With my weight loss clients, I always talk about a 80:20 moderation style approach and factoring in sensible portions of people’s favourite, less nutritious foods.
.While this is so important and really helps with dietary compliance, enjoyment and sustainability, the reality is that for some people there will be some foods we just can’t consume in moderation
Now if you’re like, hold on… that’s not very intuitive, that sounds a bit restrictive… please hear me out.
To help explain this I’m going to use myself as an example here...
I know while I can have chocolate in my fridge because I won’t overdo it, when it comes to salt and vinegar chips it’s probably just a better idea that I don’t have them in the house because I know that I just can’t eat them in moderation.
Now does this mean that I lack self-control, that I’m a binge eater or that I don’t have a healthy relationship with food? Nope!
It just means I’m a human who finds it really hard to stop eating salt and vinegar chips.
If you find this happens with a certain food these are my tips:
Gain awareness - know what foods you find it harder to moderate your consumption of
Remove any guilt - these foods are designed to be extremely palatable! It doesn’t mean you are in any way lacking in willpower or not capable of eating well if you overdo it on certain foods
If you are going to buy them, buy individual portion-controlled packets to reduce the likelihood of over consumption
Don’t buy them as part of your weekly shop – maybe you just buy them when you have friends over or at weekends so you can share them out
Enjoy them when you are out and don’t have the option to eat endless amounts of them
If you do overdo it, use my pause/learn/move on method… If you know, you know... (if you don't - you are going to want to read this blog post).
Now little disclaimer here, while knowing we need to be careful with one or two we have less control over is not problematic, if we find ourselves responding like this to multiple foods and unable to regulate our intake of food generally it is worth chatting to a professional about this as there is likely more going on here from a mindset and behaviour perspective.
