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What's in your fridge?
Last month, Tara Ali from Australian Women's Health Magazine interviewed me for a story on 'what's in Dr Amanda's fridge'.In preparing for the photo shoot and interview, Tara asked me to send her a list of ten things that I view as absolutely essential in my fridge.
That was easy. In my fridge you'll always find vegetables and fruits, butter (it makes steamed veggies so much more appealing), eggs, whole milk, cheese, sauces for a quick pasta or pizza dinner...
As I wrote the list and sent it to Tara, and in speaking with her later about my Top Ten fridge contents, I realized that my fridge must seem really boring.
"I'm trying to make this story as varied and interesting for our readers", she said in the telephone interview. "I noticed there aren't any treats in your list of ten favorite fridge contents. What kinds of treats do you keep in your fridge?"
"Well, we almost always have fresh dates on hand", I offered. "They're beautiful on their own, or deseeded and stuffed with a blob of tahini or butter for those meals that leave you craving something sweet and fatty".
Tara didn't seem convinced that stuffed dates constitute a satisfying treat. So I continued.
"Sometimes we also have halva, made of crushed sesame seeds, sugar and nuts. A very satisfying desert for those days when we want something sweet and substantial after a meal, but not so interesting that you'd eat it just for the sake of eating it."
Still, I could feel that the idea of sesame seed cake didn't really tickle Tara's taste buds.
That's when the penny dropped and I realized something essential.
I deliberately don't keep any treats in my fridge. Or in the pantry, or in my office, or anywhere else that's easily accessible.
It perhaps doesn't make for interesting magazine reading, but in terms of managing my weight, it really works. You can't eat what you can't find.
If there's a stray box of chocolates in my kitchen, or leftover ice cream in my freezer, I'll eat it just because it's there and it seems fun. But there's nothing fun about eating too much fun food and then feeling stodgy and unhappy with myself.
Yes, my family and I eat chocolate, ice cream and other normal and fun foods on a regular basis, but we deliberately hunt and gather them in safe quantities.
For instance, we'll buy a small and exquisite block of chocolate and share it after dinner. We don't keep leftovers for another day; we eat them there and then. It's better to have them in your stomach than on your mind.
Or we'll decide we want muffins or cup cakes for morning or afternoon tea, so we'll spend forty minutes mixing and baking them from scratch, using the staples that I always keep in the fridge. We freeze any leftovers for another day.
The muffins are freely available, but there's a barrier to pass in order to get them.
The more I spoke with Tara about the contents of my fridge, the more I realized just how much I have used physical barriers such as this to manage my weight.
A lot of people try to perform super human feats such as buying a whole packet of chocolate biscuits and then eating one or two a day until they're all gone.
If you can do this kind of thing without feeling the slightest pang of inner turmoil, there's no problem. But if you find yourself constantly needing willpower to avoid eating more than your day's ration of chocolate biscuits, or if you find yourself eating more than feels good in moments of weakness, don't do it to yourself.
You're better off going out every day to buy exactly how much chocolate or other fun food you want to eat on that day, and then enjoying it all in one sitting.
When I started losing weight by connecting with my body, I used to eat chocolate almost every day. I'd often get my daily fix from a florist's shop that sold Lindt chocolate balls individually. I'd buy two and savor them in peace and quiet. I'd always want to eat more when I'd finished my two chocolates, but when I bought them individually from the florist's shop, my daily chocolate fix was an expensive hobby. And that's just the point! The expense of individually sold chocolate truffles was another physical barrier that I used to my advantage.
But what if you can't control the contents of the fridge in your life?
At a workshop I gave in Sydney last month, I met a young woman who'd recently moved in with her sister. "My sister's house is always full of stuff like biscuits, chips, cakes and sweets. What can I do?", she asked during the workshop. "I can't just go through her kitchen and throw out all the junk food".
Indeed. As I write this, my husband and I are holidaying in Perth with our children and my Mum, Dad and Sister. Mum's fridge has become our communal holiday fridge, and it contains treats that might not otherwise be part of her fridge. I know there's an open block of chocolate on top of the fridge, and a bucket of chocolate-chip ice cream in the freezer. They taunt me, but I can't dictate what's in the kitchen.
That's when I bring out physical barriers of another kind. I tell myself "I didn't buy it, it's not mine to eat". I tell that to myself again and again. And I remind myself how awful I would feel if I ate those fun foods every day of our holiday and then went back to Sydney feeling stodgy and heavy. Why would I pay money to have a holiday that left me feeling awful?
Besides keeping fun foods out of the house, there are lots of simple things you can do to put physical barriers between yourself and excessive food. Here are some of the strategies my clients and I have found helpful. You might like to try some of them yourself.
