Failed to stick to another New Year’s diet?

OLIVIA ROSSITER has some good advice to make a little go a long way

New Year resolutions are a recipe for failure. At least two thirds of people don’t keep them, making mid-winter blues the likely winner.

This is probably even more so if your resolution was to lose weight. What can be worse than being hungry and deprived as well as cold, followed by guilt after you’ve collapsed into a heap of binging?

If this is where you find yourself just weeks into the New Year, it’s time to give up on extreme, one-sided or crash dieting, not just for this year but for good.

Eating sensible portions of a wide variety of healthy foods (low in fat and sugar) is a much better way to control your weight. Many of us eat so fast that we overeat before we even know it. If you eat slowly and chew your food deliberately, your digestion will have a chance to keep up and you’ll feel fully satisfied with smaller portions.

Try the following for the next two weeks and see the difference it makes:

1. Always sit down to a meal and focus your attention completely on your food.

2. Slow your pace of eating to one third of what it was. Make sure to observe the colour, aroma and texture of your food, and consciously enjoy every mouthful.

3. Take only small bites. Put your knife and fork down in between.

4. Chew your food slowly and thoroughly before you swallow, and pause between bites.

5. Learn to notice when your stomach signals that it is full, and stop eating immediately you notice that signal — no matter how much or how little is still on your plate. As long as you haven’t left the best bits till the end, leftovers can go in the freezer, the soup or the doggie bowl. Your body is not a waste bin.

Many of us eat because we see food as ‘comfort’, and rather than satisfying genuine hunger we are attempting to stave off emotional emptiness. But there are better and more lasting ways to deal with emotional hunger.

If you do feel you need help to raise your confidence and self-esteem or deal with depression following a setback, try looking at Olivia’s website at www.hypnotherapyineastsussex.co.uk

Also in: Health Matters