Vim & Vigor - Summer 2017 - Gwinnett Medical Center - 56

NO MORE

MINDLESS
MUNCHING

Food journals help guide people back
to better eating habits BY AMANDA PILESKI, PhD
Weight shaming,
designating
certain food
groups as "bad"
and promoting
the "go on a diet"
mentality don't
encourage people to
have better eating
Amanda Pileski,
habits. A simpler
PhD, licensed
counseling
method-keeping a
psychologist,
food journal-is a
Center for Weight
healthier and more
Management
effective alternative.
Current research about our obesity
epidemic cites lots of contributing
factors, such as consumption of fast
food and lack of exercise. But at the
basis of it all is this: We've lost our
natural ability to eat intuitively.

SUMM ER 2 0 1 7

If you think of hunger and fullness
as a 10-point scale, intuitive eating
aims to keep you in the 3-7 range.
0 = Totally empty
2 = Your stomach is growling
3 = Hungry, but your stomach's
not growling yet
6 = You're starting to feel satisfied
7 = Satisfied
8 = A bit full, may need to loosen
your belt
9 = Stuffed

WEBSITE

Care Options
Whether it's the Center
for Weight Management's
surgical or medical weight
loss program, care options
include support groups,
life coaching classes and
more. Learn more at
gwinnettmedicalcenter.
org/bariatrics or by
calling 678-312-6200.

incorporate one or two small changes
at a time, and use mindful eating
techniques-eating slowly and paying
close attention to the texture, taste
and appearance of food.
3. After about six months of more
structured food planning, begin working
on eating intuitively-listening to your
hunger cues. Pay attention to the foods
you want instead of adhering to a rigid
view about what you're "supposed" to
eat. (Salads all the time might not be
your best choice, for instance.)
4. Keep journaling to monitor whether
old habits are creeping back in. Re-route
them into the healthier habits you learned
in the second and third steps. n

PHOTO BY THINKSTOCK

56

What is eating intuitively? It's eating
a variety of foods in moderation, paying
attention to hunger cues and stopping
when we're reasonably full.
For many of my patients, keeping a
food journal is the first step in learning
how to eat intuitively. With dieting,
you seesaw between extremes. You're
"on" the diet or "off" of it. It's not a
sustainable lifestyle, and it too often
encourages the very behaviors that can
pack on weight. For instance, skipping
meals can slow your metabolism, or
avoiding fats can lead to bingeing later
on carbs.
Keeping a food journal is easy. Just
use old-fashioned pencil and paper to
write down what you eat, thoughts and
feelings prior to eating, who you're with
and where you are.
If you're ready to give food journaling
a try:
1. Record what you actually do and
eat for a couple of weeks, just observing
and not making changes yet.
2. Sit down with a dietician and/
or therapist to look at your journal.
See where emotional eating is going
on, where your nutrition is skewed or
where you're skipping nutrition (like
not eating breakfast). Make a plan to

IS IT TRUE
HUNGER?
http://gwinnettmedicalcenter.org/bariatrics http://gwinnettmedicalcenter.org/bariatrics
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