how to lose weight without dieting

Fad diets, yo-yo weight loss and constantly trying new regimes can all lead to disillusionment and anxiety over food choices and weight management. In this blog post, I’ll show you how to take back control of your eating habits without having to follow a diet plan or exert immense willpower.

 Does that sound good? Great – read on.

 As a dietitian and wellbeing consultant, I hear about my clients’ struggles with food almost every day:

·      “I’m struggling with my food intake”

·      “I overeat at mealtimes and if I can, I snack on sugary rubbish”

·      “Work is really busy and exhausting; I know I eat because I’m tired and unhappy.”

·      “I need some accountability for portion sizes.”

·      “I’m not strong enough to resist food”.

·      “I’ve achieved a lot in my life, I don’t want food to conquer me.”

·      “I don’t want to be on a diet for the rest of my life.”

Sound familiar?

How your eating habits impact your life

Your choice of foods and your habits around eating and mealtimes can affect your life more than you realise. Many of my clients struggle with fatigue brain fog and headaches. But they don’t often realise it could be to do with the unhealthy food choices they make, the overeating habits they have, and the weight gain they’ve experienced as a result.

If I could wave a magic wand to make people feel happier, fitter, sleep better and have more positive energy, I’d love to! Instead, I help my clients to find all those positives through making better eating choices and managing their weight in a positive way, rather than exerting continuous stress on our bodies and minds.

A positive outlook on weight loss

I’d like to take you on a journey, travelling in a sturdy wooden boat from the choppy waves of the North Sea into the River Tyne and up to the calm waters of the Cheviot hills. 

Trying to lose weight by following prescriptive diet plans can be difficult. The plans that restrict your food choices or require immense amounts of willpower to avoid certain foods at certain times of the day or week can leave you feeling like you’re sitting in a tiny boat in the very choppy waters of the North Sea. You’re being tossed around by the waves and any control you felt you had is ripped away from you by the current.

 How often do you make food choices based on a food’s calorie value rather than its nutrient value? Maybe you’re justifying your indulgence or kidding yourself that you’re eating the right things?

 Have you ever considered if you’re eating the wrong foods is in response to triggers throughout the day? Do you feel like eating even when you’re not hungry?

 Do you simply want to take hold of the rudder under someone else’s command or do you want to be captain of your little boat?

 Being the captain of your boat means you decide the direction you’re travelling. Holding the rudder is seizing control but you’re not actually in charge. 

How sleep and hormones can affect our eating habits

Travelling upstream, we can think about the impact of our sleeping pattern on our hormones and food intake. We have a plethora of happy and sad hormones impacting our food and mood throughout each day. A landmark study by Spiegel K et al (2004) showed a lack of sleep in healthy men was associated with decreased leptin levels, elevated ghrelin levels and increased hunger, demonstrating poor-quality sleep can result in an increase in snacking during the day. Being tired alone can add an extra 200 Kcals to our daily intake.

Here are some really simple tips to help you improve your sleeping patterns:

·      Try breathing in slowly through the nose holding for a few seconds and exhaling slowly. Repeat these three to four times

·      Try to avoid using your laptop, phone or tablet an hour before bed

·      Reflect on all the positives of the day before you fall asleep

Stress, sugar and healthy eating habits

As you arrive at the source of the river, nestled in the Cheviot hills, you discover the source of your food cravings, inability to control portion sizes and poor sleeping pattern. The source is stress.

 Our levels of the hormones cortisol and adrenaline increase when we are stressed or under continuous pressure. These hormones control parts of the brain influencing our sleep, the foods we choose to eat, whether to upsize to a larger portion, and our ability to resist those sugary snacks.

 How many of us, during our busy working day, feel our energy levels starting to run low as we feel mentally and physically tired? This happens particularly towards mid-afternoon or on our way home when we start to crave a sugar fix.

 Pressure to meet deadlines can also make our anxiety and stress levels start to rise. The body’s natural reaction to stressful situations is the fight or flight response. Our brains make us ready to fight the tiger in the room and our brain instructs us we need a quick, fast-acting source of energy to prepare for battle. So what foods are you drawn to in times of stress? Absolutely, simple carbohydrates, also known as sugars.

 Sugar lights up all the reward centres in the brain. Research in rats has shown sugar is more addictive than cocaine causing a release in dopamine which makes us feel great. Pause, and experience the joy you feel after eating a bar of chocolate. Repeat this action over and over again and yes it becomes an addictive habit. A few hours after eating the chocolate, however, and we seek the same dopamine release from another sugary snack.

Ditching the diet and forming good habits

Trying to lose weight following a generic diet plan with restricted calorie content cannot be achieved out at sea. Identifying the root cause and managing weight loss holistically is the key ingredient to success.

 Step back and take a closer look at your activities today. Think about your thoughts, your sleep pattern and your stress levels. Notice how each of these affect your need for snacks outside of meals, sugar cravings and hunger pangs. 

 Knowing your triggers can help you avoid the stresses that cause you to reach for the sugary snacks and extra calories. Avoiding those pitfalls and eating healthily will leave you with more energy and feeling better about yourself. Ditch the diet and the feeling of being out of control at sea.

Find your happier you

If you could make one change to find the healthier, happier version of you, what would it be?

How will you sail your little boat in from the storms, into the calmer river and upstream to the root of all your dietary issues?

Say Yes to a Healthier You!

 Book in for a complimentary chat with me today  to discover why you are feeling stuck, and how you could enjoy the food you love, guilt free and rediscover your beautiful wardrobe, easily and effortlessly.