Total Body Diet For Dummies. Retelny Victoria Shanta

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       Getting intimate with hunger and fullness

      Do you know when you’re hungry and when you’re full? Identifying when your body really needs food is challenging, because for most of us, food is so readily available. We live in what I call a seductive eating environment, in which food temptations are everywhere. You may not be hungry, but the sights and aromas of nearby food may cause you to eat anyway. Although these are natural occurrences that are part of every day, you have to tune into them and realize that you don’t have to eat chips just because they’re on the table in front of you, and you don’t have to grab a handful of candy out of your co-worker’s candy jar just because it’s sitting there. By tuning into your body’s natural appetite gauges, you’ll be more apt to pass up the extras and save room for nutrient-dense meals and snacks.

      

A great way to gain insight into hunger is to keep a journal. By jotting down your hunger (and fullness) before and after you eat, you can become more attuned to the appropriate times to eat and drink.

      By definition, hunger is an uneasy sensation due to a lack of food, causing the stimulation of the sensory nerves of the stomach by the contraction and churning movement of the empty stomach. Fullness occurs at various levels, but it’s having an appetite satisfied (not overly stuffed), especially for food or drink.

       Knowing when to start and when to stop eating

      Babies are born with an innate or natural ability to self-regulate – or an inner understanding of when to show signs of hunger and stop eating when full. Over time and with exposure to an abundant food environment, the ability to know when to start and when to stop eating becomes more difficult. How can you combat this in a world of oversized portions?

      According to research in Health Psychology (2012) conducted by Brian Wansink, PhD, and his team at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, if food had “stop signals,” portion controlling food amounts would be a lot easier. In their study, 98 students were recruited from the University of Illinois and Pennsylvania State University. The students were given stacks of potato chips to munch on during a movie in class. Some had red dividers (or a tomato basil chip) placed within the chips (at every 7th chip and every 14th chip) and others just had yellow chips. The findings showed that the subjects who had dividers ate 50 percent less than the ones who didn’t – about 250 calories less! Plus, the ones with dividers knew how many chips they ate – within 1 chip, whereas the others underestimated how much they had eaten by 12.6 chips!

      What does this study reveal about knowing when to stop eating? Cues to stop eating are very effective. These cues can include things such as:

       Understanding why you can’t stop at one bite

      You may relate to the following scenarios: You have one bite of chocolate cake, and it leads you to take another and another. Or you take one potato chip from the bag and that leads to eating half the bag. Or you have a spoonful of ice cream and keep going back for more. Why is it hard to stop at one bite, chip, or spoonful? It’s not a mystery that foods high in added sugar, salt, and solid fat set us up to want to eat more. Sometimes the food is filling an emotional need brought on by feeling lonely or depressed. Even joyful and celebratory feelings bring on eating and overeating.

      According to The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, by David A. Kessler, MD, foods that are fatty, salty, and sugary tap receptors in the brain that release feel-good chemicals like dopamine, which make us want more of that food. Typically, those foods are high in calories, too – and they don’t provide much in the way of nutrients.

      These trigger foods can make you want to eat more. Not surprisingly, these are the foods that you want to limit on the Total Body Diet. Throughout this book, I give you helpful tools and strategies to limit these types of foods. Understanding what foods are trigger foods for you is life-changing and allows you to create a healthier relationship with food.

      

To identify your food triggers, write down which foods you cannot stop eating once you start. For example, write the following statement and fill in the blank:

      Once I start eating ________, I can’t stop.

      Multiple foods may be trigger foods for you.

      Now that you’ve identified foods that are triggers to overeat, avoid keeping those foods in the house or at work. Set limits around these foods in order to reach your Total Body Diet goals.

      

The saying “Out of sight, out of mind” applies to food, especially foods that excite our taste buds and other senses. The first rule of thumb is not to have tempting foods in plain sight. If you have these foods around, you’ll eat them. Buy single-serve portions of ice cream, or go out for a single scoop, instead of having a half-gallon container in your freezer. Ice cream will be more like a treat when you do have it – and you’ll enjoy and savor it more, too!

      How does sleep foster total body wellness? Recent research shows that a well-rested body and mind are essential to good health. Just as eating well and getting regular physical activity are important to your health, sleeping seven to nine hours at night is a must for revitalizing your energy, thinking, and muscle repair and recovery. Sleep science, a relatively new field of research, reveals how sleep can affect overall quality of life.

      Your body and mind work hard while you’re awake. Sleep allows your major organs like your heart, lungs, brain, muscles, and stomach to slow down and literally recharge. According to the National Sleep Foundation (www.sleep.org), here are some of the ways different parts of your body benefit from sleep:

      ✔ Brain: Cerebral spinal fluid is pumped more quickly through the brain while you sleep, clearing away waste from brain cells, so your brain is clean and clear for the day ahead.

      ✔ Heart: Your blood pressure and heart rate slow during sleep, giving the heart a break overnight.

      ✔ Lungs: Breathing slows and becomes very regular during sleep, easing the load on your lungs overnight.

      ✔ Muscles and joints: Growth hormone is released to rebuild muscles and joints while you sleep.

      ✔ Stomach: Eating a balanced meal with a bit of carbohydrates (like whole-grain pasta, brown rice, or whole-wheat bread) along with protein-rich foods (like turkey or cheese) with some healthy fats (like avocado or olive oil) can keep your stomach satisfied overnight, which helps you sleep more soundly.

      

Melatonin is a hormone that is secreted during the nighttime hours that regulates your natural sleep-wake cycle and conveys day and night to your body. Melatonin is produced in the body with the help of an amino acid, tryptophan, which is found in high-protein foods like turkey, milk, and cheese. Certain foods naturally contain melatonin, such as tomatoes, walnuts, rice, barley, strawberries, СКАЧАТЬ