body.

From a very young age, diet tricks, hacks and tips are introduced as a way to change the way that you look, to improve health or to gain control over eating. While some of these strategies can be helpful, many are unhealthy and sometimes hazardous to your health and well-being.

When food goes from being pleasurable and nourishing to serving as the primary method to manipulate body composition, you no longer have a healthy relationship with food. Your thoughts about food matter. Seeing food as an enemy can make it difficult for you to eat for fuel and nourishment.

In our diet-crazed society, constantly eating too little, eating too much and always eating with fear (or guilt) can cause serious mental and physical health issues. Undereating and a cycle of restriction and binging can have serious mental effects, especially when this style of eating becomes a way of life.

This is the time of the year when it's so easy to make unhealthy decisions with food. But I'm not talking about devouring a dozen pieces of Halloween candy in one sitting.

I'm talking about dieting. Although a diet may look appealing before the holiday season, a diet is nothing more than a temporary style of eating - it's rapid, extreme and it provides temporary results.

To improve your relationship with food and to eat more mindfully around the holidays, here are a few tips:

• Don't be locked down to one style of eating - Having freedom with your eating choices will keep you from the overindulging and binging that often occurs from food restriction.
  
  
• Have a plan - It sounds so simple but if you have a plan as to how you will navigate holiday parties and events, you will be more likely to feel in control over your food choices. It's encouraged to include some treats in your plan as this strategy teaches you how to indulge responsibly.
  
  
• Don't exclude, include - Trying to control/limit calories in order to save room for the off-limit, bad or calorie dense foods will always backfire. It has and it always will. When a holiday meal (or dessert) is in your near future, do not skip meals and snacks. Go into the meal with good intentions and stable blood sugar from eating regularly throughout the day.
  
  
• Think long term, not short - Short term thinking is why you may feel like a failure when you indulge. This is no way to live your life. Instead, think long term. Indulging responsibly a few times throughout the year will not compromise health. Far too many people become irrational around the holidays, assuming that the only way to survive the holidays (or to feel better after a big meal) is to diet/restrict.

The holidays are a special time of the year to be around family and friends.

Not a time for deprivation, restriction and dieting.

Mindful eating is a learned habit and once achieved, it makes it possible to enjoy the holiday season without guilt, anxiety or fear - while indulging in your favorite meals, treats and desserts.

To help heal the destructive relationship that you have with food and your body, check out more assignments like the one above in The Whole Athlete course.

Mindful (Tr)eating: It's no trick!

Happy Halloween!!

Does the thought or sight of candy leave you anxious, worried or guilty?

To fully enjoy what you eat, you need to be present and in the moment. This is where mindfulness comes in handy. Mindful eating takes practice but you can learn a lot about your emotions, food choices and break some bad habits.

Mindful eating is eating with intention, awareness and pleasure. Because most treats or indulgences are not rich in nutrients, we eat them for pleasure or enjoyment. The key word here is enjoy. I'm here to tell you that you can still eat a healthy and nutritious diet with sweets and treats. When you eat what you love, you should also feel good about what you eat. This will help you feel more satisfied with your food selections so you don't overindulge. You will learn how to slow down and savor your food.

To help you get started, I’m going to walk you through a mindful chocolate eating exercise. This was taught to me during dietetic internship during one of my rotations. With an overload of Halloween candy at your house or office, now is the perfect time to learn how to indulge more mindfully.

The ultimate goal is to eat less mindlessly and to fully enjoy the experience of indulging - without going overboard.

Through this exericse, you get to identify what treats bring you joy and satisfaction and what treats you want to pass on because, well they don't make you happy. When you treat yourself, be selective. You want to indulge in foods that are truly satisfying. If something causes you a stomach ache or you just don’t care for it, don’t eat it. Say NO thank you.

The important thing to remember is that there is no right or wrong way to do this exercise. Enjoy (and don't forget to yum!)

The History of Halloween Candy

The History of Halloween Candy As featured in the free weekly Trimarni newsletter. Click HERE to subscribe.

