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> Hints > Past Newsletter Editions > Articles > The Easiest Way to Eat Well

The Easiest Way to Eat Well

Having helped myself and many other women to lose weight by connecting with their body, I've noticed that as long as you're eating only when you feel physically hungry and stopping before you feel over satisfied, there's not a single food or drink that will stop you from losing weight.

Margaret, 54, has lost 2.5 kilos in 10 weeks since she started my Kick-Start Personal Coaching Program in Sydney. She was pleased to have been able to lose this weight while enjoying things she would never have eaten without guilt if she were trying to lose weight on a restrictive diet. Things like vegetarian lasagne in a restaurant when she was on holiday, and a small dessert at her aunty's 70th birthday party. "Thanks for all your encouragement," she says. "I'm not sure how you did it, but you seem to have given me confidence in myself and my body's ability to know when it is hungry and when it is no longer hungry."

Julie, 40, has lost 3.5 kilos in the 10 weeks since she attended my workshop and started my Three Month E-Mail Coaching Program. From reading her Success Diaries, I noticed that Julie enjoys a sweet treat such as an Italian pastry, a small handful of jelly beans, a few vanilla wafer biscuits, a row of chocolate or a few pikelets every day or every other day.

Tessa, 52, lost 5.3 kilos in 16 weeks and reached her goal weight of 62 kilos during my Three-Month Telephone Coaching Program. As she enjoys a drink when she eats out with her husband or on a business trip, Tessa's Success Diaries showed a glass of wine or beer three or four times a week. Here's what Tessa had to say about losing weight in this way.

"What I loved the most about Amanda's weight loss program is that it was so simple and so totally different to all the weight loss programs I have tried over the past 20+ years. I did not have to count points, weigh food or only eat specific foods.

I travel a lot and dine out a lot with clients so eating specific foods, weighing food and counting points does not work for me.

Amanda's consulting program helped me see my weight loss journey as exciting and positive. Amanda's consulting helped me fine tune how to go about changing my eating and exercise habits so I could lose weight almost effortlessly. I am still quite stunned about how easy it has all been. I have been trying to lose this weight for over 15 years. Also I know without any doubt that the weight I have lost is permanently lost as I have permanently changed my habits.

I have had several people (including my husband) say I look 10 years younger. Not only do I look 10 years younger but I feel it too.

Thank you Amanda and I am so glad I "found" you

Tessa Stowe
www.salesconversation.com

PS: I threw out all the trousers in my wardrobe that are now too big for me. There is no going back!"

In brief, there's not a single food you need to avoid if you want to lose weight and keep it off. In fact, like I did for Margaret, Julie and Tessa, I encourage you to enjoy a little of your favourite must-have foods or drinks on a regular basis while you're losing weight: doing so will make your weight loss efforts sustainable in the long term.

However, while there's nothing you can't eat if you want to lose weight, there's one thing you absolutely can't get away with:

Not eating enough vegetables and fruits.

Earlier this year the Australian Women's Weekly asked me to comment on the results of their survey showing that half of women aged eighteen or over don't eat fruit on a daily basis, and twenty six per cent don't eat vegetables on a daily basis.

This is scary, because so many studies have clearly linked lack of vegetables and fruit to devastating diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

What has surprised me, however, is that even women trying to lose weight don't eat enough vegetables and fruits every day. This is perhaps the result of following restrictive diets that give vegetables and fruits a bad reputation. Why would you would want to eat them when you've been bombarded with misguided messages such as "Don't eat potatoes" or "Don't eat melon" or "Don't eat salad with oily dressings". It's all too unpalatable and complicated!

When someone sends me their Success Diary and I see that they've been eating vegetables with two or more meals per day as well as at least two pieces of fruit per day, and that they're eating only when comfortably hungry and stopping before feeling overfull, they're usually losing weight. It doesn't matter in what form or dressings those vegetables and fruits come, just so long as they're on the menu every day.

When someone sends me their Success Diary and I see that they're not eating enough vegetables and fruits, then even if they're eating precisely according to their hunger and getting loads of physical activity, they're usually not losing weight.

