FULL-LIFE EATING GOAL: never use food to cope with life's challenges
Figure out your stress-eating triggers Experts estimate that 75 percent of overeating is due to emotions. Do you eat when you're angry? Bored? Lonely? At a party when you're feeling nervous? Pay attention to the situations that prompt you to reach for extra helpings or snacks. Identifying your overeating triggers is the first step in fixing emotional eating problems.
Fix emotional eating Once you've discovered which emotions are behind your bad eating habits, you can fix the situation. If you're feeling angry, try putting on some music and dancing. Worried? Turn off the news and read a funny book or turn on a comedy programme. Sad? Read something inspirational, meditate or pray or call a friend. Lonely? Call or write to a friend or take a walk to a place where there are people, such as the library. Just be mindful that food can't soothe or solve your troubles; at best, it will mask them for a short time. That's not a benefit at all.
Chat more, eat less Never stand by the crips and mindlessly eat while you talk with other guests at a party. Instead of letting conversation lead you into mindless eating, let socialising be the centerpiece of your experience by staying far from the buffet. When you arrive at a picnic or barbecue, grab a lwo-calorie drink and find a great seat at a table filled with friends, family or friendly strangers. Then approach the buffet table or grill with a purpose: grab a plate, add carefully chosen foods and carry it back to your spot at the centre of the real fun.
Write in your dairy Paying attention to your feelings by writing them down is a powerful way to make yourself feel valued - and feel better - without resorting to soured cream and onion crisps. keep a feelings diary and pay attention to situations that lead to overeating. That way, you'll learn how to spot dangerous situations sooner and take preventive steps.
Have more fun When life is busy and your to-do list long, it's easy to turn to food as quick entertainment and solace. In fact, you may be missing out on other healthy pleasures that would be more satisfying. When was the last time you enjoyed your favourite activities, such as going to concerts or dog shows, gardening or museum hopping, roller-skating or visiting antiques shops? Make time for fun, and you may find you don't need those biscuits after all.
Tune in to your true hunger level Before you take a bite, stop and rate your hunger on a scale of one to ten - with one meaning famished and ten being totally stuffed, the way you'd feel after a big christams dinner. The time to eat is when you're at about three. The time to stop eating? When you're at five to seven - feeling comfortably satisfied but not overly full. If you're reaching for food when you're not at three, pull back and remind yourself that it will be snack time, or mealtime, soon.
Get moving! Physical activity cuts stress and pumps feel-good endorphins throughtout your body while burning calories. Make a new commitment to getting half an hour of activity most days of the week. Great options include walking, exercising to aerobics videos and DVDs, signing up for a class or doing strength training at a gym, or simply choosing active fun such as hiking, bowling, swimming or skating.
Smart Ways
To Eat Healthier snacks
FULL-LIFE EATING GOAL: replace junk food in your diet with healthy alternatives
Eat between meals Yes, you read that correctly. We believe you should eat every 3 hours or so to avoid severe hunger that leads to low blood sugar and overheating.
Snack on fibre-rich produce plus protein When snack time does come round, treat yourself right with a satisfying mini-feast of fruit or veg plus protein. Have a handful of cherry tomatoes plus a piece of low-fat cheese in the morning instead of a muffin. Try apple slices with peanut butter or a few slices of chicken or turkey on a slice of wholewheat bread in the afternoon. Target your morning snack to be about 80 calories and your afternoon snack to be about 150 calories. You can also have a serving of whole grains, such as a slice of wholewheat bread, instead of the protein or in place of fruit for an afternoon snack.
Good protein choices include one hard-boiled egg, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 14g nuts(such as 12 almonds, eight cashews, eight pecan halves, 26 shelled pistachios or six walnut halves), two slices of roast chicken (about a quarter of a breast) and 125g yoghurt.
Easy vegetable choices include cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, sliced peppers, cucumbers and chopped broccoli. Fruit choices include a piece of any whole fresh fruit or 125g chopped or sliced fruit.
Plan for a treat Strive for balance on a big day out, such as at an amusement park or fair. You don't want to drive home regretting what you ate, but you also don't want to spend your special outing feeling deprived while everyone else slurps their lemonade and tosses back handfuls of chips. Your smart strategy: in advance, decide on one moderate-calorie treat a day.