- Invest in a beautiful teapot and teacup and exquisite leaf tea so that when everyone else is hoeing into food you know you'll regret, you can nurture your needs with a little tea ceremony.
- Does brushing and flossing your teeth make you feel less inclined to eat because you don't want to undo all your hard teeth-cleaning work? If so, try brushing and flossing your teeth straight after dinner.
- If you grind your teeth at night like I do, your dentist can make you a grinding guard that will protect your teeth while you sleep. A grinding guard also makes a handy physical barrier between you and unnecessary food; it's such a hassle to take the thing out to eat, so why bother eating if you're not actually hungry?
- When you do things that absorb every inch of your mind, body and soul (and especially your hands), it's really difficult to stop to eat unless you feel physically hungry.
Over to you
Here's something you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
Is your kitchen safe?
Or is it a minefield with the potential to undo your hard work with a single wrong move?
Do you have unnecessary biscuits in your pantry "for the kids" or "in case guests drop by", but the pleasure they might get out of the odd biscuit will never justify how awful you feel when you scoff a whole line of them?
If so, why not just throw them in the bin right now? They look better in the rubbish than on you.
Do you have chocolate tucked in a cupboard somewhere, in case you get a craving for something small and sweet, but when faced with a large quantity of chocolate and a moment of weakness, you know it's impossible to stop at a single row?
If so, why not throw that in the bin, too? If that's too hard (I know it hurts to throw chocolate away), you could always leave it in the tearoom at work or take it to a party.
Right now, does your kitchen contain all the ingredients you need to make a wholesome meal in ten minutes or less? If not, you're putting yourself at unnecessary risk of making poor food choices. What are some fast favorites that would make it easy for you to eat wholesome foods with vegetables and fruits even when you're strapped for time?
Some of my favorite emergency meals and snacks include tins of spicy bean and lentil soup, an omelet with buttered toast and cut up tomato and cucumber on the side, or tinned fruit salad with a big dollop of Greek yogurt.
Losing weight and keeping it off will never be easy; don't make it unnecessarily hard by expecting yourself to perform heroic feats such as resisting fun foods right under your nose.
Do what you need to do to make your fridge, your kitchen, your car, your office, and anywhere else you frequent safe. For places you can't make safe, remember that you can choose not to go there. And when you absolutely can't avoid the minefields, arm yourself with physical barriers that will keep you, your waistline and your mental and physical health safe.
To read Tara Ali's story about what's in my fridge, check out the November issue of Australian Women's Health, available from 12th October.
To take advantage of my Special Offer for October and save 10%, click here.
Have a great month, and may the force be with you!
Sincerely,
Amanda
Dr Amanda
Connect with your body
www.DrAmandaOnline.com
What our readers say...
"Dear Amanda, just wanted to say how much I love your book The Don't Go Hungry Diet. I gave up traditional forms of dieting some years back as I am so over counting points or fat grams etc. Counting anything in fact! Been there done that. And who wants to spend their life 'counting' and obsessing and stressing over food. I certainly don't. I knew there had to be an answer and I reckon I've found it in your book. Having gained a massive amount of weight from taking anti-depressant medication for some years, I was fat and fed up - in fact I was depressed about being fat! The anti-depressants make you crave junk food, and the more you eat the more you want, you just can't fill that hole. Anyway, I weaned off them and no longer crave the junk, I eat mostly whole foods, lots of fruit & veg (aim for 9 serves a day, often go over). I eat full fat everything, use olive oil in my cooking, plenty of avocado and nuts etc. and have dinner out once a week and enjoy the odd bit of chocolate. In the 2 months since April 1st I've lost 8 kg and feel like a new person. After about 5 weeks of weight loss and feeling quite good about myself, I started to feel really hungry, wanting to eat but that inner voice saying, 'slow down or you'll put that weight on again'. I thought of the 'Famine Reaction' you talk about and decided to 'go with the flow' and just eat bigger helpings of healthy foods. After a few days, as predicted in your book, the 'Fat Brake' kicked in and I went back to my weight loss eating. Such a good feeling to have faith in my body, listen to it's signals and act accordingly. Since then I have had ravenous days where I increase my food, as well as not so hungry days where I eat less. And sure enough, at every weigh in at the gym there is a loss. I am an avid reader of anything to do with health, weight and nutrition and have a 'library' of books regarding eating disorders that deal with the mental side of things but had not come across anything on the physiological side of weight loss before your book. Thank you so much - I feel as though I've been released from a prison sentence. Warm regards, Lesley. PS - My sister is doing Weight Watchers and stayed with me recently. She arrived armed with diet yogurts, diet this, diet that etc. One day she was complaining of being hungry but had used up all her points - and as I sat there chowing down on a chunk of my home made organic bread with humus, I thought, Thank God for Dr Amanda. Maybe I'll buy my sister a copy of your book!"