 Survey says… 53 percent of both men and women check this box.
But good news: Serious improvement in this area may not be as time-consuming and complicated as it sounds. Think about meal planning on a continuum. At the far left: You put zero thought into what you might eat later today or tomorrow or the rest of the week. Most decisions are made after you’re already hungry and while you’re staring at the contents of your refrigerator—or looking at a drive-thru menu. At the far right: You spend Sunday morning grocery shopping and taking the afternoon to prep seven days of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, packing it away in containers and leaving nothing to chance. But in between? There’s real opportunity to progress, and it doesn’t require a complicated meal plan. You just need to do a little better than you are now. A great place to start: Plan to eat one to two servings (think: an amount the size of your fist) of produce at each meal. Don’t worry about variety for now: If you like steamed broccoli or raw carrots or sliced cucumbers, you could have those at every meal, if you want. Just practice buying what you need and eating it at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And if you find yourself at a restaurant, stick to the plan. That could mean getting a side salad with an order of broccoli instead of fries. (For bonus planning, try checking the restaurant’s menu online before you go.) You’ll be amazed at how this simple approach can transform the quality of your meals, yet it doesn’t require a ton of effort. For more ways to ease yourself into healthy eating, check out: Why meal plans usually suck.
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 More than 60 percent of our new clients list emotional/stress eating as a major nutrition challenge. What’s more, over 50 percent say they also “get intense cravings” and “snack when not hungry.” If you relate, it might be a relief to know you’re not alone. Of course, that’s little consolation when your spoon’s scraping the bottom of a freshly-opened jar of cookie butter. But what if you realized this behavior occurs…
In our coaching approach, we call this “noticing and naming,” and it offers us great opportunities to regain control. Emotional eating and intense cravings are typically part of a pattern of behavior that’s triggered by a specific experience—a thought, feeling, and/or situation. If you can identify the trigger, you can disrupt the pattern of behavior and make different choices. We use what we call a “break the chain” worksheet that helps clients identify their emotional and stress eating triggers. Then, we apply a step-by-step strategy to build alternative actions. For the complete instructions, read this article: Conquer your cravings and break the sinister cycle that makes you overeat.  As you can see,
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AuthorDr. Paul Hendricks PT, DPT Archives
October 2019
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