Take your own snacks Head off a moment of hungry weakness by packing ready-to-eat veg, fruit (in a protective plastic container), a sealable bag containing nuts or a handful of whole-grain crackers and low-fat cheese, or half of a peanut butter sandwich on wholewheat.
Invest in a water-bottle carrier These carriers allow you to carry a bottle of water easily. Having water with you at all times will help you to resist fizzy and other sweetened drinks and keep you hydrated. Often, when we think we're hungry between meals, we're actually thristy.
Keep an emergency snack in your bag or car A healthy cereal bar - look for one with less than 200 calories and at least 3g of fibre - could help you to avoid overeating or choosing high-calorie snacks if you find yourself away from home for longer than you expected.
Use snacks to fill nutritional gaps If you notice after lunch that you haven't eaten much fruit, for example, or haven't had any dairy products, plan your next snack strategically to fill the gap.
Sit down when you snack Put your snack on a plate or in a bowl and sit at the table to eat it. Have a glass of water or a cup of tea at the same time. This will make the 'mini-meal' last longer and feel more substantial.
Say no to vending machines For the rest of your life. Convince yourself that bags of salty, greasy snacks and bars of sugary processed sweets have no place in your life. After a month or two of successful avoidance, you'll forget that stuff ever appealed to you.
Foods that harm
When you eat for long life and lasting health, there's no room in your diet for these three health-robbing, age-accelerating food additives: sodium, sugar and bad fats. Packed into processed foods, fast food and manufactured treats, they seem to have an addictive power over us - and long-term health consequences such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar and a higher risk of heart disease and stroke.
Small wonder that top nutrition experts call them everything from 'the biggest food-processing disasters in history' to 'Frankenfoods' (referring, of course, to Dr Frankenstein's manufactured monster). Between 65 and 85 percent of the total salt we consume every day comes not from salt we
... there's no room in your diet for these three health-robbing, age-accelerating food additives: sodium, sugar and bad fats
add during cooking or at the table, but from salt already present in the foods we eat. No wonder either then that the Food Standards Agency has urged food manufacturers and retailers to reduce salt levels in a wide range of pre-prepared and processed foods, including bread, cakes, biscuits, pastries, breakfast cereals, ready-meals, bacon and cheese.
Breaking free of these health robbers can be a real effort. Sodium and sugar heighten the flavour of foods - especially low-flavour or tasteless processed foods. And saturated fats and trans fats lend a pleasing crunch to crackers and keep baked goods moist and tender. But it can be done. When people follow a low-sodium diet for 12 weeks, they start to rate lower-salt foods as just as appealing as ordinary foods.
It can take a while to retrain your tastebuds. But you'll notice that you enjoy the flavours of fresh, whole foods more and that you feel better. Moving away from processed foods full of these additives requires patience and preseverance, but it's worth while. The other key: eating outside the box - or wrapper. Opting for unprocessed foods, in their natural state (think fresh fruit, veg, whole grains and freshly brewed tea) automatically means you'll get less of the bad stuff. Here's what you should know.
SODIUM
Too much sodium raises your odds of developing high blood pressure - a condition that affects one in every three men and women in England. Most of them don't even know they have it - there are usually no symptoms. But it's often dubbed the 'silent killer', because if you have high blood pressure you are three times more likely to develop heart disease or to have a stroke, and twice as likely to die from these conditions. Too much sodium prompts your body to hold on to more fluid (to 'dilute' the extra saltiness); this increases blood volume, forcing your heart to pump harder with every beat and putting extra stress on blood-vessel walls.
Numerous studies have shown that reducing the amount of salt you eat can lower blood pressure and so reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. What's more, a high-salt diet can thin your bones, boost your risk of gastric cancer and worsen lung function in people with exercise-induced asthma - a condition that plagues nine out of ten people with asthma, studies show.
The worst high-salt foods: condiments, smoked fish and meats, sausages, ham and bacon, cheese, pickles and olives. And the top sources of 'hidden' salt in processed foods: baked beans, breakfast cereals, bread products such as crumpets and bagels, pre-mixed sauces and stock cubes, crisps, pizza and other ready meals, prepared soups and sandwiches.
