One of the skills I work on developing with my clients is how to find satisfied with food or sometimes I call it 80% full. This is the point at which you have enough food to last 3 to 4 hours (or more) but you’re not stuffed.
A lot of people come to me wanting, among other issues, to lose weight. I have my own approach when it comes to weight loss (you can read more about that here). But in short, I approach losing weight as a permanent lifestyle change. You want to lose it that way you’re going to keep it off. No quick fix gimmicks, just small, realistic changes that work for you. And one of those changes is eating to satisfied.
With a little practice, individuals can find satisfied with food to support a comfortable, healthy rate of weight loss without tracking calories, weighing food, or counting macros.
How can this possibly work? Well, the big reason is that humans tend to overeat and if we stop overeating, we reduce calorie intake which results in weight loss.
We overeat for a lot of reasons
We have a primitive brain that gives us a dopamine hit when we start eating foods that have a high density of calories (think sugary treats, fried foods, etc.). Our reward systems tend to activate more when we eat apple pie compared to an apple, so we’ll eat a whole lot more pie than apples.
We tend to eat while distracted by other things like work, surfing the web, dinner time chatter. We have traditions that celebrate with food, we express love with food and we may have been soothed with food when we were young. With the high availability of food in our environment, we develop the habit of turning to food to cope with uncomfortable emotions including stress, anger, sadness, frustration, or boredom.
How do we know when we've found satisfied?
You’ll need to experiment to find what satisfied with food feels like for your but here are a few indicators that you might have reached that point.
1) Your eating starts to slow down
You notice paying less attention to your food. Getting distracted by your phone, the conversation or whatever else might be going on around you.
2) You start looking for the 'good bites'
3) You eat quickly as you get toward the end
4) You sigh
5) You feel like you could go dancing
6) You can forward fold
7) You would not ask for seconds.
Strategies to help find satisfied
1) Eat more slowly
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Put your fork down between bites.
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Give your food an extra few chews. (Another one that can help with digestion.)
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Take 3 deep breaths before you start eating to bring your attention to your food and remind yourself to slow down.
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Place a post-it note where you eat to remind you of these things.
2) Take away distrations
3) Make sure you're well hydrated
4) Plan a pause
5) Eat with your non-dominant hand
Different strategies will work better for different people so play with what is suggested here and see if you can find satisfied with food.
Need help putting these strategies to work? Give health coaching a try. Sign up for a free 30-minute consultation here.