Joyful Eating Instead of Famine or Feast

Hola amigos! Welcome back!

Tune in to learn about reframing the diet mentality during the holidays. Thanksgiving is about gratitude towards bounty, don’t let guilt and fear of foods drag that down!

Announcements:

• Listener Feedback Survey is still open!  Click here to give your feedback.  Four lucky participants will be randomly selected to receive a $25 gift card to Amazon.com!
• David’s book releases next year. It focuses on real clients, heroes and sheroes, that took one small bite towards their health that improved energy, mood, or  sleep. The website has a sign-up sheet to launch a feedback group prior to publishing!

Highlights of this episode:

• Vicious Famine and Feasting Cycle
• Reframing Diet Culture Thoughts
• Building Interoceptive Awareness
• Thanksgiving food’s nutrition

Episode Description: 

[01:36] Joyful Eating instead of Famine and Feast

Reframe the narrative around diet culture mentality to find peace and enjoyment with food and enjoy time with family and friends. This episode is based off one of the Orozco Nutrition team members, Jennifer Baugh, RDN. She created a presentation for Clarity Fitness, in Decatur, Georgia. If you haven’t already, listen to Episode 86 with Abbey Griffith. She created the first body positive gym in Georgia. One wall is decorated with broken scales. She has body positive trainers and they provide in-person classes, online classes, a variety of equipment, and more.

This episode will provide 3 examples of common narratives from diet culture, that is, people who have fear of foods and guilt about eating. Then, reframing exercises that reject the diet mentality and find food enjoyable.

[04:45] “Gotta Burn This Off”

Narrative: Leah is determined to stay healthy. All family gatherings, she is always saddened by the amount and type of food her family eats, because none of them exercise.

This year, she trained for her first half-marathon race so she can eat all the same foods as her family without drawing attention to herself and without guilt.

The day after the big meal, Leah declines a brunch invitation with friends. She decided to skip breakfast do an arm lifting routine because yesterday’s race was more about legs. She cannot possibly still be hungry after yesterday.

Reject the diet mentality: Thanksgiving is about thanks, gratitude, acknowledging sacrifices, a representation of being able to provide.  Diet culture robs us of these positive feelings and emotions through vilification of food.

It’s also not helpful towards our health. Stress hormones activate to release blood sugar from its stores to provide energy and metabolism slows down to preserve the body. So, famine mentality is unhelpful.

[09:30] “The Hell With It”

Narrative: Gina has been avoiding candy and desserts for 6 months to reduce sugar. As a former smoker, she knows “cold turkey” works best for her.

Once she gets to her family gathering, the desserts look so good. She has a slice of pie. Then some cookies. Then some caramel popcorn. Then other slice of pie.

Gina is uncomfortably full and now regrets eating dessert.

Reject the diet mentality: The reality is that with the vilification of sugar and denial of that food created a natural physiology response to feast. Quitting smoking and quitting foods cannot be a similar process because food is a biological necessity.

[12:25] “I’m Saving My Calories”

Narrative: Alicia loves food, she says, too much.

Before Thanksgiving Day, Alicia plans a 5-day smoothie meal plan, so she can really enjoy as much of her favorite foods as possible without gaining weight.

As Thanksgiving dinner is served, she finds everything so deliciously perfect, she eats so quickly, her meal is over immediately. She isn’t done tasting it yet, so she gets another plate so she can extend her meal. Later, she had bloating pain and she could not sleep well.

Reject the diet mentality: Again, a negative narrative lead to eating and guilt.

The biggest predictor of weight gain, is weight loss. In order to keep our energy up, our body systems like cardiovascular and endocrine systems, and our brain sharp, our bodies crave energy from food to maintain itself and find homeostasis.

[15:29] Benefits of Fat

There are so many influencers out there that claim that if you behave like them, you’ll look like them. It’s simply not true because of individual physiological differences. And fat is a good thing! Fat helps us insulate from the cold, it helps us absorb certain vitamins, it keeps our cell membranes intact (everywhere in the body!), provides fuel, it covers the neurological lining in our brains. All muscle is not a good thing. For women, memory cells that feed the fetus need fat and placenta needs fat too.

[17:55] Reject Diet Culture

“I’m not what I eat – I am more than my body”

If your body sends you signals like heartburn, bloating, etc. see that as an opportunity to listen to your body and honor your fullness. And it is okay to enjoy food, even candy. David suggests to do a mindful eating activity with those “fear foods.” This is not a trick to eat less, but an exploration of how you, mind and body, respond to these foods.

[21:37] Enjoy Eating and Food

Re-live those flavors!  How often do you really make and eat these foods? If you eat Thanksgiving foods this one time a year, then the physiological response will probably be to feast, and that’s okay! No need to bring guilt into it.

[22:19] Exercises to Reframe

This is the work we do with clients. First is to slow down and think about your relationship to food. Do you have any food rules? Are you on a diet with food rules?

[22:50] “Gotta Burn This Off” Reframe

Even in a coma, your body would need a certain amount of calories. Reframe the diet thought: since my body at rest still requires food, I need this food to make it function well.

[23:50] “The Hell With It” Reframe

This food was made with love and it is tasty. It’s not hell at all. I will enjoy it until I feel full and not uncomfortable. If I get uncomfortable, I just have to deal with the symptoms.

[24:25] “I’m Saving My Calories” Reframe

I will honor my body’s hunger by eating and stop eating when I feel full. I may not feel good or comfortable if I try to fit 3 meals into one meal. And my body functions 24/7, so I need nutrients consistently.

[25:24] Final Thoughts

Feasting is not a problem. It’s a natural human response. In Episode 112, David discusses the importance of compassion towards oneself. A great book to understand how to make positive changes is Mindsight by Dr. Daniel Siegel. This book acknowledges that when we have to do something important for ourselves, a mind shift can help start making decisions that are aligned with our values. When this is applied to eating without a diet, it’s not easy, especially if you have an eating disorder, GI issues, or an illness. It’s very challenging. Yet, overtime with practice of interoceptive awareness, we develop a sense of what our bodies need and rely less on external rules.

Nutritional Benefits of Common Thanksgiving Foods:

Cranberry: Vitamin C, proanthocyanins (both antioxidants)

Green Beans: Vitamin A, C, K, folate

Pecan pie: unsaturated fats, magnesium

Potatoes: potassium, Vitamin B6, fiber, Vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, folate

Pumpkin Pie: Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Vitamin C, potassium, fiber

Turkey: protein, B vitamins, selenium, zinc, magnesium, potassium, & tyrosine

[28:00] Joyful Eating

Many thoughts about our health are influenced by diet culture. When those thoughts come, pause with curiosity. Pay attention. Does this interfere with you enjoying food with people? Figure out if its really true. Does it need reframing?

 

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Once again, I greatly appreciate you for listening and supporting my show. Remember, it really only takes One Small Bite to start transforming your life.

 

Chop the diet mentality; Fuel Your Body; and Nourish Your Soul!