Figure out your stress-eating triggers Experts estimate that 75 percent of overeating is due to emotions. Do you eat when you're angry? Bored? Lonely? At a party when you're feeling nervous? Pay attention to the situations that prompt you to reach for extra helpings or snacks. Identifying your overeating triggers is the first step in fixing emotional eating problems.
Fix emotional eating Once you've discovered which emotions are behind your bad eating habits, you can fix the situation. If you're feeling angry, try putting on some music and dancing. Worried? Turn off the news and read a funny book or turn on a comedy programme. Sad? Read something inspirational, meditate or pray or call a friend. Lonely? Call or write to a friend or take a walk to a place where there are people, such as the library. Just be mindful that food can't soothe or solve your troubles; at best, it will mask them for a short time. That's not a benefit at all.
Chat more, eat less Never stand by the crips and mindlessly eat while you talk with other guests at a party. Instead of letting conversation lead you into mindless eating, let socialising be the centerpiece of your experience by staying far from the buffet. When you arrive at a picnic or barbecue, grab a lwo-calorie drink and find a great seat at a table filled with friends, family or friendly strangers. Then approach the buffet table or grill with a purpose: grab a plate, add carefully chosen foods and carry it back to your spot at the centre of the real fun.
Write in your dairy Paying attention to your feelings by writing them down is a powerful way to make yourself feel valued - and feel better - without resorting to soured cream and onion crisps. keep a feelings diary and pay attention to situations that lead to overeating. That way, you'll learn how to spot dangerous situations sooner and take preventive steps.
Have more fun When life is busy and your to-do list long, it's easy to turn to food as quick entertainment and solace. In fact, you may be missing out on other healthy pleasures that would be more satisfying. When was the last time you enjoyed your favourite activities, such as going to concerts or dog shows, gardening or museum hopping, roller-skating or visiting antiques shops? Make time for fun, and you may find you don't need those biscuits after all.
Tune in to your true hunger level Before you take a bite, stop and rate your hunger on a scale of one to ten - with one meaning famished and ten being totally stuffed, the way you'd feel after a big christams dinner. The time to eat is when you're at about three. The time to stop eating? When you're at five to seven - feeling comfortably satisfied but not overly full. If you're reaching for food when you're not at three, pull back and remind yourself that it will be snack time, or mealtime, soon.
Get moving! Physical activity cuts stress and pumps feel-good endorphins throughtout your body while burning calories. Make a new commitment to getting half an hour of activity most days of the week. Great options include walking, exercising to aerobics videos and DVDs, signing up for a class or doing strength training at a gym, or simply choosing active fun such as hiking, bowling, swimming or skating.
Smart Ways
To Eat Healthier snacks
FULL-LIFE EATING GOAL: replace junk food in your diet with healthy alternatives
Eat between meals Yes, you read that correctly. We believe you should eat every 3 hours or so to avoid severe hunger that leads to low blood sugar and overheating.
Snack on fibre-rich produce plus protein When snack time does come round, treat yourself right with a satisfying mini-feast of fruit or veg plus protein. Have a handful of cherry tomatoes plus a piece of low-fat cheese in the morning instead of a muffin. Try apple slices with peanut butter or a few slices of chicken or turkey on a slice of wholewheat bread in the afternoon. Target your morning snack to be about 80 calories and your afternoon snack to be about 150 calories. You can also have a serving of whole grains, such as a slice of wholewheat bread, instead of the protein or in place of fruit for an afternoon snack.
Good protein choices include one hard-boiled egg, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 14g nuts(such as 12 almonds, eight cashews, eight pecan halves, 26 shelled pistachios or six walnut halves), two slices of roast chicken (about a quarter of a breast) and 125g yoghurt.
Easy vegetable choices include cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, sliced peppers, cucumbers and chopped broccoli. Fruit choices include a piece of any whole fresh fruit or 125g chopped or sliced fruit.
Plan for a treat Strive for balance on a big day out, such as at an amusement park or fair. You don't want to drive home regretting what you ate, but you also don't want to spend your special outing feeling deprived while everyone else slurps their lemonade and tosses back handfuls of chips. Your smart strategy: in advance, decide on one moderate-calorie treat a day.
