We really go back to our three year old selves, I guess, because three year olds are very adept at eating what they need. Without intervention from adults. If you can believe that or not, a three year old will eat the correct amount of calories not from day to day. But over a period of time, they eat the right amount of calories because they listen to their bodies and they eat when they're hungry, and they stop when they're full.
We like to hope that for every problem, there is a solution. And the faster and easier the solution, the better. Nothing is quite as popular as a quick fix. But when it comes to our health, the quicker fixes of fad diets often seem to backfire in the long run. This is random acts of knowledge presented by Heartland Community College, I'm your host, Steve fast. Today we're talking about diets, or really how we approach diets and how you might be able to reach a healthy lifestyle without counting calories. Let's go to our expert.
Hi, Diane Vesely. I'm a registered dietitian. And I teach an intuitive eating slash non diet approach to health class here at Heartland.
So you say non diet approach to help our diets bad.
Um, the way I look at a diet is a diet is a set of rules that makes people eat less. And it may or may not create healthy lifestyle or healthy eating style. The downside to the diet is that 90 to 95% of people who lose weight on a diet will regain that weight. Unfortunately, they don't always just gained the weight that they lost. Often, they gain more. When you lose weight, you lose water quickly, and then you lose muscle and fat. When you gain the weight back, the muscle doesn't come back. And so you end up with a higher body fat percent and less muscle, which is never a good thing. And in my experience, as a dietician has shown me that people get terribly mixed up in their relationship with food and see it as something that they should manipulate in order to lose weight. So our diets bad, they don't have good outcomes. I'll say that. Well, let's
talk a little bit about taking a healthier approach, then to weight management because being overweight is quite often not so healthy. Now, what we perceive as being overweight, might be in dispute. Even sometimes with your doctor, you can be healthy, and maybe be on a certain range that doesn't fall within the scale. I've heard doctors say different things about BMI, what's the healthy approach towards BMI, which is body mass index, for those that don't know,
to be honest, I discourage people from measuring. Because with the diet approach, you set a goal. And so you begin with an outcome. And that outcome may or may not be realistic from you may not even be in the realm of anything that you've weighed in the last 15 years, which is pretty unrealistic. So with the non diet approach, what we use is behavior change, because I believe in this because I believe that people have the ability to choose their behaviors. And I'm not saying willpower, because to me, it's what you do most of the time, that impacts your health. So Thanksgiving dinner, there's nothing wrong with it. Even if you overeat, it's one meal, if you enjoyed it with your family, good for you. Right. So what we really focus on is the behaviors. And when you mentioned BMI and the importance of weight in determining health, and really longevity, there are a lot of studies out there that indicate that weight is not as important as a factor in health, as we may assume it is. But our society has another issue with weight, aside from the health issue, and that's appearance. So I think a lot of us have been maybe sold on that weight is a lot more important than the focus that we actually put on it. In fact, I have a couple of studies and there are a lot of studies out there. But Steven Blair did a study with 34,000 people for 10 years to determine if weight or fitness was most important. And his conclusion was, it is abundantly clear to me that in terms of health and longevity, your fitness level is far more important than your weight. If you are five pounds or 50 pounds too heavy, it is of little consequence, health wise, as long as you're physically fit.
So how do you determine your fitness level? I mean, going back then to things like cholesterol, blood pressure, all the other things that your doctor tells you you need to work on which
are important. Yes. And to a certain extent I think what we have to realize is There are some behaviors that can improve those parameters when we're using those as measurements of health, but we don't control 100% of them. Genetics makes a difference. So you know, as a dietitian, I would recommend how people eat to reduce their cholesterol. For some people, it's not what they eat. So it's not going to impact them. That doesn't mean that you should eat anything you want, either. But again, it's, it's the behaviors, if you're doing everything you can behaviorally, to improve your health. Again, I don't put the emphasis on measurement, because what happens is people get discouraged. And what we need to do is encourage people. So even if you've got somebody who is let's say they're on a diet, and they're exercising, well, eating less food and exercising can be challenging to say the least because your energy level isn't highest. But if they're not losing weight, or they're not losing inches, then they throw away the exercise plan because it didn't work. Well. It didn't improve their health, it did improve their fitness. So we take the long term approach, rather than I want quick results. Does that make sense? Yeah, it
does. And I think that gets into when you're talking about building new habits, why diets are sometimes incentivizing? Because if you're building a new habit by following the rules of a diet, in a short period of time, as you mentioned, you probably will lose weight, certainly fairly quickly. If you follow those no matter what it is, whatever fad diet, right, we can make some silly diet, herbs, cut off the sugar, cut off the fat, whatever it is, sure, it's your body. So people get encouraged because they see results. But when you're trying to change other behaviors, you might not get that feedback in how you look or how you feel or what the scale says, As immediately. So what's the best way to approach behavioral change, so you don't give up on it just like you do on a diet.
