Eating “Well” But Getting Nowhere? These 5 Habits Might Be Why

[Music] There is so much nutrition information out there. Welcome to Diet Notes, the weekly podcast delivered by a dietitian designed to make your diet a whole lot easier. Well, hello everyone, welcome to this Monday episode of Diet Notes. I am recording a block of these episodes now to take us through the Autumn and Winter months. And what I did to get my ideas for topics, because when I asked you all what you wanted me to talk about, there was like 700 different things. There was no universally acknowledged topics, so I thought, you know what? I will go through and talk about subjects that I think resonate and do well in articles, because I think that's kind of an insight into the information that people are interested in hearing about. And the topic I'm going to cover today is all about habits, because all of us have habits, some of them good, some of them not so good, particularly when it comes to food intake, particularly when it means preventing us from getting us to the goals that we want to reach, or specifically the habits that I routinely see with my clients when they present. And things were trying to change for the better, about being humans, particularly as we get older, the biggest predictor of future behaviour for all of us is past behaviour, and it's really basically hard to change habits, particularly things we like or we're comfortable with or that are familiar to us. The human brain likes to do what is familiar. It's highly programmable. You know, there's good research to show that if you start eating a Mars bar every day at 8pm, by the third or fourth day, the brain's looking for a Mars bar, and in the same way as we can program them, we can also work to de-program them when they are being habits that perhaps are preventing us from reaching our goals. So I'm going to cover today, 5 or 6 habits that I see are routinely holding people back when it comes to health and weight outcomes, and hopefully some strategies about how to change it for the better without adding too much grief or loss into your life. So the first habit that I see routinely detracting from people reaching their diet goals, is their coffee habits in the morning. Now I will preface this segment by saying that I too love my coffee in the morning. I have a 3/4 extra hot skim latte. I used to have a full large skim latte with two shots, but I've actually got used to having less milk and preferring it, so probably over time I will continue to drop that down, and I too am guilty of just having a coffee to start the day and skipping breakfast, and metabolically we know that is not ideal. Because when you have a milk-based coffee, so I'm not talking a piccolo, I'm not talking a long black you make at home with a dash of milk, I'm talking. Latte, cappuccino, flat white, small, large soy, rice, almond, doesn't matter. All of those milks generally contain added sugar or sugar, or in the case of dairy, they're naturally occurring sugar lactose, and it is a calorie load, so we have to consider it as food. If you were in Italy or Italian or European and had a macchiato and espresso, long black, I don't have to count it. There's literally no calories in that, you're getting the coffee flavour, the stimulatory effect, it really gets disrupted when we have milk, because the coffees with milk range from about 60 calories from a small cap, up to about 100, even 150, 161, 70 for sort of a large latte, soy latte. Oat latte, because the bristers do tend to use the brister-style milks that do taste great, but have added sugars. Now, the issue with this is there's a few issues that come up. The first is that when people wake at 5 or 6am and straightaway have a milk-based coffee, it breaks the fast. So on one hand, you do eat early in the day to stimulate metabolism, but it often displaces hunger and you're not eating a whole meal. So the problem with that is people will have a coffee then, then maybe another one at 8 or 9, and then they've had no real breakfast and they just adrift feeding this sugar in as a meal. So that's one option. The other issue is if someone has a coffee even later, so say on the way to work or school at 8 or 9, and no breakfast, they've had less than 200 calories, it's not enough to give you that metabolic boost, and then they're eating at like 10/11 and pushing lunch back. So you have to think about where your coffee fits and how you can basically bring it together with the first meal because it is a habit, and it's a deeply ingrained habit for many of us, and one that can be pretty tricky to break. So the first recommendation I have with it is that if you are not hungry when you wake up, whether at 6, 7, 8 o'clock, the worst thing then you can do is have a milk-based coffee, because my argument is why are you eating it all if you're not hungry? Now I know you love the coffee and the caffeine, but have a black tea. If you're not hungry, you shouldn't be eating in general, that's a rule of thumb. If you can, wait and push it back half an hour, an hour, two hours, and actually have it when you're hungry, that's good. And then if you're trying to lose weight in particular, the most important thing to do is have it with something. It doesn't have to be a big breakfast, it can be a slice of toast and a