Take your own snacks Head off a moment of hungry weakness by packing ready-to-eat veg, fruit (in a protective plastic container), a sealable bag containing nuts or a handful of whole-grain crackers and low-fat cheese, or half of a peanut butter sandwich on wholewheat.
Invest in a water-bottle carrier These carriers allow you to carry a bottle of water easily. Having water with you at all times will help you to resist fizzy and other sweetened drinks and keep you hydrated. Often, when we think we're hungry between meals, we're actually thristy.
Keep an emergency snack in your bag or car A healthy cereal bar - look for one with less than 200 calories and at least 3g of fibre - could help you to avoid overeating or choosing high-calorie snacks if you find yourself away from home for longer than you expected.
Use snacks to fill nutritional gaps If you notice after lunch that you haven't eaten much fruit, for example, or haven't had any dairy products, plan your next snack strategically to fill the gap.
Sit down when you snack Put your snack on a plate or in a bowl and sit at the table to eat it. Have a glass of water or a cup of tea at the same time. This will make the 'mini-meal' last longer and feel more substantial.
Say no to vending machines For the rest of your life. Convince yourself that bags of salty, greasy snacks and bars of sugary processed sweets have no place in your life. After a month or two of successful avoidance, you'll forget that stuff ever appealed to you.
Foods that harm
When you eat for long life and lasting health, there's no room in your diet for these three health-robbing, age-accelerating food additives: sodium, sugar and bad fats. Packed into processed foods, fast food and manufactured treats, they seem to have an addictive power over us - and long-term health consequences such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar and a higher risk of heart disease and stroke.
Small wonder that top nutrition experts call them everything from 'the biggest food-processing disasters in history' to 'Frankenfoods' (referring, of course, to Dr Frankenstein's manufactured monster). Between 65 and 85 percent of the total salt we consume every day comes not from salt we
... there's no room in your diet for these three health-robbing, age-accelerating food additives: sodium, sugar and bad fats
add during cooking or at the table, but from salt already present in the foods we eat. No wonder either then that the Food Standards Agency has urged food manufacturers and retailers to reduce salt levels in a wide range of pre-prepared and processed foods, including bread, cakes, biscuits, pastries, breakfast cereals, ready-meals, bacon and cheese.
Breaking free of these health robbers can be a real effort. Sodium and sugar heighten the flavour of foods - especially low-flavour or tasteless processed foods. And saturated fats and trans fats lend a pleasing crunch to crackers and keep baked goods moist and tender. But it can be done. When people follow a low-sodium diet for 12 weeks, they start to rate lower-salt foods as just as appealing as ordinary foods.
It can take a while to retrain your tastebuds. But you'll notice that you enjoy the flavours of fresh, whole foods more and that you feel better. Moving away from processed foods full of these additives requires patience and preseverance, but it's worth while. The other key: eating outside the box - or wrapper. Opting for unprocessed foods, in their natural state (think fresh fruit, veg, whole grains and freshly brewed tea) automatically means you'll get less of the bad stuff. Here's what you should know.
SODIUM
Too much sodium raises your odds of developing high blood pressure - a condition that affects one in every three men and women in England. Most of them don't even know they have it - there are usually no symptoms. But it's often dubbed the 'silent killer', because if you have high blood pressure you are three times more likely to develop heart disease or to have a stroke, and twice as likely to die from these conditions. Too much sodium prompts your body to hold on to more fluid (to 'dilute' the extra saltiness); this increases blood volume, forcing your heart to pump harder with every beat and putting extra stress on blood-vessel walls.
Numerous studies have shown that reducing the amount of salt you eat can lower blood pressure and so reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. What's more, a high-salt diet can thin your bones, boost your risk of gastric cancer and worsen lung function in people with exercise-induced asthma - a condition that plagues nine out of ten people with asthma, studies show.
The worst high-salt foods: condiments, smoked fish and meats, sausages, ham and bacon, cheese, pickles and olives. And the top sources of 'hidden' salt in processed foods: baked beans, breakfast cereals, bread products such as crumpets and bagels, pre-mixed sauces and stock cubes, crisps, pizza and other ready meals, prepared soups and sandwiches.
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