And that's the hardest part is because there's nothing in our culture that reinforces that this approach. There's everything in our culture that points us in the other direction towards, towards the dieting, toward the measurement and things like that. So it does take a lot of reinforcement. And it's, it's a huge paradigm shift. But my experience is that when people hear about this approach, they take a deep breath and say, Oh, this makes so much sense. Oh, I'm so relieved, I can kind of quit beating myself up a little bit, for not being as thin as whoever they choose to compare themselves with, or whatever it is. So I think in a way, it can be empowering. Because I don't have to follow somebody else's idea of what I should be doing, I start where I am, I don't have to run a marathon at the end of the year, I just need to get out and walk in. Yeah, you're right, it, it doesn't self reinforce as much. But on the other hand, I think exercise also reduces depression, anxiety, stress, we sleep better. So from a quality of life, if you can get people to realize it is impacting their quality of life, even if their clothes don't fit differently. Our culture is so hung up on weight, it is hard, it really is hard,
trying to change your behavior for anything, whether it be giving up cigarettes, or getting a caffeine or trying to have a more healthy approach towards your lifestyle, whether that be adding in more exercise, eating less, or thinking about food differently. Those are all things that are habits and seems a lot easier to pick up a habit that is bad for you, then pick up a habit that is good for you. What are some suggestions you would give to people to start to build up the right mindset to develop the good habits of exercise and, for instance, more mindful eating,
we start a little bit with just appreciation of your own body period, as it is in this moment. Because our bodies are amazing. And they do amazing things for us. And they heal themselves with, you know, little intervention on our own. So a part of it is self acceptance. And then when you mentioned the mindful eating, we really go back with mindful eating to our three year old selves, I guess you might say, because three year olds are very adept at eating what they need, without intervention from adults if you can believe that or not. There are studies out there that said a three year old will eat the correct amount of calories not from day to day, but over a period of time they eat the right month. calories because they listen to their bodies and they eat when they're hungry, and they stop when they're full. So we need to stop telling people to clean their plates. But to tell somebody that they can eat when they're hungry, people smile at you and say, seriously, I can, like if I feel hungry, I should eat something. And without a doubt, because what happens when you get more hungry? When you get extremely hungry? What happens? Well, most of us will eat quickly, a lot of food. And we don't make the best decisions. I'll say to somebody, when you're really hungry, what do you want an apple or a Snickers. And it's surprising that most people say I'll take both, because they want to make sure that they don't get hungry again. And so we focus a lot on hunger and satiety cues, when am I getting full. And so there are those people who always eat to a point of almost discomfort. And then you try to get them to say, okay, if I'm full, and I'm comfortably full, I can stop because I know when I get hungry, I can eat again. So I don't have to fill myself up. Because that food is going to be available. And part of that helps people eat less without trying to police themselves.
Do people need to take a little time to actually experience hunger? I say this because I think that people crave things, but they're not necessarily craving it because they're hungry, they're craving it for some other emotional need, or you're looking for a sugar rush, or whatever it is, a lot of us on a day to day basis, might not even actually start to feel that tummy rumbling of hunger. Because they eat it this time, this time. And this time, it might not even get that far.
