Nutritional Eating With Awareness
Susan's evening started out like Andrea's, but the ending was quite different.
Susan knows that she loves freshly baked breads and rolls.
She, too, went to a restaurant.
When she saw the fresh, warm bread in the bread basket, she decided that she really wanted to have some, so she took a roll and enjoyed it.
I'm very familiar with Susan's history as a dieter.
I know that in the past, taking that roll would have created a cascade effect.
Instead of seeing the roll and deciding to eat and enjoy it, she would have picked at it-taking as little as possible, then taking some more, then fin ishing it.
To someone with the mentality of a dieter, the roll is a trigger, and Susan would have finished the roll, then worked her way through the rest of the bread basket.
She would have felt guilty the whole time because she was cheating.
Instead, Susan ordered fish and vegetables while she finished her roll.
She enjoyed the whole meal-the high-calorie roll as well as the low-calorie meal-and came away from the table feeling good about herself.
With another few weeks of food aware ness training, I'm confident that Andrea will arrive at the level of decision-making where Susan is now.
But Andrea is not quite there yet.
Notice that Andrea didn't talk about the bread problem right away.
Instead, she began by saying that she hadn't had a good week.
We worked our way back to the point when she'd clipped into the bread basket.
That was the point where she lost focus, but not because of the bread itself.
A good-size chunk of sourdough is only about 30 calories.
What sabotaged her, instead, was the feeling of failure-that she had somehow given in.
With Susan, on the other hand, the deci sion was just that: a decision.
She wanted to treat herself to a roll, so she did.
As it happens, that roll was about 150 calories-a lot more than the sourdough bread that Andrea ate- but it didn't trigger any feelings of failure.
So the woman who had a 30-calorie chunk of bread ended up having a "bad week" as a re sult of all the bad feelings that it triggered, while the woman who had a 150-calorie roll enjoyed the treat and felt okay.
Can you relate to this story? Being aware of what you're eating, and when you're eating it, is an important part of your healthy eating habits.
Susan knows that she loves freshly baked breads and rolls.
She, too, went to a restaurant.
When she saw the fresh, warm bread in the bread basket, she decided that she really wanted to have some, so she took a roll and enjoyed it.
I'm very familiar with Susan's history as a dieter.
I know that in the past, taking that roll would have created a cascade effect.
Instead of seeing the roll and deciding to eat and enjoy it, she would have picked at it-taking as little as possible, then taking some more, then fin ishing it.
To someone with the mentality of a dieter, the roll is a trigger, and Susan would have finished the roll, then worked her way through the rest of the bread basket.
She would have felt guilty the whole time because she was cheating.
Instead, Susan ordered fish and vegetables while she finished her roll.
She enjoyed the whole meal-the high-calorie roll as well as the low-calorie meal-and came away from the table feeling good about herself.
With another few weeks of food aware ness training, I'm confident that Andrea will arrive at the level of decision-making where Susan is now.
But Andrea is not quite there yet.
Notice that Andrea didn't talk about the bread problem right away.
Instead, she began by saying that she hadn't had a good week.
We worked our way back to the point when she'd clipped into the bread basket.
That was the point where she lost focus, but not because of the bread itself.
A good-size chunk of sourdough is only about 30 calories.
What sabotaged her, instead, was the feeling of failure-that she had somehow given in.
With Susan, on the other hand, the deci sion was just that: a decision.
She wanted to treat herself to a roll, so she did.
As it happens, that roll was about 150 calories-a lot more than the sourdough bread that Andrea ate- but it didn't trigger any feelings of failure.
So the woman who had a 30-calorie chunk of bread ended up having a "bad week" as a re sult of all the bad feelings that it triggered, while the woman who had a 150-calorie roll enjoyed the treat and felt okay.
Can you relate to this story? Being aware of what you're eating, and when you're eating it, is an important part of your healthy eating habits.