One of the reasons for this is that when you eat decent servings of vegetables and fruits of any kind every day, they carry bulk and undigested nutrients to the lower reaches of your bowels. This then triggers strong release of gut satiety hormones (or, 'stop eating' hormones) into your blood stream. Research from my own team as well as others has shown that gut satiety hormones not only act in the hypothalamus of your brain to cut your appetite, they also rev up your metabolic rate. If you're eating according to your physical needs, the result is that you eat fewer kilojoules and burn more fat.

Therefore, what you must do if you want to lose weight in this liberating way is to eat vegetables and fruits every day. As with all foods, ensure that you eat your veggies and fruits only when you feel hungry, and stop eating before you feel over satisfied.

So, just how many vegetables and fruits do you need to eat if you want to lose weight effectively and optimize your chances of a long and healthy life?

An excellent guideline is the Australian Government's health recommendation to incorporate at least two servings of fruit plus at least five servings of vegetables into your diet every day. Other countries have very similar guidelines.

One serving of fruit is equivalent to one medium-sized piece of fruit (e.g. an apple) or two smaller pieces of fruit such as apricots, or one cup of canned or chopped fruit.

One serving of vegetables is equivalent to one cup of salad vegetables or half a cup of cooked vegetables / legumes or one serving of starchy vegetable such as potato or corn (e.g. a medium potato).

It doesn't so much matter how you get your veggies and fruit, just as long as you eat a wide variety of them every day. The only thing to note is that dried fruits, juices and deep-fried vegetables such as potato chips are best consumed only occasionally or in small quantities.

Fruits can be of any variety, fresh, frozen, tinned or stewed, even with a little sugar if you prefer.

I've met a lot of people who say they don't like eating fruit, but would quite happily eat diced pears and peaches from a tin, or forest berries from the freezer, thawed and stirred through yoghurt with a touch of sugar if desired.

These are both fabulous ways to get more fruit into your diet. Then there's apple strudel, banana or avocado smoothies, strawberries, mangoes, kiwifruit, cherries, watermelon...the list goes on.

Vegetables can also be of any variety, fresh, frozen, tinned, raw or cooked.

Be sure to add the condiments that make your vegetables appealing to you. For instance, maybe you're not keen on spinach, but if you saute it with a bit of butter or cream and garlic, I bet you'll reach for it time and again.

In my six years of failed dieting attempts, I used to eat salad only when I was trying to lose weight. I would force myself to eat it without so much as a drop of fat. But then I learned to be liberal with to-die-for salad dressings such as olive oil vinaigrette and creamy mustard sauces, and now just I adore salad. I'm sure you will, too, when you find the salad dressings that light up your taste buds.

The most important thing with vegetables and fruits is to find ways to make them so enjoyable and enticing that you want to eat them every day.

I know you can rise to this challenge.

Over to you

Here's something you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

Instead of worrying about what you shouldn't eat in order to lose weight, try changing your focus and thinking about what you need to eat to lose weight.

Let's take your next meal as an example. Can you think of ways to incorporate a few palatable servings of vegetables or fruits into that meal?

If you're waking up to breakfast, perhaps you'd like to chop up a few pieces of fruit for a delicious fruit salad that you can enjoy before your toast and tea?

If you're headed out to buy a sandwich for lunch, perhaps you could choose one that's choc full of salad or roasted vegetables?

If you're going home to pull something from the freezer for dinner, perhaps you could grab a bag of ready-washed supermarket salad greens, pour them into a bowl, dress them with a drizzle of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of sea salt?

When you focus on enjoying at least five servings of vegetables and at least two servings of fruit every day, you'll find yourself naturally gravitating towards the kinds of foods that help you to lose weight and keep it off.

To show you what I mean, try pigging out on a packet of potato chips and a block of chocolate when you've just dined on roast beef, baked potatoes and pumpkin, steamed peas, beans and carrots with a pat of butter, finished off with Stuffed Poached Pears for dessert (see page 326 of the Don't Go Hungry Diet for recipe). Chances are you probably wouldn't need to.

As long as you're eating only when you feel comfortably and physically hungry and stopping before you feel over satisfied, then your daily dose of veggies and fruits will enable you to lose weight without depriving yourself of anything.

Add some regular physical activity to the equation and you'll lose weight faster and be better set to keep the weight off for life.

To help you implement this simple and sustainable strategy for permanent weight loss, I invite you to register for one of my up-coming workshops.

Take care, and I hope to meet you in person soon,

Amanda

Dr Amanda
Connect with your body
www.DrAmandaOnline.com