And we try to get people to eat a little bit before the tummy rumbling. When you start to be distracted about thinking about lunch. And maybe it's 1030 1045 and lunches at noon, I'm going to say go ahead and have a snack. And some people are like, oh my goodness, I can't have a snack. I'm gonna eat lunch. And I'm like, Yeah, but you'll eat less lunch if you're listening to your body. So it takes a lot of practice for people to recognize the early beginnings of hunger, as people are used to kind of waiting it out. And you're right. Sometimes we want to eat when we're not hungry. And we don't try to police that either. And we don't try to police what you are hungry for. I had an instance where I was working with an individual who was fixing her healthy dinner. And she was working on trying to make a little bit better choices, listening to her hunger, satiety cues, and she was fixing her healthy dinner. And she really wanted to eat at McDonald's. And so she's cooking away and she's hungry, when she gets her dinner ready. And she sits down to eat her dinner and she eats it. But she's not satisfied. She's full, but she's not satisfied. So she goes to McDonald's and she eats the food anyway. And so she was recounting this experience to me. And I said, well, in the future, what do you think you should do? And she said, I just really don't know I shouldn't eat McDonald's. And I said, Oh, I think maybe you should finish cooking your dinner, put it in the refrigerator for tomorrow and go eat McDonald's because you ended up eating two dinners. And she says, Diane, you're a dietician, you told me to eat it with Donald's. And I said, Well, you have to understand what you want. And if that's what you want, and you eat it, then you can be done. But the other side of it is the whole good food bad food scenario that people have in their heads. And that's another thing that we try to work. So people don't use that at all, because you will use it against yourself. And this is how it works. So if I want a cookie, whether I'm hungry or not, I want a cookie, I can eat a cookie, and I savor that cookie, I enjoy that cookie, I taste the cookie, I don't do you know, five other things while I'm eating the cookie, I just enjoy the cookie. And I can be done with the cookie. But if I think that that cookie was bad for me, I should not have eaten that cookie, then I blown it. Now I'm on the dark side. And the variations of bad I've crossed the line. So now since I ate the cookie, well, I might as well eat six cookies or potato chips or ice cream and start tomorrow. That's where all the calories coming in. It's not the one cookie. It's the six cookies that is problematic.
One of the things that you said there in both instances was something that I think people don't automatically apply towards eating, no matter what it is, even if it's something that they want, even if something that they think is good for them bad for them, whatever, the slowing down and thinking about it while you're doing it. I don't think a lot of people eat that way. I don't think a lot of our lives are built around that. So how do you change your mental approach towards eating so you can then have one cookie and go that was great and not go now I need to have 11 More cookies, because the first one was good. It takes
a lot of almost reprogramming your brain to not think that way. And so I try to reinforce what I teach in class, with readings, podcasts, things like that, that can reinforce it. Because it is very difficult. But like I said, it's a relief, when people hear these messages that you can eat a cookie, it's fine, there's nothing is going to happen to you, because you ate one cookie, it's how you think about the cookie, that is more important.
I think a lot of us end up eating kind of mindlessly. Because for instance, you don't like cooking, or you don't have time, or you don't really have a whole plan, or approach towards this thing that you have to do every day. Especially if you're a busy person, especially if to feed a bunch of other people in a family. So is there anything that will help you make better choices, so you don't have to just rush around and eat? When you know, you need to do that? Or you'll crash? Right? What's the best way to think about that,
like anything else it takes planning. You know, if I tell somebody that if you know that you are gonna get hungry at a certain time, or you might even get hungry, you don't even know you're gonna get hungry, but you might get hungry, you need to have snacks. And dinners meals are the same way. I think you have to look at your week and say, Okay, there's no cooking going on Tuesday and Wednesday. So what are we going to eat? Now are you going to order out. But if you have a plan, you don't order out every night, because we know portion sizes are rather large. But again, if you master the hunger satiety piece, it won't matter how much food I give you, when you're full, you'll stop, and you'll know you're satisfied. So it takes planning, certainly. And you know, there are all kinds of ways that people can get around it. Some people like to cook a lot on the weekend, some people don't like to cook at all, some people use some of the services that will send you food that you can cook, I think there are, you know, so many different solutions, but you have to make it a priority, just like exercise just doesn't accidentally happen. But I think that one of the biggest things is not setting the bar too high, so that you feel like you're failing. And then you give up. So I say start the bar low. In fact, there was a study with I think it was 50 and 60 year old adults, that this man asked them to exercise 14 times a week for 10 minutes. Because the biggest excuse in reason for not exercising is time, which is legitimate. That doesn't mean we don't have to do it. So he asked them to commit to 10 minutes at a time. And he did that intentionally because we all know we waste 10 minutes, here and there. So they found the 10 minutes. And once they found the 10 minutes, sometimes it may 2025 minutes. And he saw improvement in blood pressure, cholesterol, even some weight loss over a short period of time, just 1410 minute segments of exercise. So I think you know, people want to do everything all at once they want to overhaul their diet, their exercise plan, especially in January, which rarely continues into February. But I think we have to look really at the small changes and give ourselves credit for that. But it is a totally different mindset. I agree. And it is hard to reinforce sometimes especially in the culture in which we live.
Diane, thanks so much for coming in today and talking to us about this non diet approach to health and health in general.
Okay, you're welcome. Thank you.
Diane Feedly is a registered dietitian and teaches the non diet approach to health continuing education course at Heartland Community College. For more conversations about health and wellness, along with other subjects like history, art, science, and more. Subscribe to the random acts of knowledge podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you found this one. Thanks for listening
