Week Three - Nourish Your Body

You can help lower your risk for disease and achieve a healthy weight by following Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide. Key points include:

• Enjoy a variety of foods.
• Balance your eating habits by selecting cereals, breads, other grain products, vegetables and fruit that are high in fibre.
• Choose lower-fat dairy products, leaner meats and food prepared with little or no fat.
• Pay attention to your portion sizes.
• Limit salt, sugar, alcohol, and caffeine intake.
• Avoid skipping meals. Eat at least 3 well-balanced meals per day.

No one can make you lose weight. Trying to lose weight to satisfy someone else rarely works either, instead you must want to make diet and exercise changes to please yourself. However, this does not mean you must do everything alone; in fact you have several resources available to you including:

• your healthcare provider
• a registered dietitian
• nutritionist
• fitness trainer
• or other healthcare professionals

These resources can assist you in developing a plan that will help you lose weight. Also, your family and friends will likely be happy to provide encouragement to assist you in achieving your weight loss goals.

Timing is crucial as it often makes the difference between success and disappointment. Assess your life and the challenges that you're facing, such as relationship concerns or exams; it may help to resolve some of these issues as a first step to achieving your weight-loss goals. It’s important that you’re not discouraged so take small steps. Select a definite start date within the next month and once chosen, don't put off that date for anything.

Planning and Envisioning Success

Your old habits may be so ingrained that you practice them without thinking. With time your new habits will become as automatic as your old ones. This can be a challenging process in some circumstances, but you can help yourself by knowing your triggers and anticipating them.

For instance, when attending parties or other social events decide how many treats you'll allow yourself before leaving the house. You may want to try eating a healthy snack at home so you won't be tempted by the party food. Once you're at the party, instead of taking large servings, choose to take small portions of only a few items. Eat slowly and enjoy the flavours. Later if you're still hungry, you can return for more fruit and vegetables.

Remembering The Basics

The recommended number of Food Guide Servings you need from each of the four food groups every day is based on gender and age. For more information, check with Canada's food guide.

Hunger is the feeling of cramping and growling in your stomach. You may also feel lightheaded when you are hungry. Appetite is when you crave certain foods but do not have the feelings of hunger. Controlling our appetites can often be very difficult. Appetite can be affected by emotions such as boredom, depression, happiness, or loneliness. Certain medications may also increase your appetite.

Tips to help you control your appetite:

• Learn to trust your body. It will tell you when to eat and when to stop. Ask yourself if you are hungry or if you’re just eating because you feel bored, stressed, or tired.
• Eat slowly. Take 20 minutes to eat a meal, have a glass of water, or wait 20 minutes before you have a second serving. This is about the time it takes for your body to know that it is full.
• Include healthy snacks throughout the day to help prevent hunger.
• If you are lonely or bored, call a friend or go for a walk.
• Try not to eat in front of the TV, computer, or while reading a book. If you eat while doing other activities you are more likely to overeat or to eat less healthful foods.
• Plan your meals and snacks around your work and other activities.
• Choose higher fibre foods to help increase your sense of fullness.

How much you eat is as important as what you eat. It is important to control the amount of food that you are eating in order to control the number of calories you take in. Use Canada's Food Guide to give you examples of good portion sizes. Measure out your food portions for a while so that you can see what your plate, bowl or cup looks like with the appropriate amount of food in it.

Some easy ways to estimate food portion sizes:

• A small fist or a tennis ball equals 1 cup (250 mL).
• A thumb equals about 1 oz. (25 g) of most cheeses. So two thumbs equal a serving of cheese.
• A thumb tip equals 1 tsp. (5 mL). Three thumb tips equal 1 tbsp. (15 mL).
• The palm of your hand, a computer mouse, or a deck of cards equals 1 serving of meat, fish, or poultry (2-3 oz. or 50-100 g).

Setbacks are a natural part of changing behaviour; in fact everyone who successfully makes changes in their life has experienced setbacks. When you have a setback, instead of giving up entirely, simply start fresh the next day. Remember that you're planning to change your life and that healthy weight loss comes at a slow and steady pace. Changes won't happen all at once, but the results will be worth it!

Source:
Health Living: Canada’s Guide to Healthy Eating and Physical Activity
Apple-a-Day
Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight for Everybody