Embracing Food Freedom

With Dietitian, Abbey Sissian & Lily Leighton from The Clean Kweens.

EC. There's a common theme in that women in particular, are struggling with food freedom. For those who aren't sure what food freedom is, it's basically just the ability to eat what they actually want to eat without feeling guilt or regret afterwards. What do you think is the most powerful strategy to begin to work on cultivating this food freedom?

CK. We love this question! One thing we always recommend when moving towards food freedom is changing your mindset. With previous dieting, social media and a lot of myths out there about nutrition, it's so easy to get stuck in a negative, restrictive mindset around food or categorise food as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but one thing that we really encourage all women to do, is try and adopt a more positive mindset and overcome that food restriction if you can, knowing that all foods are OK to enjoy in your diet. All foods can be part of a balanced diet and you can still be really healthy and well nourished eating like this.

Delicious foods are always going to be available to us and sweet foods are probably going to become more available in the coming decades. So, you may as well learn to make peace with these foods now.

In terms of a positive mindset and fostering that sense of permission and acceptance around these foods, ask yourself - Do you actually feel like these foods? What is your body telling you that it needs?

At first, you might always want these foods, so have a bit of self-compassion. Allow yourself to enjoy the food you actually want, but also know that it’s always available. That food isn’t going anywhere. Delicious foods are everywhere. So, if you finish all the biscuits in the house, you can always buy more. If you finish the block of chocolate, you can always get some more.

So, do you actually feel like more of that food right now, or can you have more tomorrow or the next day? It’s that sense of it being OK to eat these foods … let's try and make peace with these foods being a part of a balanced diet and accepting that it's all right to enjoy foods that you may have previously restricted, so that it is sustainable in the long term. This s really helpful in fostering that positive mindset around food.

Restricting food and telling yourself you can't have it, just doesn't work. It will only lead to overeating it. If you tell yourself you can't have a particular food, you're 133% likely to overeat it. Remind yourself of that and tell yourself - “I am allowed to include these foods in my diet! “

Learning how to enjoy these foods in a proportioned way is really beneficial.

EC. A lot of my Squad members feel guilty and feel that there's something wrong with them if they constantly want those foods, but we're designed to constantly want those foods. We are designed to want to binge and overeat on high calorie, high density foods. It's all part of our wiring as human-beings. There's nothing wrong with you. Instead, it’s more about the environment that we currently live in, but it’s important to acknowledge that in the beginning, you will want to binge and over eat on those foods because you've restricted them for such a long time, but trust that it won't always be the case.

CK. Yeah, definitely and you can put strategies into place to minimise the risk of overeating as well, like having regular balanced meals and fuelling yourself regularly throughout the day can be really helpful too, because if you open a pack of ice creams and you're genuinely physically hungry, those ice creams won’t fill you up. They’re not going to increase your fullness hormone, so you are going to require a large portion of that food to feel any sort of fullness.

So, going into it with a sensible mindset too and knowing that it's OK to eat those foods, but perhaps if you're hungry, it's best to have something more nourishing first and then you can boost that satisfaction factor with something sweet afterwards. Otherwise, you set yourself up for an overeating episode.

There's a good saying - If you're hungry, fuel yourself first!

Making those deliberate decisions will help to fill you up, and then you can feed your soul afterwards.

EC. That just reminded me of your post on Instagram the other day about the 3 F's - something fresh, something filling, something fun - so, you're hitting all bases essentially! You're nourishing yourself to walk away feeling full, but also feeling satisfied as well.

I've got a couple of questions here from our Squad members - Q. How do I maintain discipline whilst still leaving space to live in terms of food? I'm thinking of all the food my family loves to cook and I love to eat, and the social events that I love going to where there's food on offer that won't help me reach my goals?

CK. There are a few points we could touch on here -

No. 1 - just gaining some perspective around the situation. If we think about eating occasions throughout the week, there's roughly 42 eating occasions - breakfast, lunch, dinner, plus or minus some snacks. That's a typical day of eating. So, let’s say during that week you ate out 1 of those eating occasions, that is a very small percentage of your intake. It is only 2.4%, which is very minuscule. Also, actually enjoying those eating out occasions and not necessarily putting them on a pedestal can be really great at embracing a balanced lifestyle, which you want.

No. 2 - actually listen to your hunger and fullness signals. When you reach that 70% mark where your body's feeling comfortably full and satisfied, could you actually say to yourself - “There is some left on my plate, but I'm feeling really comfortable. I'm happy to leave that there”. This can be really hard because often we're taught as kids that we cannot leave the table until our whole plate is empty, so we can carry that through with us, but it's such an easy strategy. Can you ask for a container for what you haven't eaten and take that away, if it helps mentally with those thoughts around having to finish what you’ve paid for?

You have a satisfaction point - let’s say you're out at dinner, you're enjoying a meal and you get to about 70% - you feel really comfortably full and satisfied with that meal … pushing past that to 100% full where you feel sick or uncomfortably full, that’s a waste too. You haven't necessarily enjoyed the food more. You’re not going to get any more benefits from it. Our bodies has utilised all the nutrients needed because it's told us that we feel comfortably full and satisfied and we're only getting uncomfortable now. So, taking the time to listen to your body and leaving some of that food on the plate can be a great strategy for weight loss.

