We started the journey of Finding Your Healthiest You where we have talked about creating new habits here, the importance of planning your success here and menu plans that can make your new lifestyle easier here….
Today we are gonna talk about CAKE….yes you heard that right….and you might just decide I am your most favorite Dietitian after this one! (wink) CAKE, quite literally, is a sweet dessert that many enjoy on special occasions and is analogous to all “treat” foods one may enjoy in life. Cake and any other “treat” (as I like to call less nutritious yet yummy food) has a place in your healthy lifestyle and might I even say….with out some “treat” food or “soul” food YOU WILL NOT SUCCEED at maintaining your lifestyle changes! GASP (hehe) am I shocking you yet?….I hope so, read along!
Too many times as a Registered Dietitian do I hear the client stories of diet after diet with rules upon rules that promise to bring them to permanent health and weight loss….yet they find themselves in my office….still struggling with their health. It is my hearts desire to free people from the chains of chronic dieting, poor health management, poor body image that tears at the cord of one’s self confidence and sense of success. When we follow rigid diets that (not talking ones needed for specific disease states) restrict us and dictate what, how, and when to eat in such a way that discourages our in tune, instinctual…may I say intuitive eating self….we risk losing the most powerful tool our body owns! What tool am I talking about, you might be saying? That tool is your God given hunger and satiety cues your gut and brain provide to achieve and maintain a healthy body.
We have two points to let marinate today:
1. All foods fit in a healthy diet! Health can be achieved with a diet 80% full of wholesome foods, lean proteins, unsaturated fats, produce ect & 20% “treat” foods. Plan “treat” foods in moderation (example: 1 palm size 3 x week or 1 plate size meal per week) , enjoy and honor the food “craving” you choose. By allowing treats you will find your healthy lifestyle is one YOU CAN LIVE WITH FOREVER because you do not feel deprived. Sure there may be weeks you have no interest in a “treat” food…and that is fine. To have these foods as part of your plan makes it permissible and BREAKS the chain of restrictive dieting cycles! And when we can follow our lifestyle changes for the long haul WE FEEL SUCCESSFULL which boosts our self esteem!
2. Intuitive eating. The body has a built in weight management regulator if we choose to listen and become sensitive to its cues again. This truth and way of eating is what has maintained my body weight for the last 10 years even through illness, changes in activity and having 3 kids in the last 5 years. We will learn more about this and then hone our skills in the health series posts to come!
So friends, Have Your Cake & Eat it Too! In moderation! Click here for this free download of this light hearted reminder! Dovidenia. XO
