What's your eating type?

16^th March 2012

Don't let the shadows of yesterday spoil the sunshine of tomorrow. Live for today. Nandina Morris.

I’ve really enjoyed this weeks meetings, we’ve covered quite a few different things, but I think the one thing that’s hit me the most is that we are all so very, very different in our approach to losing weight, in our tastes in food, in the way we lose weight.  Yes each and every one of us is truly individual.  However there are some similarities there, and here are a few suggestions to help you stay of track depending on your eating type.

If you get home late from work often and find you’re starving so end up binging on whatever’s in the fridge, then you’re obviously a busy eater.  To fix it plan quick, healthy suppers for each weekday, the can be as simple as jacket potato with beans, or a ready meal – then do a weekly food shop online.  Once you’ve used to doing a plan, it will soon become a habit and you’ll be pleased with how quick that happens.  Plus once you’ve done say 4 weeks of planning, you can use them again and you’ll already have your shopping lists sorted.

Are you an expert eater, have three meals and two healthy snacks a day?   Do you eat every three hours like a true professional?  While it’s great to know the ProPoints and nutritional information of everything, it can be really easy to be so obsessive that you end up overeating.  The secret is portion control.  Keep your snacks light, know the ProPoints and ensure you’re tracking everything accurately.

If you’re eating like a saint in the week, then behaving like a sinner at the weekend, you’re a social eater.  Remember the odd treat is absolutely fine, but if you’re undoing all your good work at the weekend, you need to reassess.  If you’re going out to eat, limit yourself to one treat, starter or pudding, skip the bread basket, choose a light main.  Save your weekly allowance and use them wisely.

Are you a ping queen?  Do you tend to always choose ‘healthy’ ready meals that don’t always live up to their claims?  Are you a lazy eater?  If so maybe it’s time to wise up.  Even low-cal ready meals are usually full of salt, and loads of preservatives.  Cooking from fresh gives you control over the ingredients and a veggie stir fry can be just as quick as a micowave meal.  I made chicken pesto pasta in ten minutes the other day, that’s not that long, and it was twice the size of a ready meal and delicious.

Identify your eating type then work on the best way for you to fix it, I realised a few years ago when I was trying to work out WHY I overate that it was because I genuinely love eating good food, yeah I do occasionally stress eat but my main reason for eating is I love food.  So my solution was to make sure I eat a very varied diet, I try not to eat the same meals week in week out so that I don’t get bored with my eating.  If I start eating something and it’s not great, I don’t finish it.  I only get to eat 3 meals a day, so I’m making them as delicious as possible! 

I made a delicious waldorf type salad yesterday, and really simple, I added chopped celery, apple, tomato, walnuts, grapes, mayo & a squeeze of lemon juice, steamed some potatoes, mixed it all together and served with salad leaves, delicious and again took ten minutes.

Let’s make this weekend interesting meals weekend.  If you cook something scrumptious – let me know. xx