Candy makers in the United States love Halloween. Why? Thanks to trick-or-treating and Halloween-themed parties, Americans will spend over $2 Billion on candy during this holiday season. Interestingly, the ritual of costumes, approaching the homes of strangers to ask for candy and haunted houses didn't become a national tradition until the late 1940's. At first, kids would receive nuts, fruit, cookies, toys, cakes and coins. Once the candy companies stepped in, trick-or-treat candy options became widely popular to increase fall sales. Whereas Christmas and Easter were popular candy events, Halloween-themed candies were created just for this festive holiday. Although Halloween is known to be a fun holiday for children (and creative adults who love to dress in costumes), candy is easy to buy, fairly inexpensive and convenient to distribute, making it a perfect choice for Halloween. More so, candy companies provide wrapped candy which is a safe alternative to homemade treats, which the later may pose risks of tampering or poisoning. Some of my favorite memories are from Halloween. I looked forward to dressing up in a creative costume and seeing the Halloween looks of my friends and neighbors. While Halloween costumes have become much more sophisticated over the past decade, something more noticeable has changed. Many children are at risk for obesity due to unhealthy lifestyle choices. And this is prior to the holiday season filled with sweets, treats and oversized portions of cookies, cakes and pies. By all means, every one of us deserves a sweet treat without guilt. Halloween candy will not sabotage your health, performance or body composition goals. One tootsie roll a day will not cause weight gain. If your typical eating plan is healthy and well-balanced, you aren’t cheating on your diet by yumming over a piece or two of Halloween candy. No need to be scared - just make sure to indulge responsibly. Popular Halloween Candy. What's your favorite to yum over?  1. Tootsie Pop - 67 calories 2. Hershey kiss - 22 calories 3. Nerds (1 tbsp) - 63 calories 4. Air head - 63 calories 5. Snickers Bar (fun size) - 74 calories 6. Baby Ruth (fun size) - 83 calories 7. Reese peanut butter cup (mini) - 42 calories 8. Reese's pieces (20 pieces) - 78 calories 9. Milky Way (fun size) - 78 calories 10. M&M's (fun size) - 74 calories 11. Dum Dum - 20 calories 12. Blow Pop - 60 calories 13. Twizzlers (3 pieces) - 120 calories 14. Smarties (1 roll) - 30 calories 15. Kit Kat (mini, 2 pieces) - 47 calories 16. Twix fun (mini) - 50 calories 17. Candy Corn (16 pieces) - 118 calories 18. Gummy bears (10 pieces) - 87 calories 19. Jolly Rancher - 24 calories 20. Skittles (mini package) - 100 calories

"One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats." Iris Murdoch

Do you have a sugar addiction?

When I was younger, I lived for Halloween! I loved candy - all kinds! If it was tangy, sweet, salty, sour or peanut buttery, I had to have it.

Growing up, I couldn't eat enough candy. I'm pretty sure I fueled my swim workouts off candy. I craved it, loved the taste of it and I always looked forward to my next candy fix. Oh so good!

Oddly enough, despite candy having a big place in my diet, I nixed my sugar addiction when I was in my 20's.

I don't have anything against candy but it's has no power over me. It's just candy.

But I know this isn't the case for many as it's normal for many people to struggle with some type of sugar addiction. Although I wouldn't call it a sugar addiction, my hubby Karel has a mouth full of sweet teeth and while he is not a big fan of candy made in the USA, he can't get enough of his Czech candies and chocolates when we travel to Europe.

With Halloween as the start of the "holiday" season (which means no shortage of sugary-rich foods for the next 3 months), I wanted to share my tips on how I broke my sugar addiction with mindful eating.

Mindful eating
Life is busy, stressful and exhausting. There's a good chance that most people eat mindlessly more than mindfully. As an example, do you listen to your body when you eat and eat until you are satisfied or do you eat past full? Do you eat with others at set times and places or do you eat alone, at random times and places? Do you eat foods that are emotionally comforting or nutritionally healthy? Do you eat and multitask or eat and just eat without distractions? Do you consider a meal as an end product or consider where the meal came from? Can you listen to your body to know what your body needs to eat or do emotions and cravings dictate your food choices? 

