A Weight Lifted

A Bite of the Best

The title of my post today is that of a website I thought I'd share with everyone. It's called Bite of the Best, and is written by a food writer and registered dietitian and her two foodie sons. Each week they send an e-letter focused on a new food or food-related product or idea they think is, well, the best. In the several months I've subscribed to it, I've read notes about everything from Uncle Ben's whole grain brown ready rice, ready to eat in 90 seconds, to Saco dried buttermilk for those recipes that we make infrequently and hence have a slightly-used carton of buttermilk left that we don't know what to do with, to this week's fun idea of hosting a Black & White New Year's Eve party, with a black and white menu, etc. (The picture for today's post is from that e-letter.)

I like the website, too, because as well as being practical, it's a good example of how healthy eating for healthy weight loss and healthy weights can be quite tasty, fun and indulgent, too. That's important to making healthy eating a lifelong practice. I stlll observe folks who say they're going to 'start eating healthy,' and immediately cut out all the 'good stuff,' e.g., it's carrot and celery sticks galore with nary a piece of chocolate to be found. At least for the day they're able to stick with the 'healthy eating.'

As 2007 rolls to a close, and 2008 welcomes us, many of us will partake in that annual rite of resolution making. This year, consider the themes of balance, variety and moderation when it comes to healthy eating. That means no extremes, which generally translates to all or nothing for people who struggle with weight.

Hope your holidays are going great!

Tags: healthy eating , healthy weight loss , New Years resolutions , Bite of the Best

Paying by the Pound

Well, I'm speechless today - I'm going to let this article from Reuters speak for itself...

Hotel charges guests by the pound Mon Mar 20, 10:39 AM ET

A hotel in northern Germany has started charging its guests by the kilo for an overnight stay.

In the town of Norden, close to the Dutch border, guests now have to step onto the scales before moving into their rooms and fork out half a euro ($0.61) per kilogram (2.2 lbs).

"I had many guests who were really huge and I told them to slim down," said Juergen Heckrodt, owner of the three-star establishment. "When they came back the year after and had lost a lot of weight they asked me what are you gonna do for me now?"

Heckrodt said he hoped his initiative would inspire Germans to become leaner and healthier.

"Healthy guests live longer and can come back more often."

Larger customers may be reassured that the hotel turns no one away who refuses to step on the scales and charges no guest more than 39 euros, the normal single room price.

Tags: Hotels , German travel , weight bias , weight acceptance .

After the Vacation: Should We Trust Intuitive Eating (Mindful Eating)?

I just returned from a week’s vacation that included plenty of meals out with all the trimmings.  Perhaps it’s needless to say, but my pants are a tiny bit more snug than when I left.  So if I’m an accomplished intuitive eater, why did this happen?  According to intuitive eating ‘rules,’ I shouldn’t be eating more than my body needs if I’m listening, right?  Right.  But vacations present several situations that can interfere with successful intuitive eating.

First, vacations often don’t last long enough for one phenomenon that’s important to intuitive eating to occur.  It’s called sensory specific satiety.  In our everyday lives, we’re subject to that.  We get used to eating the same foods, even if we generally include a wide variety.  When we’re hungry, we look forward to eating those foods, but we often reach the point where we’re satisfied just a little bit earlier in the game than if the food is new, as it usually is on vacation.  When everything is new, it may take a few more bites to achieve satisfaction (if it’s tasty food).  If we continued eating these foods, then we’d eventually find them less interesting, and find our stopping point sooner.

Second, vacations generally mean eating out a lot.  When we eat out, we usually have a lot more courses than we might have at home.  Sensory specific satiety can play a role here, too, because with each new flavor, we often want to eat until we’re satisfied with that flavor.  That doesn’t mean eating a lot if we’re intuitive eaters because other factors that stop eating are more powerful.  For example, if we’re getting too full, then we stop because we don’t want to be uncomfortable, even though the taste might be something we really like and would like more of.  Still, we may often eat just a few more bites than we would at home when we don’t have as many choices, or again, when we have the choices as often as we like. 

There’s also another phenomenon with eating out that’s not well understood, but it has to do with portion sizes.  Studies show that when we have larger portion sizes, we tend to eat more.  And of course, restaurants – especially American restaurants -- are generally known for larger portion sizes. In theory, this shouldn’t affect an accomplished intuitive eater, but because eating out is generally a social occasion, it could have an impact. Studies suggest that we eat more when we eat in groups than when we eat alone.  Probably has to do with not listening as closely to our cues, and the social role that food plays in our lives.  It’s a good time, but at the end of such an event, we might find we ate a bit more than we really want to.

So it makes sense all that can add up to tighter fitting pants when we return home.  What to do about it?  Nothing, really.  If we return to our usual intuitive eating or mindful eating behaviors, our bodies will take care of any extra energy (calories) we’ve stored from vacation.  We won’t be as hungry as usual, and will find ourselves eating a little less – maybe not noticeably less  but it will be less – until our bodies normalize at their healthy weight.  It generally doesn’t take more than a week or so.   Now that’s something to come home to!

Tags: intuitive eating , mindful eating , portion sizes , eating out