Also, if you are enjoying going out for dinner or to your family's house for meals, it doesn't have to be a novel thing. It's more about connecting and having conversation which can really help bring those occasions and the foods you might eat during those occasions off that pedestal. It's about actually catching up and having conversations. It's not solely focused on the food.

EC. It's that YOLO concept, isn't it? It's the fact that we tend to live like it’s our last day on Earth, but then there's the repercussion and fact that the next day isn't actually your “last” day and in actual fact, a lot of the satisfaction of food comes from the anticipation of eating that food. It’s the first bite or two that are the absolute best, then after that, it almost loses its taste or its appeal.

CK. You’re 100% right - and that's why we always encourage mindful eating. If you struggle to stop eating chocolate, break yourself off a row, take it away and actually sit down and make a nice, meaningful occasion of enjoying the chocolate. Hold it in your mouth to truly taste the flavours and a lot of the time you walk away feeling so satisfied and don't feel the need to go back for more.

EC. Our next question is around discipline and knowing what you need to do, but struggling to enforce the discipline to do it - Q. I struggle when I don't know what my goal is other than to feel better, which feels a little bit wishy-washy and vague. What would you say to this?

CK. We think goals are really important and it's hard when your goal is a bit vague. First and foremost - write down some clear, realistic goals. Not anything too drastic and perhaps not even something that would really require discipline, just motivation and dedication. So, this might be - next week I will aim for 2 pieces of fruit every day or I’ll aim for lunch & dinner to be half full of veggies or salad or leafy greens. Maybe it's drinking 2 litres of water a day or doing half an hour of movement? It needs to be those small steps that happen on the way to the big goal, but also realistic and simple.

With nutrition, we're so quick to overcomplicate things, but what is actually achievable for you? If you set out to eat 10 serves of veggies per day, not eat sugar, not eat anything processed and not get takeaway - that is unrealistic, unsustainable and unenjoyable. So, can you make goals that are more enjoyable, sustainable, and realistic? Can you set 1 or 2 goals a week, then try and nail those before setting more?

EC. I tell my SQUAD members to improve by approx. 10% - yes, it’s recommended to eat 5 serves of veggies, but if you are only eating 1 or 2 serves per day, increasing that to 5 is a big jump and you’ll struggle to do that. Although it’s recommend as the bare minimum, it may not be the bare minimum for you, so it’s important to assess where you’re currently at and make small improvements on that …

Our next question is all about rewarding yourself with food - Q. How to not to binge eat on treat foods because you feel like you deserve it? You may have had a hard day at work or a hard afternoon with the kids and all you want to do is sit down with some wine and chocolate, but essentially just you’re rewarding yourself for getting through every day tasks. How can we stop doing this?

CK. This is quite a common one. Most of the time, the food (or drink) is seen as a reward because we’ve likely placed some restriction on it. So again, it's up there on that pedestal. It’s going back to question one - how can you start including those foods in your diet and not feel out of control?

This involves not having those restrictions, but also scheduling in those reward foods during the week, in proportioned amounts, then taking the time to sit down and enjoy them mindfully.

A good strategy might be to schedule in a dessert (eg. a Freddo frog) each night for dessert. Sit down and enjoy it with a nice cup of tea. Practice mindful eating and by the end of the week, your brain is likely to believe that chocolate isn't actually that special now because you've had it every night this week.

At the end of the day, food isn't a treat. Food is there for taste, the experience and to fuel us. So, remind yourself that food isn't a treat. If you know you are using food as a reward, is there something else you can use as a reward? Could you go for a nice walk to get some fresh air? Could you call someone and actually debrief on the series of events which led you to want to use food as a treat? Could you have a warm shower or do a face mask and paint your nails?

There other activities that you can use as a reward. A lot of the time, we crave foods that are higher in sugar, fat or carbs and it's usually because we’re looking for a hit of serotonin or dopamine and those foods provide that, but remind yourself that going for a walk, listening to music, doing yoga or playing with your dog, all release serotonin too.

EC. This is a great time to use your ‘Snack Plate Approach’ …

CK. Absolutely, definitely! That’s a really good point!! We tell ourselves that after dinner all we want is chocolate, so add a Freddo frog to a plate, but also add some berries, an apple or some cheese and crackers. Often you couldn’t think of anything worse than having cheese and crackers, but that's a good indication that you probably don't want food. Your body is requiring something else from you right now. So what is it? Can you give your body rest or relaxation by other means?

Ask yourself - would I sit down now and eat a nourishing snack? If the answer is NO, then you may need something else to help yourself feel a little better.

It can feel hard doing this because you’re creating a new neural pathway, but the next time you do it, it's going to be easier and easier, then before long your brain remembers - when I feel this way and want to use food as a reward, I do this other option now, instead of opening that block of chocolate. If you are physically hungry, you'll want to eat half an apple or cheese and crackers. You’ll want to eat anything to fill yourself physically, but if you’re not, you'll turn your nose up at it because it’s not what you really want.

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