Why knowing what to eat isn’t working
Everyone knows kale and avocados are healthy, but is that all you need to have a healthy lifestyle? 🤔
Nutrition is much deeper than just knowing which foods are good for us and which aren’t.
Nutrition is like a mental obstacle course where you are:
Breaking lifelong habits
Challenging your emotional attachments to food
Trying to escape the tangled mess of social and cultural influence
Even if we've memorized the health benefits of all the foods we eat, the real struggle is getting past the mental hurdles that keep tripping us up on the way to becoming our healthiest selves.
This guide is designed to help you identify these challenges and help you build healthier eating habits.
Habits Die Hard: The Challenge of Behavioral Change
One of the main obstacles to having a healthier diet is the power of habits.
Over the years, we develop routines and habits around food that become ingrained in our daily lives. To change these habits, you need more than just knowing what is healthy; it requires a psychological shift.
For example, if you’re used to having a donut with your coffee every morning, it might be hard to give that up all of a sudden. But don’t worry, no one is gonna ask you to quit donuts cold turkey😌.
Adopting new, healthier habits requires:
commitment to change
being ready to get out of your comfort zone to be able to break old habits and make new ones.
So ask yourself this, are you ready to commit and make a change? You reading this right now is a great start!
Use this next section to reflect on some of your food-related habits.
What are some healthy habits you currently have? Write down why you think each habit is healthy and why you like that habit.
e.g I eat fruits everyday. I think it is healthy because fruits have a lot of vitamins. I like this habit because I enjoy eating fruits.
Now, Write down a few habits that you have regarding food that you would like to change.
e.g I eat candy while I watch TV every night. I know that this causes me to over-eat, and I would like to be more mindful of this.
To make things easier and more practical, Use the table below to set goals for changing habits you want to improve, along with reasons for making those changes. This will remind you of why you want to change each habit and keep you motivated.
Emotional Eating: Navigating the Link Between Feelings and Food
Food and emotions are very closely related.
Emotional eating is very common, which makes sense because nothing says "I’ve had a rough day" like a tub of ice cream and a marathon of your favorite TV show🍨.
How often do you reach for something sweet when you’re feeling down or for a bag of chips when you’re bored?
Many emotions such as stress, sadness or boredom can trigger different eating habits such as looking for comfort in food.
However, while food can feel like a comforting friend, it’s important to recognize when we're eating to fill an emotional gap rather than a physical one.
Emotional eating is usually our way of coping with feelings we’d rather not face head-on, and while a quick snack might bring temporary comfort, it often leaves us feeling less satisfied in the long run 🫤.
To address emotional eating, we need to:
understand what triggers these habits
try to find different coping mechanisms and finding healthier ways to deal with emotions
Change our mindset, separate the connection between feelings and food
Food Journal
Throughout the week, pay attention to moments when you eat for reasons other than hunger, such as boredom or stress. Use the table below to record what you ate, why you ate, why you stopped eating and your level of hunger before eating. This will help you better understand your eating habits and emotions when eating.
Cognitive Biases: Unraveling the Complexity of Decision-Making
As humans, it is in our nature to want quick fixes and expect immediate results, but unfortunately, immediate results usually don’t last long.
Our brains have a funny way of playing tricks on us when it comes to decision-making, often making us think, “Sure, future me will be super healthy and responsible, but right now, I definitely deserve this donut.” 🤔
This is thanks to cognitive biases that love immediate rewards rather than thinking about the long-term benefits.
Our brains are wired to seek immediate gratification, so it takes some strategic thinking to prioritize long-term well-being over the siren call of the snack aisle.
But with a little awareness and practice, we can start making decisions that make both present and future us happy.
Here are some steps to tackle long-term goals:
Identify a Long-Term Health Goal: Write down a specific long-term health goal related to your eating habits (e.g., "I want to eat more vegetables daily" or "I want to reduce my sugar intake").
Break It Down: Divide this goal into smaller, short-term objectives that can be achieved within a day or a week (e.g., "Include at least one vegetable in each meal today" or "Choose fruit instead of a sugary snack twice this week").
Track Your Progress: Use a simple chart or journal to track each time you achieve one of these short-term goals. Note how you felt before and after making the healthier choice.
Reflect: At the end of the week, review your progress.
now, let’s apply all that. Use the below table to break down your long-term goals into smaller, easier to follow short-term goals.
Social and Cultural Influences: The Power of External Factors
The social and cultural context we live in really affects what we eat.
