Is it willpower or something missing from your diet?

I had an interesting conversation with a client this week. A life-long calorie counter, she commented that when you get it right, eating well means you don’t have to fight your own willpower to stop eating badly. Switching the balance on your plate can leave you feeling fuller for longer, cut cravings and leave you a lot more satisfied than diet foods and watching your weight!

Out with the diet drinks, low fat yoghurts and calorie counted ready meals and in comes a bit more protein, a lot more vegetables, more fibre, loads more healthy fats and to be frank about it, a lot better tasting foods!  

We live in a society where dieting is normal, and yet our waistlines are expanding and we are getting sicker. Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer are all on the increase and despite our knowledge that diet can help reduce our risk of developing these life-threatening conditions, it is not enough to get us to step away from the sweetie aisle.

The trouble with diets is that the weekly weigh in shames us into cutting back, eating less and thinking that low calorie is the way to go for weight loss. There is hardly a mention of good health or optimum nutrition, just calories in and calories out.

This outdated way of thinking about food and nutrition doesn’t work for our well-being. The human body and our intricate biology is more sophisticated than that.

It is hard to change the habits of a lifetime, but I promise you that when you kick the diet habit and eat for health and wellbeing, you will feel more satisfied, less hungry and a whole lot healthier as a result.

Start with these:

1. Prioritise protein

You’ve heard it before, but adding more protein to your plate can be a game changer. You will feel fuller for longer, have fewer cravings and feel a whole lot better almost immediately.

Don’t make the mistake of filling your trolley with protein-fortified foods though – protein bars and the like are ultra processed foods by any other name.

Instead, nudge a bit more real protein onto your plate. Greek yoghurt, nuts and seeds with breakfast; cottage cheese, feta, chicken or fish at lunchtime and dinner.

A palm sized portion, or a quarter of your plate should hit the mark, but if you want to be more precise about your intake, aim for somewhere around 25-30g at each meal.

2. Eat better fat, not low fat

Low fat dieting leaves us hungry, cranky and deficient in really important fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) and essential fats. We need fat for our food to be tasty, leave us feeling satiated and support our metabolism.

• Drop low kcal sprays and use olive oil instead (just read the ingredients list of your frylight if you don’t believe me!)

• Choose full fat, Greek yoghurt

• Use butter, not margarine, spreadable butter or low fat spread

• Be generous with olive oil. Add to salads and veg as a dressing or drizzle

• Eat oily fish 2-3 x week

• Eat a handful of nuts and seeds every day (not the roasted or salted ones of course!)
  

  3. Eat enough at your main meals
  

Add extra protein, fibre, fats, vegetables to your breakfast, lunch and dinner and eat enough to keep you going at least 4 hours.

4. Don’t use bread as a filler.

Protein, fat and fibre will fill you a whole lot better than overconsumption of starchy carbs like spuds and bread.

Read the ingredients on your bread and choose one that lists just flour and salt. Sourdough is not always what it seems, so support local and check out your small , artisan bakery - there are plenty of them across Northern Ireland. A decent supermarket sliced loaf to look out for is Jasons.

5. Cut the snacks

If you’ve eaten better at breakfast, lunch and dinner, you won’t have to battle the mid-afternoon munchies.

Often it is our snacks that let us down – they can be high sugar, highly processed and not very nutritious.

If you are really hungry, then make your snacks count – go for something with a pop of decent nutrition:

• Yoghurt & berries

• 85% cocoa chocolate and a few brazil nuts

• Carrot and houmous

  
  6. Rethink your drinks

Avoid anything with sweeteners.

Drop the fruit juice and remember that your skinny latte could be adding empty kcals to your day.

Instead keep hydrated with plain or sparkling water, drink green tea and switch to an Americano.