In the words of Garfield…
The word ‘Diet’ takes me back to my youth and reminds me of the dieting philosophy of Garfield, the lovable, lazy, fat and cynical cartoon cat. Garfield loved lasagne and sleeping, hated Mondays and believed that diet is just DIE with a T.
For most of my life I associated dieting with losing weight, something I’ve rarely had an issue with. Like many with Crohn’s disease I struggle to keep weight on, and it wasn’t until I went into full remission for a few years that weight became an issue.
Steadily over time I gained weight until I was borderline obese. It just crept up on me, as did the emotional impact. I’ve always been a confident person but being overweight really affected my self-esteem, changing my normally upright posture to one that was hunched over; my eyes fell to the ground, unable to look at people directly as I was ashamed of my size.
This was my trigger to start dieting. I wanted to feel better about myself and to gain my confidence back. I started a low-fat diet, purchased a gym membership and spent time with a personal trainer. Despite my efforts I had limited success and it wasn’t until my condition flared that I started to lose the weight.
Food was an emotional crutch
I understand now that my lack of success had something to do with a behaviour trait called disinhibited eating, which involves a lack of healthy restraint for food intake. It is associated with lower self-esteem, low physical activity and poor psychological health, all of which I was suffering at the time. I lived to work, had moved away from friends and family and I had no social life. I was lacking emotional connection, fun, vibrancy and true enjoyment in life, and I used food and drink to fill this emotional void.
Several years ago, I started working with mindset and through doing so I recognised the emotional connection that I had with food and drink. I realised that I was using them as an escape mechanism when I was experiencing overwhelm and loneliness instead of facing the situations head on and resolving them.
Changing my internal dialog
A friend introduced me to ‘positive affirmations’, a practice that I found rather awkward to begin with but in the end, I found it transformational. I hadn’t realised just how negative my thinking was, especially my self-talk. It took time as I had to train myself to be positive but once I had embedded it as habit, I discovered the influential effect it had on my ability to handle stress and in greatly improving my opinion of myself.
Tuning in to my body
I no longer diet, instead I’ve created healthy eating habits that align with what I’ve determined works best for me and my health. I do restrict foods that trigger inflammation or cause digestive issues. My eating habits are fluid and become more lenient or strict depending on how I feel. I listen closely to my body and pick up on the cues that tell me to adjust my diet. By being more in tune with my mental state I also recognise when I am suffering from stress, overwhelm or emotional situations and can use different techniques to counter the effects.
I follow the 80:20 rule and make sure that at least 80% of the time I am eating good, healthy wholesome food. Up to 20% of the time I allow myself to indulge. I remain conscious of my emotional state and no longer try to feed my emotions with food and drink.
What is your view on dieting? Do you emotionally eat? Have you tried the 80:20 rule? I’d love to know!
Lovely to read your article Nikki and as a Health Coach myself it is important to ‘walk the walk not just talk the talk’ which you obviously do. I love the way you spoke about tuning into your body which is also what I do. Well done!
Thank you Sandra. I’m sure you’ll agree that we can impart more insight from that which we have personal experience of. Keep listening to that body of yours, it has innate wisdom.
Fantastic article! It’s so easy to use food as a distraction. When I’m reaching for a snack I find it helpful to slow down and ask myself if I’m really hungry or if I’m just bored or reacting to something. I’ve also found that sometimes I’m actually thirsty, not hungry, and all I needed was a glass of water!
You are so right Amy, and often without realising that you are using it as a distraction. I’m so glad to hear that you challenge that instinct to snack because you are right, often it is thirst masquerading as hunger.