Looking Beyond the Diet To Lose Weight Intuitively

There is a big problem with how people are told to approach dieting and weight loss. I mean look at the statistics, the BEST, most promising statistic I have seen is a 30% success rate. (This is with a really low bar of “success” too.)

If a teacher had 70% of students FAIL saying they have a “simple, easy and effective method,”  do you think they would have a job? OR at least be trained on how to teach a different method?

I really hope not…

I hope you are starting to understand that you are not the problem it is the method or the diet. Most typical approaches to weight loss do not work long-term for the MAJORITY of people. You are not the issue it is the method.

So often what people talk about is only a small glimpse of the bigger health picture. Our mindset of losing weight is too narrow just looking at what we eat and how much we move as if nothing else matters...

Sometimes I wonder why most people only talk about what they eat….

Then, I talk to them and uncover, they don’t know anything else to focus on.

So today I am going to discuss some things to thing about change beyond just what we eat which has been ingrained in us as the best and one of the only things to focus on.  

Everything I am about to share has been proven through research to be effective to eat less food, and lose weight:

Looking Beyond the Diet- Eat slowly.

Eating quickly is really easy to do. We have programmed ourselves to go fast in everything including eating. Eating fast is not healthier, just the opposite eating slower is better. Our bodies actually want us to take longer eating.

First, you would chew more. This is important because the first stage of digestion takes place in your mouth and if you rush it, you are putting a greater load on the later stages in the digestion process.

Second, eating slower can help you process whether we are full or not. It will lead you to eat more while your body tries to signal to you to stop. You are giving your body a chance to realize it is full!

I know sometimes we are impressed when someone eats fast, so trying to eat slower isn’t always praised, but just remember you are taking your time to take care of your body to be healthier… not impress people. 

Looking Beyond the Diet- Eat at a table that is clean.

Not only can eating at a table help you to pause, remind you to say grace, take a deep breathe. It can also help you to be more mindful while you are eating. You aren’t trying to sneak in some work and mindlessly eat. You are conscious of what you are eating and how much you are eating. You are taking the time to care for your body and digest, even though it is inconvenient.

Additionally, a clean table can help you to be less stressed while eating, meaning you can digest your food better. Get rid of those bills or other stressful things. Allow you body to turn on the rest and digest pat of your nervous system. (Yes, rest and digest is actually the nickname for the parasympathetic nervous system!)  Your body responds better to eating when you are less stressed because of your hormone levels. Take the time to create a stress-free environment to eat or at least as best you can.

Looking Beyond the Diet- Eat in a chair.

Your posture while eating is important. It actually helps to sit upright. Check out how you sit in different chairs and take note how you sit while you eat. Changing chairs may help you to sit more upright with better posture which aids in your digestion.  Yes, digesting food important. :)

Looking Beyond the Diet- Use smaller plates.

Research has shown this time and time again.  Eating on smaller plates helps you to eat less. 

It helps you to load up less food initially. They have found that most people stop after their first plate. So making it smaller can help you portion control right there. That is including people how normally stopped after they finished more calories because they used to eat a whole plate of food on a larger plate.

They ate more food on the larger plate, but the other group felt just as satisfied. 

Finishing a plate also helps people mentally because it makes you think you had a full plate. You feel like you had a meal, which you did it just had a little bit less calories. If you are thinking yeah, but I get seconds, it still makes you stop and think if you are actually hungry. It is easy for us to just finish our plate and not consider if we are hungry or not. There is a decent amount of research and it shows that smaller plates results in people eating less. So if portion control is a struggle, try it!

Looking Beyond the Diet- Put your phone away.

Don’t leave your phone on the table. Try to focus on your food and relax while you eat. There is no reason to add another task you are already eating you are already digesting, trying to listen to your body, and perhaps having seem family time. Try to leave the screens away from the table for most people it leads to increased calories, mindless eating and  less enjoyment of food. You could even be missing out on family time if you are busy on your phone not being present with your family

Looking Beyond the Diet- Look for patterns during the week of when it is difficult for you to follow your plan. 

If you happen to notice a pattern of certain days or times are more difficult I encourage you to  dig deeper to see what is going on. There are a couple of things, one day can be busy, but pay attention if a lot of stress is creeping in. You were not designed to handle stress. You were designed to partner with God. You may need to be more prayerful, take more deep breathes that day or before that time. I encourage you to continue to get curious about what is going on and think of ways to change your environment and hand things over to God.

So go ahead and give one or more of these a shot! What have you got to lose?

If you really want to get ahead. grab my FREE PDF on Building Healthy Habits! It goes along with this blog post perfectly, so don’t forget to DOWNLOAD IT HERE.

<3 Jessica Hoeffner