For any individual who has a food addiction (ex. sugar), there's a disconnect between the mind and body as it relates to eating. The addiction may come from the food itself or from lifestyle habits and patterns related to eating. I know that when I was younger, my diet was not very well balanced. I would often go long hours without eating, which would cause sugar cravings and I wasn't very attentive to what I ate. 

Do you find it normal to have a dialogue of thoughts in your head when it comes to eating, especially with sweet?  Do you have thoughts of your body image, fat, calories, sugar, carbs, etc. making you feel guilty, anxious or stressed around sweets?

Slowing down and listening to your body, along with eating slowly is one of the best ways to retrain your body to help you start eating more mindfully. It's important to give your body and brain time to communicate so that you get the right signals to understand when you are full (and hungry).

Once you start listening to your body and its signals, you can start making changes in your diet so that you can create sustainable and productive eating patterns. Many people ignore hunger and eat when they are not hungry. This needs to stop if you want to break a food addiction. Establish set times for eating so that you never eat when you are starving but you avoid eating out of stress, boredom, sadness, frustration or loneliness. Learn to recognize your biological hunger signals, such as when your blood sugar drops, when your energy is low, when you are feeling lightheaded and when your stomach feels empty or is growing. By listening to your body, you can establish a set schedule for when you will eat so that you can mostly eat for reasons of fueling and nourishing your body. Make your diet enhance your life, not control your life.

One of the best ways to eat mindfully and to stop a food addiction is to create a healthy eating environment, which will also help your mood, relationship with food and sleep patterns, not to mention your energy levels with your exercise/training regime. One of my favorite ways of eating mindfully is to take pictures of my food/meals. Instead of grazing (instead of eating a meal or snack) or eating wherever or whenever, I take pride in my meal by taking a picture of it. This also forces me to make a meal, eat with silverware and a plate. I also find that I maintain a great relationship with the food when I am proud of what I put into my body. And this includes indulging too! The holidays are tough because for so many people, there is a change in normal eating habits/routine, which brings new eating habits that are not supportive of mindful eating. Or maybe you have never had an eating routine, which results in indulging and overeating in the presence of food overload. 

Lastly, one of the best strategies for eating more mindfully and breaking a food addiction (like sugar) is to focus on eating a varied diet. With a varied diet, I never feel that any food is off-limit. I am allowed to eat whatever I want, anytime of the year. With no "bad" foods, my taste buds never feel overly excited around the holidays (or deprived), which helps me avoid overeating, especially when in the presence of an overwhelming amount of food. My diet is made up of mostly nutrient dense foods that support my active lifestyle but I also feel very satisfied (and not deprived), thanks to a wholesome and varied, real food diet that has no off-limit foods. My diet is not restrictive so I never feel deprived.

I feel there is something very special about considering where food comes from instead of just seeing food for calories, carbs, fat, sugar, etc. For most people, it's easy to feel disconnected from the food that you eat, especially if it is a food made in a factory and not from a farmer or if you eat according to calories or numbers. A big part of eating mindfully is to feel grateful and connected to the food that you put in your body. I never count calories or measure my food when it comes to meals/snacks as I see food for much more than a number. When someone else prepares food for you (ex. event, holiday party), consider the traditions, culture or love helped bring you the food that is in front of you.

Sadly, people are very distracted when it comes to eating, there is little appreciation for a home cooked meal and there is little effort or time dedicated to eating, which makes mindful eating an afterthought. I encourage you to start listening to your body, create a structured style of eating that works for you and your body and eat in an environment that allows you to taste, enjoy and savor your meals. 

While mindful eating may or may not directly help to cure your sugar addiction (it won't happen overnight!), I have a feeling that it will help you feel more control over your food choices and will help you create a better relationship with food and your body.