piece of cheese, it can be a piece of fruit, it can be some yoghurt, but you really need to try and have a breakfast meal that comes in a lot closer to three, four hundred calories than just drink feeding the coffee twice. So I've got some clients who will then try and have black or a piccolo early, like a shot to get them going and then eat the breakfast at eight. I've got some who then try and have an early breakfast, all different options, but if that is your routine and you're not happy with your weight and your metabolism, that is probably a habit that you need to work on. Number two, non-hungry eating. One of the funniest pieces of feedback I give to my clients is when I'll ask them after sending me a food diary if they were hungry for that meal, because I'll look at it and think after what they've eaten surely they're not hungry. And then they'll say no, I wasn't hungry and I'll write back, well why did you eat? Because it's so simple, but a lot of our eating is non-hungry eating. We eat because other people are eating, we eat because we're scared of getting hungry, we eat because we think it's better for metabolism, we eat because we think we shouldn't ever skip a meal and just as a lot of people will eat too much when they're very hungry, it makes no sense whatsoever to eat when you're not hungry. Now, you will have differing levels of hunger. If I'm reprogramming someone to have hunger in the morning, I might say to them, you need to have something small for breakfast till we get metabolism going, but in general, if you've had a big lunch and it gets to four o'clock and you're not hungry or you've had a big dinner and you wake up the next morning and you're not hungry, it's okay to push a meal back. What it's not the best to do is to sub meals for snack. So if you're not hungry, oh I'll just have a piece of toast for dinner, I'll just have a nut bar. Again, that makes no sense whatsoever. If you're hungry, eat a meal, if you're not hungry, don't eat and wait until you're hungry to eat a meal. So if you're not sure, start to rate your hunger. We should eat about seven to eight out of ten of hunger. If you're a five weight an hour, now I understand if you're a teacher, if you're a doctor, if you're going into court as a lawyer, you sometimes have to eat anticipation of a meal, but that's not most of us. Let's be honest, very few of us are going into a surgery for four hours. If you're a teacher, sure, you might eat morning tea because you know you're then not eating until after school, sure, but that's usually not the norm. Most of us are eating on AutoQ and having the bar in the afternoon or the coffee in the morning, because we like it, not that we're hungry. So it sounds simple, but it's actually quite tricky in modern life to get back in touch with hunger, but hunger-based eating will transform your relationship with food and your weight if you find you struggled to lose weight and you're always carrying a few extra kilos. Bad habit number three. Again, one I also am guilty of, sweet treats at night time. Now, often what we do is we've had a hard day, we're tired, we sit down in front of the TV and it is finally, finally a minute for ourselves and when we indulge with sweet food. And it's not by chance that this is when the TV advertises Tim Tam's and ice cream and indulgent foods. Now, if you can control yourself and have a single Tim Tam, a single Limbo, a single Mini Ice Cream, go for it. There's certainly room in most people's diets for at least an extra 100 calories if you've had a reasonably healthy light, you know. But if you are someone who routinely has a bit of a binge at night and cannot stop, this is a habit we need to get control over. And what you'll find is when you're out of your regular environment. So you're traveling overseas, you're not watching TV, you're at a work function, you don't do it. You don't miss it because it's the association between either sitting in front of the computer, having a cup of tea with something sweet, sitting down to your favorite TV show, getting the kids to bed and indulging, your partner cracking open a block of chocolate or a tub of ice cream, it's an association. So if you really struggle with portion control and you know it has to be all or nothing that you don't do it anymore, the best advice I can give you is that you've got to break that association and maybe skip TV for a while, go for a walk after dinner instead, do 20 minutes on an exercise bike, call a friend, walk the dog around the block, break the association. For me, for example, if I have a cup of tea, I instantly want to have biscuits and sweet food. And I find if I don't have a cup of tea, which I love, but if I have the tea, I'll be up in the night, go to the toilet and I'll always be eating sweet stuff. So I've tried to cut it out. Now it's easier said than done, but sometimes it is that association we're best to break. At least some of the time if you're finding that the habit is distracting you from the goals that you have for yourself. So really considering, am I over indulging at night? Is there over indulging food that I can't control myself around and how can I break at association? Bad habit number four. Mindless munching. Now mindless munches again, if food is available generally speaking human beings weight