Think about your family gatherings and how if your grandma insists you have a third helping of her famous lasagna, there’s no saying no to that!😩
If we want to make healthier choices, we have to become aware of just how much influence these external pressures have.
It’s like becoming a food detective in our own lives: “Aha! I see what you’re doing, Thanksgiving turkey, trying to make me eat until I can’t stand. Not today!”
It’s not always easy, but once you realize what influences your choices, you have more control over YOUR decisions.
With self-awareness and determination, you can actually make your own choices rather than leave it up to external factors.
Use the section below to reflect on how external factors affect your food choices.
Do you feel like external factors such as society and culture affect your eating habits? Is it a positive or negative effect?
e.g I feel like society promotes diet culture and tells me certain foods are “bad”, which negatively affects my food choices.
List some examples where you feel external factors may affect your eating habits.
e.g I will eat whatever is available at parties even if I don’t feel like eating.
Because we’re naturally social beings and many of our meals happen in social settings, here are some tips for making healthier choices while enjoying these gatherings:
Plan ahead: If you’re going out to a restaurant, take some time to look at the menu beforehand and decide which options would be the most balanced and nutritious.
Build a balanced meal: For example, if you opt for a main dish that doesn’t have any vegetables, order a side of vegetables to ensure you have a balanced meal.
Be mindful: Consider being aware of your reasons for eating. For instance, if a family member is urging you to eat something they've prepared and you're not hungry anymore, it’s okay to politely decline or explain that you’re not ready to eat yet.
Know when you’re satisfied: While eating and socializing, shift your focus from the conversation to your meal. Enjoy it with all your senses and check in with how hungry or full you feel. This way, you can avoid overeating when you're not actually hungry.
Motivation and Goal Setting: Nurturing the Will to Change
Staying motivated to keep eating healthy is an ongoing challenge.
We all know eating healthy will be better for us in the long run, but because we don’t always see immediate results, it could be hard to stay motivated.
For that reason, you need to find your why. Why are you on this journey of eating healthy?
Whether it’s to feel better, build a healthier relationship with food, or even to feel more energized at the gym, knowing your reason will help you stay motivated.
Setting clear goals and finding ways to stay motivated is key.
We’re all unique, which is why it’s important to understand what drives you and to adjust your strategies to fit YOUR personal likes and values.
What is your “why”? What is the underlying reason or deeper purpose behind the goals you set for yourself?
e.g I want to improve my relationship with food to demonstrate good habits for my kids.
What are things that motivate you to lead a healthy lifestyle?
e.g your family, to have better health, prevent diseases, physical appearance etc.
Here are some tips on how to stay motivated:
Regularly review your goals and progress.
Understand your “why” - understand the deeper reason behind your goals.
Tackle one goal at a time so you don’t feel overwhelmed.
Surround yourself with people who support you and help you achieve your goals.
Keep learning and adapting - if one way of doing things just isn’t working for you, that’s okay, you’ll find other ways to achieve the same goal! Stay open to new strategies and be willing to adjust your approach.
Practical Strategies: Merging Knowledge with Psychological Insight
Each one of us has unique challenges, motivations, personality and aspirations, which is why it’s important to have personalized interventions that would align with you personally.
Nutrition services has to be more than bombarding you with information about what to eat and what not to eat.
It’s important to have psychological strategies like cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness techniques, and motivational interviewing to help you reach your goal.
In this section, you will be introduced to the concept of mindful eating and determining whether you have mindful eating habits.
Fill in the table below with the number that best matches your experience.
1 = Almost always
2 = Frequently
3 = Infrequently
4 = Almost never
This exercise is designed to help you reflect on how mindful you are during meals. If most of your answers are 3 or 4, this reflects that you practice more mindfulness when eating. If your scores are mostly 1 or 2, you might need to focus more on developing mindful eating habits.
Conclusion: Beyond the Plate, Into the Mind
When it comes to starting the journey of healthy eating, knowing that the psychological aspect is just as crucial as the nutrition knowledge is important.
If you have all the knowledge in the world but with no way to actually change your habits, it may become frustrating and lead you to be stuck in a cycle of fad diets. 🥴
Healthy eating knowledge provides the foundation, but understanding the complexities of human behavior and thought processes is the key to change that actually lasts.
By exploring the mental side of eating, people can create a long-lasting, healthier lifestyle that’s not just about what’s on your plate but also what’s going on in your head.