Clifton: 10 Steps to Changing Your Eating Behavior
Published 9:39 am Saturday, February 8, 2020
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Are you having problems losing weight and keeping it off? Are you following a certain meal plan or diet? Well, why not try using the behavior modification plan? The behavior modification plan is a plan that helps you to change your lifestyle of eating and not follow any diet or strict meal plans.
Let’s begin by incorporating these steps into our lifestyle:
- Stop Dieting. So, how do I lose weight if I don’t diet? Well, let’s say that we incorporate a 1200 calorie a day lifestyle meal plan (checking with your doctor first) to lose 1.5 pounds a week. If you follow this lifestyle change eating portion sizes and exercising, after one week, you should have dropped 1.5 pounds.
- Be physical, not external, connecting to food. Eat enough so that your stomach will not be making rumbling sounds, or you develop a headache, or get fatigue and can’t concentrate. When you know your physical signs of hunger, it can help you to regulate your food intake and manage your hunger.
- Rating of Perceived Hunger (RPH) Scale. This scale will help you become more aware of your hunger. If 0 indicates extreme hunger, then 10 indicates extreme fullness. Read your body signals, which should be between 3 and 8. If you reach 0, that means that you ate too much too fast, because it takes your brain at least 15 to 20 minutes to signal that you are full. You should eat slow and feel full before you get to 10, say around 7 or 8 on the RPH scale.
- Difference between Emotional and Physical Hunger. Physical hunger is somewhat of a physiological process that occurs three to four hours. When we don’t listen to the hunger, our bodies slow down to conserve energy. Emotional hunger on the other hand, means that we eat when we are sad, happy, anxious or bored. Try doing something different at this time instead of eating, exercise.
- Neutral Foods. Remember there are no good or bad foods – you just must eat in moderation. When we cut foods out of our eating habits, it causes us to want that food more and when we eat it, we tend to overeat. Try eating what the nutrition label says that you can have in a serving size. This can be a start to your lifestyle change.
- No Meal Skipping. We should all eat three meals a day and two or three snacks. The most important meal of the day is breakfast – and skipping breakfast can decrease your metabolism.
- Do away with Myths: Don’t Create. Remember losing 1 or 2 pounds a week is a safe weight loss. Remember a healthy body comes from healthy eating.
- Supportive, Not Critical. Support yourself in knowing that weight comes off slowly and remains off, but fast weight loss returns quick. Assure yourself that you are working hard on losing the weight and that it will pay off in the long run.
- Language. Watch your thoughts and language. If you think that you are fat and you say that you are fat, guess what, you are fat. Remove the negative thinking and thought from your mind.
- Reward System. Reward yourself for the positive change that you have made in your lifestyle, not for the numbers showing on your scale. Reward yourself by buying yourself a new dress or a new pair of jeans.
Cynthia Clifton is the General Nutrition Agent for the St. John the Baptist Parish extension office of the LSU Ag Center. She can be reached at cclifton@agcenter.lsu.edu.