up, which means that if you're someone who's unpacking your kids leftovers and they from their school lunch box and there's some tasty treats in there that they have an eaten, you will eat them. Or if you work and they have a delicious morning tea and put out all cakes and biscuits and pastries and you're there, you probably will eat it. Or if you're cooking dinner and munching on bits and pieces before dinner, you will have it. It is a bad habit in the sense that small amounts of food throughout the day disrupt our natural hunger and full cycle and can add up to give hundreds of extra calories. So for example, if you're in the morning and you're at a coffee shop with the kids and then you have a piece of their banana bread, that's a mindless munch there. You're at work and in the tea room you have an owner that's milk coffee biscuit or two because they're there. And then in the afternoon you're unpacking the kids lunch boxes and have a bit of cheese, bit of fruit that's leftover, snack on a bit of their dinner. That's another mindless munch. And then the same after dinner when you're clearing up leftovers or rating their Easter eggs which are leftover. And none of it's terrible but it adds up probably to one, two, three hundred extra calories per day and that's your extra weight. That is why you're not losing or achieving the weight loss goals or even gaining its those little extras. So if you can stop grazing through the time and actually have clear breaks of at least three hours in between meals which might be breakfast, early lunch, afternoon snack, dinner or if you're up super early it might be early breakfast, early lunch, second lunch, afternoon tea, dinner might be five meals for you. But if you can really pull that out to three hours in between meals, it will revolutionise the relationship you have with your natural hunger and fullness. It will be much better for your dental health, your digestion and it will keep your calories controlled. So if it's not a meal generally unless it's an extremely special occasion and someone's special birthday you shouldn't be eating. Another trick for that is chewing gum because when you've got mint in your mouth it's hard just to throw something else in there. So if you really struggle behaviourally with that and struggle to say no and if food's there having mint or gum on hand to stick in your mouth can actually be quite helpful. As can sipping on like a herbal tea it really works to neutralise the palate in between meals and that can be quite a good strategy to take control of that non-hungry eating which a lot of us do and it's the mindless munching when food is available. And perhaps most importantly if you're in a household with a lot of kids because I hear this a lot with women particularly in their 40s and 50s who have older kids at home still and the kids can be teenagers right through to mid late 20s and because they have full control over what food comes into the house there's a lot of extras around. So if you have that scenario where food's around you've got to pack it away so it's harder to eat it. Same with young kids and snack boxes and things. You know every time you eat a couple of saltanas or a couple of pieces of cut up this it all adds up and it's probably food you don't need. So just be mindful that you're more vulnerable to that and the less contacts you have with the food the better that can or easier that can make it. Alright the last bad habit which lends itself to our discussion because I'm actually recording this on a Friday is weekend eating because on one hand when we're quite well organised and have our sort of ideal meal plan foundation for the day we know what we have for breakfast we know we've got to pack our lunch the night before we know having a protein rich after an instant really important we know we need lighter dinners but for whatever reason fatigue overwhelm a number of reasons once it tends to get to Thursday night and Friday all food rules often fly out the window because we're exhausted so Friday night becomes a night of going out for dinner or getting take away and then we start a Saturday morning in a frenzy with kids sport and end up at some random ground an hour away from home. Where the only thing is a canteen with steak sandwiches, bacon and egg rolls and sausage sizzles and you start with a coffee and then you end up starving at 10 o'clock so you grab that and then you're out the rest of the day driving around to kids parties some parent offers you a glass of champagne at the party then you have a bit of snacks and then you get home and you're exhausted again take away again and before you know it you've had two or three days of a complete calorie blowout giving it my women don't need a lot of calories so if you're only needing 1,400 it's very easy to get to 2,000 and then you've had 2,000 for three days and that's again while you're not losing weight. So the best thing for busy women to do and I don't say this without awareness and empathy it is a tough time in life when you're juggling young children, teenage children or even aging parents is that you often don't have that moment in time to reflect and reset and come back to your own needs. So whether it's a Friday morning when you work at home, whether it's a Saturday morning when you're having a coffee