August Week 2: Serve And Protect

During this week of exploring our theme “Loving Yourself Down the Scale”, I want to look at how we are presenting care to our bodies and how we cultivate the habits to serve and protect ourselves.

When we come from our old diet mentality, often we are looking at punishing ourselves down the scale. "I have to be 'good' and deprive myself in order to get to where I want on the scale". Because we are presenting information to ourselves in a negative way, telling ourselves we need to fix ourselves, and whip ourselves into shape with a diet, we are working against, rather than with ourselves, and the plan often backfires.

When we love ourselves down the scale, we can put the focus on caring for and nourishing ourselves, instead of focusing on deprivation and losing weight. From this place of honoring ourselves, we develop sustainable habits that work best for our body and that will allow ourselves to reach and stay at our ideal weight long-term.

"SERVE" HABITS

When I think of service habits, I am thinking of easily adoptable habits that keep us lovingly nourished and stabilized within our body's needs for weight release. 

1. Structured and repeatable meals: Research shows that most long term weight masters eat at the same times and consume the same types of foods most days. Why? Developing a no brainer habit of when, what and how much you eat allows you to create a “lifestyle” that sustains your weight release and maintenance without much thought.  Focusing on creating a structure that works for you and your lifestyle, with foods that you enjoy, is key—this isn’t a diet, this is your healthy way of eating.  There is no "on" or "off".
2. Cultivate Easy 'Go-To' Protein Sources: We know how important stabilizing protein is to keeping our body and muscles fed and minimizing cravings. Eating 70 grams of protein a day, along with vegetables and healthy fats, keeps our mood and hunger stabilized as well. Have a few easy ways to get this protein every day.  It is important to find something you really like and that you can prepare and eat quickly.
   • Hard boiled eggs
   • deli turkey slices
   • veggie burgers
   • tuna in foil packs
   • Greek yogurt and cottage cheese in single serve containers
   • What are some of your favorites?
3. Develop a specific shopping day or days: Knowing that you shop at the same time, the same day of the week, keeps you from forgetting to stock up on important staples that can get you through the week. In the end this saves time and money!
4. Listen to your hypnosis sessions: When people listen to hypnosis, their mind is more relaxed and focused and has more willpower to get you through the day. All you have to do is listen!  Make sure you find the time!
5. Use the 3-Bite Habit: Being super restrictive never works and causes stress, which makes the brain ultimately want to eat. Having 3 bites of pleasurable “treat” foods (that are not trigger foods) can be a way you manage enjoying the best part (the part your mouth enjoys the most) of decadent foods without a huge calorie sacrifice!

"PROTECT" HABITS

Are you protecting yourself in a loving way when it comes to how you feed yourself? When we have a negative attitude towards ourselves and our body, it sometimes is the last thing on our mind to care enough to protect ourselves. These three habits can be a starting point for your protection plan.

1. Keep trigger foods out of your environments: Trigger foods are tempting foods that are hard for us to manage.  They hijack our mind and ruin our body.  Why do that to yourself? Create a vigilant attitude of “not an option” for bringing challenging foods in the house.
2. Know the restaurant, fast-food, and take-out places where you can get a healthy meal that you like: A little research goes a long way in having choices everywhere you go. Make a list and cultivate it, even if it’s in your mind. Having a real list helps when you are hungry and not thinking straight.
3. Never hit Zero: Hunger ruins our willpower and when we do eat, almost ensures over eating. Always make sure you can reach for something to tide you over and structure your meal times through the day in a way that you never get too hungry.

I hope that you look at your food habits in a different way this week. The more you learn to serve and protect the one body you have, the more you are loving yourself down the scale.

Have a great week!