PERSONAL HEALTH Think about habitual eating

Thinking about habitual eating

thinking healthy

Shelly Howell is the author of “Don’t be a Wuss: Inspiration for a great life after 60.”

I’ve had an unhealthy relationship with food my entire life. I use it for everything.

When I’m happy, I celebrate with food. When I’m frustrated, I distract myself with food. And when I’m low, I soothe myself with food. Combine these behaviors with the fact that my family has multiple traditions around food, and you see the problem.

Quite simply, there are many of us who have some bad habits that involve food. Few of us were raised to see food as fuel and to eat only when we are hungry. And being overweight is a risk factor for multiple diseases from cancer to diabetes to heart disease. So, what do you do to manage your habits, lose weight and protect your health?

I recently spoke with Jatun Neal, MFCS, RD, LD is a Registered Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist with the Atlanta VA Weight Management Program. “I have found that many habits stem from childhood or have developed as coping mechanisms. If you can identify your undesirable eating habits, then you can set up ways to avoid those triggers.”

Some of the most common

The Wine Habit

120 calories

2 glasses per night 4 nights per week 52 weeks per year 120 x 2 x 4 x 52 =

49,920 calories Equals 14 extra pounds in a year

(Substitute your favorite habit, whether it’s chips or ice cream or beer)

Jatun Neal

If you snack in the evenings, go for a walk, take a relaxing bath, or run errands so you’re not sitting on the sofa when you normally crave food. If you’re obsessed with cleaning your plate, reduce the size of the plate and give yourself smaller portions at home.

food habits are: ■ Eating too fast ■ Always cleaning your plate ■ Eating when not hungry ■ Eating while standing up (may lead to eating mindlessly or too quickly) ■ Always eating dessert ■ Skipping meals (or maybe just breakfast)

“The habit I see most often is emotional eating,” Neal said. “The emotion that triggers the habit will differ from person to person, but the outcome is usually the same: eating too much of high-calorie, lownutrient-dense foods.”

One of my bad habits is drinking wine. I love a glass of wine with dinner, which invariably turns into two glasses. And let’s not even talk about the glass that I sometimes pour myself as I’m cooking a meal.

Stop for a moment and do the math on one of your bad habits. Unchecked, my wine habit can lead to 240 calories

a day, which turns into over 46,000 calories a year. Since a pound is 3,500 calories, I’m looking at gaining nearly 14 extra pounds per year from wine.

“A great strategy to help you understand your eating habits is to keep a detailed eating log,” Neal explained, “but also keep track of what you were doing and how you were feeling while you were eating. There are free apps that make it easy to keep track of these things.”

The CDC suggests watching for the “cues” that trigger your eating habit. Watching TV, having a stressful day at work, or driving past your favorite doughnut shop in the morning can be just the cue you need to feed your habit. Start looking for the cues in your life and develop strategies to avoid them.

If you snack in the evenings, go for a walk, take a relaxing bath, or run errands so you’re not sitting on the sofa when you normally crave food. If you’re obsessed with cleaning your plate, reduce the size of the plate and give yourself smaller portions at home. And if you always need dessert, keep hard candies or mints around so that you have a small treat after a meal. The workarounds are just as personal as the habit, and they must fit your needs and lifestyle.

While changing habits sounds easy on paper, it is not. “I tell my clients that you didn’t develop these habits overnight, and they will not disappear overnight. I remind them that they are human, and I encourage them to be kind and understanding with themselves while they work to replace the bad habits with more desirable ones,” Neal said.

I cannot go without wine completely. But knowing that I could lose 14 pounds over a year by changing my habits has given me motivation. But since I’m also an emotional eater, I don’t want to get too excited!

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