Is your diet too strict?

When someone expresses dietary struggles to me, I often hear responses like "I need to be more disciplined" or "I feel so out of control, I need to get back on track." While it's advised to adapt a nutritious diet for health reasons, eating healthier should never become rigid and extreme. And unless you adapt your eating in a way that honors your hunger, makes you feel satiated and aligns with your personal health and activity goals, you may find yourself with a lot of food-related guilt, shame, deprivation, and a feeling of failure from an unstainable style of eating.

Signs that your eating style may be too strict include:

• watching the clock for permission to eat
• having an off-limit food list
• only eating conditionally (ex. reward food)
• developing a fear of "bad" foods
• avoiding social situations involving food
• feeling constant hunger
• difficulty focusing, headaches or lightheadedness
• avoiding foods that you enjoy
• eliminating food groups or certain foods from the diet
• feeling out of control when eating a certain food
• desire to eat perfectly

The need to be so in control around food (and body weight) often leads to most out of control behaviors. Trying to eat in a way to fix your body into a specific weight, size or look that society views as ideal can lead to feeling out of control around food. In order to feel good about your food choices, it's important to welcome all foods. And to do this, you must be able to tune into your hunger and satisfaction signals. It's nearly impossible to feel in control around food when you are starving. Keep yourself fed and nourished throughout the day by honoring your hunger.

Signs that you are letting yourself get too hungry include: 

• poor concentration, dizzy, lightheaded
• tired, sleepy, sluggish
• hangry, irritable, moody, cranky
• stomach making noises, feelig empty
• low blood sugar, feelig shaky, tingly lips, salivating 

Individuals who try to sustain a strict diet often have standards that are too high (and unrealistic). A perfect day of eating should involve foods that you enjoy, those foods should make you feel satiated and energized, and those foods should fulfill your nutrient and energy needs. You don't need to only eat for health, you also need to eat for enjoyment. Putting limits on what you can or should eat can lead to out of control behaviors, followed by a lot of guilt and shame.

As a final note, the foods that most people feel out of control with are the foods that most people try to avoid - often containing sugar, salt, carbs, and fat. As a result of feeling out of control with certain foods, it's normal to want to set an off-limit food list (to reduce the risk of binging). However, this only leads to overeating. This is a cycle that continues until those "bad" foods are taken off an imaginary forbidden food list. Yes, donuts, muffins, bagels, chips and ice cream can be on the same food list as salads and quinoa. Once you level the food playing field, you can decide what foods make you feel good, rather than feeling controlled by certain foods.

If you feel like you've been trying to follow a strict style of eating, which could be leading to feeling out of control with certain foods, remind yourself that a sustainable style of eating should never involve discipline, willpower and rules. Give yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods.

Also, for a delicious Chanterelle mushroom pasta, check out our latest newsletter HERE.

Breaking the holiday restrict-binge cycle

The holiday season is here and it's filled with family, friends and.....food. 

Without a doubt, food is a significant component of every holiday. For anyone who suffers from an eating disorder or an unhealthy relationship with food and the body, this can be a challenging time of the year. 

You may not realize it but the holidays bring several triggers that could lead to disordered eating and exercising behaviors. Often times, stress, overwhelm, people pleasing, travel, toxic relationships/family members, uncomfortable conversations and finances can bring on uncomfortable feelings. In order to lessen those emotions, it's easy to resort to food restriction (or dieting).

And with restriction often comes binge eating. Overeating from time to time does not mean that you have a binge eating disorder. Fundamentally, binge eating is different from overeating. 

Signs and symptoms of binge eating include: 

• Eating a large amount of food in a short period of time (ex. over 2 hours)
• Frequent episodes of eating more than what may be considered a normal amount of food. 
• Binging as a way of coping with unwanted feelings, stress and anxiety. 
• Eating beyond fullness. 
• Feeling that your eating behavior is out of control. 
• Eating large amounts of food without being physically hungry. 
• Feelings of guilt, sadness, distress, worthlessness after not being able to control eating.

In our society, a lot of shame comes from eating too much whereas restriction is viewed as being good - having willpower, discipline and control. Despite stigmas and societal beliefs, binging (or overeating) isn't from lack of willpower or discipline. Binge eating is a common result of restriction. In other words, the solution to avoid binge eating is to eat more. 

If you ever find yourself binge eating or over eating, there's a good chance that you are intentionally - or unintentionally - restricting your food intake. This can occur from not eating enough, skipping meals (ex. breakfast, lunch), going long hours without eating, restricting carbs, eliminating food groups or specific foods or overexercising. 

Your body is constantly trying to protect you. For example, to keep your body from overheating, your body will initiate sweating. When you have a fever, your body may use 'chills' to boost core temperature to kill off a virus. The body is no different when it comes to responding to restriction. If you don't eat enough early in the day (or you don't fuel well during a long workout), your body is going to beg for what it missed out on. Our biology is hardwired to protect us against starvation. And if your body has ever experienced starvation trauma, it's likely to overreact any time you undereat. 

Because most people don't worry about where their next meal is coming from (10% of US households are food insecure due to low income, poverty or unemployment), if you have ever been on a diet or intentionally restricted food, this can be viewed as self-imposed starvation. And your body doesn't care if you don't have the ability or access to food or you are trying to intentionally lose weight. If your body senses an extreme caloric deficit, it's going to react by trying to protect you. 

The restrict-binge cycle can not be broken with food rules or willpower. The only way to reduce the risk of binging is to stop the restriction. 

Saving calories - Starving your body of calories so that you can "make room" for a large holiday meal will lead to overeating. Instead of saving your calories, see your meal as just another meal. Go into the meal feeling slightly hungry by eating well-balanced meals and snacks throughout the day, starting with a healthy breakfast. By arriving to you meal slightly hungry, you will eat in a controlled manner, making a conscious decision about what and how much you want to eat. 

Get in tune with your hunger scale - Despite being born with an exceptional intutive sense of your bodies physiological needs, you may have lost the ability to detect and respond to signals of hunger and fullness. Not surprisingly, disordered eating behaviors and a restrict-binge cycle can negatively impact your ability to properly feel fullness and hunger. A hunger scale can help with eating-related decisions as you practice body awareness. 


Begin eating your meal around 3-4 on the hunger scale and to finish your meal at 5 or 6. Give yourself time to chew and digest your food as the hunger scale can quickly (or slowly) change throughout the eating experience. 

Stop depriving yourself - Where there is excess there is usually deprivation. Similar to a feast-or-famine cycle found in people living with food insecurity, if you forbid yourself from eating certain foods and then give yourself permission to eat when food is abundant, you may find yourself feeling out of control. This was well-documented in the well-known, unethical Minnesota Starvation Experiment. Restrictive eating only increases the desire for the forbidden foods. When these "off-limit" foods are finally available (and allowed), there's a good chance that you will overeat. 

Mindful Eating - You will enjoy food the most when you are slightly hungry. Food always tastes the best on the first bite. There's a point when food no longer tastes as good as it was. By staying in tune with your eating, you can determine when you are finished eating. Eating should be a positive, joyful, comforting and feel-good experience. Aim to feel better after you eat than before you started. 

References: 
https://www.rosewoodranch.com/binge-eating-signs-symptoms/
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-security-and-nutrition-assistance/#:~:text=The%20prevalence%20of%20food%20insecurity,had%20very%20low%20food%20security.
https://www.eatingrecoverycenter.com/blog/i-cant-tell-when-im-full
https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/135/6/1347/4663828