before K.O. starts or it might even be earlier than that but you've really got to try and map out your weekend so that you've got the structure in place so you have a meal or two that's more indulgent and not six or eight meals that are more indulgent because when you under it in the day because you've been snacking right through a Saturday you'll overeat all afternoon and evening and that's the problem and come Monday you feel terrible, you feel guilty that you had a bad weekend and of course you're not making progress with your weight loss goals. So the first thing I do myself and encourage clients to do is you've got to start the weekend with the food you need on hand. I hate going to supermarket Sunday. I just find it so depressing that the whole week starting again and you're feeling like you're in a frenzy so I try and go Friday or at least I've got clients who might get a home delivery Saturday morning so that you've actually got the stuff for the first few days of the week then and you don't have to rush to the supermarket Sunday night. That also means that you can have your breakfast and even lunches ready for to tackle Saturday so you don't get caught at bunnings or at the local sports ground with that kind of food that's available that never has what we really need which is veggies and salads. So then you can for example make yourself some wraps to take or a toasted sandwich or you know that you've got lunch when you come home you can start with a piece of an apple and a protein yogurt to go in the car with you on Saturday so you've got something there so you know become a victim of the food environment you find yourself in with the kids. So that could be different for all of you you might like to shop Sunday morning you might like the delivery to come Sunday morning I do it Friday whenever it's your kind of moment to reset and that will really predict your nutrition over the course of the weekend. And it also means that you can enjoy Sunday to yourself in the family without having to go to the supermarket which is not very refreshing and often busy they run out of staff it's very stressful. And then you can kind of plan the first few meals of the week you know you might do a quick and easy soup Sunday night or you might do a pre-made lasagna and then you can buy the fish for Monday or you can make us spaghetti bowls so you've got Monday nights dinner you will be feeling so much better in yourself when you've got that structure and control for the first few days of the week and you can actually enjoy Sunday at home with the family. The next thing to do is actually plan when the indulgent meals are going to be because I'm probably thinking that most of you don't consider a bunning sausage sandwich on white bread indulgent but yet we all do it and eat 300 calories and 20 grams of fat without thinking twice. So think about when is the indulgent going to be are you going for lunch on Saturday are you having a takeaway Saturday night are you making a special meal or having people over Sunday what are the two meals where you are going to indulge and isolate those out and then you can plan around it so you've still got something relatively healthy on Saturday it might be picking up roast paper rolls out or a sandwich or a subway when you're out they're great choices it might be packing the lunch it might be having a willy's pre-made salad that you chuck some tuna into you can have the supplies there because it's about having the food on hand we need to eat well rather than putting more pressure on us to find or make healthy food when we're in a frenzy running around on Saturdays and Sundays. So that's the next step it's actually having the indulgent meals plan so you can map around it and know what you're going to eat the rest of the time and rather than lend itself to the all day grays on Saturday and Sunday you're sticking to two or three meals so that might be pancakes on Sunday morning with the kids a snack in the afternoon and then a roast in a Sunday night so you've actually mapped it out in your head so you've got the ingredients there you're not rushing around trying to pick stuff up when the supermarket's a busy and you can enjoy special meals but not sort of over each poor quality calories just because of the environment that you're in and if you learn to take control of your Friday Saturday and Sunday this is often the missing link because people often have structure ready Monday to Thursday and it's just tweaking it so that they don't lose two or three days over the weekend while still enjoying some nice meals and not being victims of the food environment because of the rest of the family. So they're my five worst food habits not having a coffee the right way non-hungry eating too many sweet treats at night mindless munching and then losing control of your weekends and even starting with some strategies for each of those will go a long way if you continually struggle to make progress even though in your mind you are eating pretty well. So I hope this is helpful for everyone who is also running around on the way. weekend. It is Friday so I'll be going to the supermarket sometime a day so I do not have to go on Sunday. I hope you have a great week and I look forward to chatting again next Monday morning for diet notes. See you soon.