Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, I'm Kristi Stepteau, Your Midlife Maven, and welcome to the Making Your Midlife Marvelous podcast, the show where you can expect to learn, laugh, and maybe even have a good old cry. As together we navigate the health and wellness changes and challenges midlife women experience, and where you'll also be inspired and motivated to live your best midlife as we address all things nourishment, movement, and wellness with the holistic approach, mind, body, and spirit to help you make your midlife marvelous.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
In this episode, I'm discussing midlife mindful eating and food freedom, and I'm outlining tips for ditching diets nourishing your body mindfully and becoming the healthiest midlife version of yourself. So let's get into midlife mindful eating and food freedom. You may have heard the saying or quote, diets don't work, but a healthy lifestyle does. And if like me, many years ago you tried dieting and you lost weight in the short term only to gain it back often, much more than you lost, then you also know from a personal experience that diets just don't work. Now, there are many reasons that diets don't work, especially for midlife women because in addition to the variety of hormone and age related weight changes we experience by midlife, we are just simply over diets and restrictive eating. We are at a point in life where we want to live happy, healthy, and whole without restrictive diets or extremely restrictive measures of any kind.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
And the good news is that it can be done. So before I delve into how to ditch diets and nourish your body mindfully to become the healthiest midlife version of yourself, I want to outline five reasons that diets don't work. Number one, diets don't work because as I just discussed, they only cause short term weight loss lasting no more than six months, followed by weight regain often more than was initially lost. In fact, studies often show that chronic dieting leads to an increase in body fat, which none of us want at this stage of life. Number two, diets don't work because dieting leads to binge eating, overeating and chaotic eating patterns. Dieting disrupts normal eating and it desensitizes your internal signals of hunger and fullness so you can no longer effectively listen to your hunger and fullness cues. Number three, diets don't work because they cause food.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Preoccupation. People who diet spend more time thinking about food and eating. This drive to eat when food is limited is believed to be a survival trait against starvation and can cause a total disruption of your thought process about food. Number four, diets don't work because they can lead to disordered eating. Many experts believe the high rate of eating disorders in the United States is due in part to high numbers of people restricting food and becoming chronic dieters. And lastly, number five, diets don't work because they often diminish women of all ages by focusing attention on appearance rather than character, talent and personal fulfillment. And when we reach midlife, as we can all attest to, we are truly more concerned about these other traits and living a healthy and full life. So how do you ditch dieting? You can start by getting rid of the diet mindset and start focusing on eating right, adopting healthy lifestyle habits and making it a lifestyle change.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Now, to go from a diet mindset to a mindful eating mindset, here are a few things you can try. Instead of saying, Do I deserve this? Try saying or asking, Do I want this? Instead of asking, will this help me lose weight? Try asking, will this nourish my body? Instead of saying, I hate food, it's always controlling me. Try food is fuel for my mind, body and spirit. And instead of asking, How much food do I get to eat today? Ask, how much food do I need to eat today? Now, the moral of this part of the mindful eating and food freedom section can be found in this quote that I love. And you all know how I like to drop little quotes and mantras and affirmations throughout my podcast. And the quote is, if you're trying to diet, that's part of the problem. Diets are temporary.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Learning how to eat right and take care of yourself is permanent. It needs to be a lifestyle change to really change you. Now, many of you listening may be wondering just what is this mindful eating thing? <laugh>, for some, it may sound like some far out kind of woo woo thing, and it's really more simple and naturally intuitive than you think. By definition, mindful eating is focusing on your eating experiences, your body related sensations and your thoughts and feelings about food with a heightened awareness and without judgment, With mindful eating, attention is paid to the foods being chosen, internal and external physical cues and your responses to those cues. It's truly all about being in tune, present and aware, but not restrictive. We're all familiar with the concept of mindless eating, right? Think about how many times you have you've sat down to eat, looking at your phone or some other device, not really paying any attention to what you're eating and not listening to your body for cues that it gives you to slow down or stop eating.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
And by and by the time you know it, you've probably eaten well past the point of being full. How many times have you also had a meal and a few hours later you couldn't even remember what you ate? Mindful eating is the exact opposite of these types of mindless eating practices, and it's a way of eating that encourages you to be more aware of when, how and why you're eating. It helps you to recognize when you may be eating to feed emotion or a feeling instead of feeding your hunger. It encourages you to listen to your hunger and fullness cues. So you eat when you're hungry and you stop eating when you're full. It's as simple as that. It also encourages you to be less distracted when you're eating so that you're present and aware of all of these factors that can help you make healthy choices when eating.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
The food freedom actually comes in when you are free from counting calories, carbs, and proteins, and you're eating the foods that your body needs when your body needs them, and you're able to better enjoy the eating experience instead of dreading it. So let's address the elephant in the room or the elephant in this podcast show, so to speak. I know some of you may be thinking or wondering, what will mindful eating do for weight management or weight loss? Now, many recent studies have shown that mindful eating can help reduce this thing called the hedonistic drive to eat, and that's eating regardless of hunger. And this is characterized by a loss of control or a preoccupation with food and a lack of feeling satisfied. Now, when you remove these obstacles through mindful eating and you include healthy foods in your diet, you are better able to manage and maintain your weight and even lose weight that will stay off long term.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Mindful eating has also been shown to reduce snacking, which helps with weight loss because when you eat mindfully, you are actually more satisfied when you're finished with a meal. In addition, in a 2017 review of studies published in the Journal of Nutrition Research and Reviews, it was found that mindful eating, reduced binge eating, emotional eating and eating in response to external cues, all of which are associated to some degree with weight gain. So in summary, mindful eating can to a degree, rewire your brain to make it easier to change these types of ingrained eating habits and weight loss, if that's your goal, is often the side effect of such a shift in your approach to food. Now, how can you start trying to eat more mindfully and exercise food freedom? Here are a few tips to get you started. Number one, sit down to eat.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Try not to be on the run. Number two, don't multitask or be distracted. Put away the phone and focus on your meal. Number three, slow down. Savor your meal and your eating experience. Number four, truly taste your food. Explore and enjoy the flavors and textures so you don't feel the need to have anything else beyond the meal in which you're enjoying. Number five, take smaller bites and chew slowly to help keep the focus on your meal and also a side benefit to help improve your digestion. Number six, eat healthy foods. Find comfort foods that are still healthy and nutritious. Number seven, eat when you're hungry. Listen to your body and only eat when you feel hungry. Number eight, notice when you are full. Stop eating when you are full. You don't have to clean your plate. Number nine, don't stress about the food. Food is meant to be enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Just make sure you are eating food that nourishes your mind, body, and spirit, and that makes you feel good and fueled. And lastly, number 10, stay in the moment, be present and try not to get ahead of yourself or your meal so that you fully enjoyed your eating experience. Now, you know how I like to add a few quotes as I just mentioned, and mantras or affirmations to the podcast. And I want to leave you with two mindful eating and food freedom mantras that I think would be good to reflect on regularly. And mantra number one is to say, Today I am listening to my body's internal cues and I am releasing old food rules that no longer serve me. Mantra number two, say Today I'm listening to my hunger. I'm respecting my fullness, and I'm choosing foods that make me feel nourished and satisfied. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Making Your Midlife Marvelous podcast, and I thank you for tuning in. Be sure to tune in next week when we'll be discussing topics from nutrition, to fitness to wellness, all about habits to improve your life and lifestyle during midlife. Now together let's live our best midlife and go make our midlife marvelous.