Are you eating food you enjoy?

A big part of building sustainable habits for losing weight (and keeping it off) is to eat foods you actually enjoy. 

In her book “Brain-Powered Weight Loss,” psychotherapist Eliza Kingsford shares the behaviors that her clients use for long-term weight loss success. One of the keys to their success is choosing healthy foods they love.

Some of my clients struggle with this…thinking that if they want to lose weight, cutting out food groups or making restrictive choices are part of the deal. 

That belief really stems from the diet mentality we’re all steeped in – that there are good or bad foods when it comes to weight loss. 

But we all know what happens when we cut out food groups. Sure, we might stick to that in the short term, but then life happens and we return to old eating habits and gain weight back.

In my work with clients, we work on choosing food that tastes good, fuels us, and that supports our weight loss. We use our hunger as our guide – eat when we’re hungry and stop when we’re satisfied. 

When using our hunger as a guide, it really is possible to eat a variety of foods. 

Some of my clients aren’t so sure that they can include all foods. 

They’re so conditioned to believing that certain foods just shouldn’t be eaten if they're losing weight. 

However, there’s a few key points we miss.  

First, there’s power in permission.

When nothing is forbidden, some foods we crave lose their allure. 

Second, when we eat real foods that taste good, we’re often satisfied by eating a lot less than we think we will.

Third, when we start incorporating all foods, they lose their association with special occasions or lose being thought of as a “treat.” 

It’s how we think about these foods that makes us want to eat more of them.

By having more of these special foods regularly, we can decondition how we think about them and our desire changes, too.

I experimented with this recently with charcuterie boards. I love planning a happy hour and having a tray of snacks, but it’s easy for me to over eat and drink once I get going. 

So, I recently started having charcuterie plate lunches. A little of this, a little of that. I get to enjoy my brie and it kind of makes lunch fun. 

And I’m not as focused as easing into the weekends with a happy hour. 

What foods have you made off limits that you’d like to add back? It’s a step to making your choices lifelong habits. 

And if you want help with this process, I’d love to chat.