Swing, Swing

As part of my meetings with the Dietician, I took a quiz to look at my food "personality"... and one of the types that came out included that I tend to be a Swing Eater. 

The goal for a person who is a swing eater is to embrace all foods, and stop that thought process of categorizing foods as a bad food or a good food.  I can attest that I definitely categorize foods in this way... even on days that I stay within my calorie range, I can feel anxiety when I am trying to think of that "bad" food I ate.

My dietician talked to me about changing my food language and make better word choices when self-talking:

• Instead of "this is a bad food" say "this food has a lot of calories; if I really want it, I will eat it in moderation"
• Instead of "I cheated" say "I ate more than I wanted to, but that happens to everyone once in awhile. It is normal and I won't beat myself up over it."  
• Instead of "I feel so guilty" say "I did nothing wrong. I ate a moderate portion of something I wanted to eat and I enjoyed every bite."

I get pretty hung up on the feeling guilty... and when I am feeling guilty and feeling I did "bad" already, I am so much more likely to eat more "bad" things because I feel like I need to get it out of my system and just start fresh the next day.  I think this is where remembering that "E" of everyday is so important... remembering I can make healthy choices everyday, I can do better the next meal, or even with the next food choice I make, while also changing my language to stop beating myself up over high calorie foods (note: I did not say "bad") that I choose to enjoy.

As I finish with my detox in the next month, and need to start reincorporating a wider variety of foods back into my diet, the concept of being able to enjoy smaller portions of "off-limits" food will be important.  I think this also relates to both that concept of Mindfulness I talked about on Saturday, as well as the "E" of environment I mentioned the Monday before that.

By Mindfulness, I mean savoring each bite and taking my time.  The handout talks about making snacks last at least 15 minutes and meals last at least 30 minutes.  It also talks about making food more "special" by putting it on a real plate or bowl, rather than eating out of a package.  When thinking about environment, I can purchase portion controlled packs of "off-limit" foods to help remain in control.  Other ideas to help with my environment would include enjoying a moderate portion of a high calorie food while out (i.e. cookie at the coffee shop, one slice pizza at a restaurant, one scoop of ice cream from a shop).  This would eliminate the temptation to go back for more if these food choices were kept at home.

The handout my dietician gave me was adapted from Dr. Kushner's Personality Type Diet, although I am not following that particular diet, and really know nothing about it, I thought the Swing Eater information was fun to share.

Thanks for reading!