The amount of real food that you eat will vary considerably during your recovery. Remember, you may have a stronger appetite at the beginning, to make up for the last famine you were on. Once securely off the feast or famine cycle, your appetite should diminish, or you will be able to tolerate eating less food, so you will eat less. If you know you are off the cycle and your appetite doesn’t diminish, you need to guide it along by eating lighter portions and ramping up your quality food intake. Just make sure you stay free of the symptoms of the feast or famine cycle.
The Guidelines
There’s a very simple way to figure out what foods to eat to get variety and balance in your diet: Focus on getting at least 8 servings of fruits and/or vegetables a day, literally as much as you want, the more the better. Eating enough of these high nutrient foods is a challenge for almost everyone. If it is for you, work on it. Next, try to get some protein food in with each meal; cheese, poultry or fish or meat prepared simply; or eggs, beans, nuts, seeds, tofu, etc. Don’t leave out important starches including potatoes, whole grain pasta, rice, quinoa, other old world grains etc. Quality fats will find their way into your diet through preparation, dressings and condiments. Educate yourself on the best sources.
Always pay attention as you are eating. You may be surprised at how little, or how much you want or need to eat at a particular time. Don’t get locked into habit, history, or rigid expectations. Cereal, bread, rolls, crackers, etc. tend to be convenient habit foods. Reserve these foods for times you specifically crave them and avoid building meals around them Think out of the breadbox here. Some types of beef, lamb, and pork meats are protein rich like fish, although they may be more fatty. Simply prepared, these protein staples are good—but not for every day. Dairy products—eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, milk, non-dairy milk, etc. are important sources of protein and many other nutrients (and allergens as well).
Clean Eating Tips For Weight Loss The Inconsistent Appetite Photo Gallery
Who’s In Charge Here Anyway?
Rules about portions here are missing. This places a big responsibility on anyone who decides to apply these principles. There are no strict limits on how much you should eat. All the decisions are up to you. You must figure out what level of quality and what amounts of food will work for you to ensure that you get off the feast or famine cycle. Your job is to avoid getting back into a war with your body by responding to its need for the optimal amount of high quality food all day long every day. Can everybody do this? No. Can you do this? You decide.
This is a big challenge, to be sure. The food avoidant thinking that goes with a lifetime of dieting will probably take a while to conquer. Even after getting off the feast or famine cycle and witnessing all the changes your body goes through, you may easily slip back into faulty thinking. Here’s a typical slip that a person in recovery had six months into her enlightenment about food and eating: As her day at the office wound down, Pamela found herself thinking about the date she was going on that night. It’s 4:15 and she is hungry, as usual. She thinks, I ate a good lunch, and we ’re going out to dinner at
6, so I’ll just have some coffee now because if I eat now it will spoil my appetite and I won’t be able to enjoy my dinner. Besides, men don’t like women who pick at their food.
Even for a person off the feast or famine cycle for a while, this is a set up for excessive hunger and over eating. Pamela needs to respect her hunger and eat the bunch of grapes she’s brought to the office —something that will hold her until 6:30. We all know food doesn’t usually appear on the restaurant table for some time after you head for the restaurant. The temptation to restrict food intake or delay eating for hours is all around us and in our heads from years of faulty thinking. Just because we know better doesn’t mean we’re not vulnerable.
Food Allergies
Find out if you have food allergies! Undiagnosed allergies can really cause problems for those seeking recovery. One woman I coached who had been stuck for quite a while discovered she had a gluten allergy. She lost 10 pounds in the four months after she took it out of her diet. The best way to diagnose a food allergy is to take the suspected culprit out of your diet for a week or a month, and see how you feel.
