How many cooking shows are there on the TV these days? More than I’ve had hot dinners! Wall to wall cooking shows featuring different cuisines, wannabe masterchefs, cupcake wars (Really? Wars? Over cupcakes?!). It goes on, and on, and on. There has been SUCH an explosion in foody-ism and competitive cooking that in the last decade we have all come to know our pappadelle from our peppadew.
This is a cultural shift in education around food, and a demand for a better quality of food. How can that be bad? It can’t – right? Or can it? Is it a coincidence that we have, as a nation, been getting fatter in this time period also? I don’t think so, and I’ll tell you why and how to use this information to stop packing on the unwanted kilo’s.
So – why is us knowing more about food, and cooking more better quality food, making us fatter?
It’s very simple. It’s changed the conversation around food. The lift in detail around food “Tuscan extra virgin this” and “vine grown sourced that” has completely altered the dialogue have around food – and it’s making (some of us) fatter.
Instead of saying to ourselves “How will eating this food make me FEEL?” We say “Mmmmm I can get the hint of the barrel roasted aroma of ….yes…mmmm.”
Instead of questioning our BODY “Am I at a point of comfortable satisfaction now?” We ask the question “How delicious is THIS?!”
Instead of asking “how much food do I need right now?” We ask “How does this taste?”
Instead of honouring our bodies signal of fullness, we honour our wallet’s signal of investment, or our time and energy investment of making something complex or impressive.
If we are cooking good food, and all the focus in on how the FOOD TASTES (delicious! Have more!) rather than on how our BODY FEELS (full thanks, stop eating now) we are FAR more likely to overeat. If we overeat by 10% at each meal just because it’s extra specially delicious – we are going to carry 10% more weight that we should. That’s’ the classic “hard to shift last 5kgs”. If we overeat by 25% each meal because it tastes so damn fine and it took over an hour to prepare – we are going to be carrying 25% more weight than we need.
It’s just maths.
Overeating because it’s delicious.
It’s so easy to do.
But it’s also easy to turnaround.
Start by asking yourself different questions:
- Is this food delicious?
- How does this food make my body feel?
- How will this food make my body feel in an hour from now? Four hours? Four days?
- How full is my tummy right now?
- What messages am I getting about how much more I need to eat from my stomach right now?
That’s very different to:
- Isn’t this food delicious?
- How does this taste?
- What does this bit taste like?
- Isn’t this food delicious?
- Isn’t this food delicious?
- Isn’t this food delicious?
If you want to lose weight you need to put your STOMACH in charge NOT your taste buds. Your taste buds will almost always say “more please”, your trusty stomach will say “that’s enough thanks” .
Your taste buds are there for QUALITY CONTROL.
Your stomach is there for QUANTITY CONTROL.
It’s a subtle but powerful shift. Enjoy every bit of the delicious food you have prepared – this isn’t about eating bland food or disconnecting from the enjoyment of good food – It’s about a subtle realignment where you both enjoy it AND honour the messages of your body. It’s about asking yourself different questions when you eat.
Your thoughts?
