Nutrition Tip #6 – Recreate your favorite Restaurant Foods at home
“I refuse to give up my favorite foods. I don’t like to diet because I don’t like to “restrict” myself.
“I work too hard at my job and I just want to sit down and enjoy my food without feeling guilty.”
This is what one of my clients was telling me.
I nodded and said “ I agree with you, You should just sit down and enjoy your food without feeling guilty”.
Food isn’t good or bad, it’s food. Changing your relationship with food might need a little tweaking but you are absolutely correct.
My client sat there dumbfounded because this person was used to an eating strategy that was “black and white”.
These foods are good, these foods are bad and now I was suggesting that they are neither good or bad, it’s just food.
We walked over to the white board and I wrote out “EATING STRATEGY” and I asked this person what their current eating strategy is… They said I don’t know. I asked again, you do have a strategy even if it’s no strategy.
Client: responded “ I guess try to eat healthy”.
Me: OK Great. I followed up with “well what does “try to eat healthy mean’?
Client: Stay away from junk foods, chips, cakes, donuts, pizza, cheesesteaks, pasta, cheeseburgers and on and on.
Me: Ok great so you’re saying stay away from Ultra Processed foods that are highly palatable and high in calories. These foods leave you wanting more after you’re done eating them because of the added salt, fat, sugar.
Client: Yeah thats it.
Me: Ok great. These foods are fun to eat but do have a cost to them. They are not bad – We just want to be conscious of why they are easy to overeat and why we want to eat these foods 20% of the time.
Eat Minimally processed foods 80% of the time
Eat processed foods 20% of the time.
Start there.
Client: nodded. OK.
We both laughed.
Me: I wrote on the Board “No good or bad foods, just food”.
“OLD EATING STRATEGY vs NEW EATING STRATEGY
- Extreme approach – Moderate Approach
- Black and white thinking – Grey thinking
- guilty – enjoyment
- Strict -balanced
- Boring -fun
Skill we are going to learn
- Eating minimally processed foods 80% and junk foods 20% of time.
Minimally Processed Foods
- Any foods that will spoil after 2 days
- Apple or any fruit
- Lightly seasoned meats, Chicken, Turkey and Eggs
- Home Cooked Foods