With nutrition tips and tactics feeling so overwhelming these days, I wanted to reel it in for a minute and share ways that help me stay balanced and consistent with food.
At the end of the day, we all want simplicity, convenience and confidence in our food choices, don’t we?
1. When I eat out, I live by my #fullnessfactor method. Okay, you might be asking, what on earth does this mean Kim? Let me break it down for ya. 🙂
My #fullnessfactor scale is broken down like this:
#1 is we are absolutely starving we want to eat someone’s arm off. #10 is we’re feeling so stuffed, we’re about to pop. Think of #10 as a Thanksgiving Day Fest in overdrive. (Both extremes as you can see.)
Let me break it down for you even further:
#1: Like above, we are so hungry we really can’t function and all we’re thinking about is food. We have to eat NOW. We might be experiencing feelings of nausea, dizziness, etc.
#2: We’re definitely in the red zone and need fuel as of yesterday. We’re not as bad as #1, but we’re pretty close.
#3: I consider the number about 5-6 hours after a meal. We’re definitely beginning to get hungry and experience some growling pains in our tummies. We’re starting to think about food and when we will eat next. This might be a time when we have a small snack like a protein bar or something like that to hold us over for a few more hours.
#4: We are starting to feel a small sensation of hunger but it’s manageable. We can probably hold off for another hour at most and then we will be ready to eat.
#5: I like to view #5 as a few hours post meal. We still feel satisfied and not that hungry quite yet. We’re not thinking about food and are still able to carry on normal tasks.
#6: This is about 1 hour after we finished our #sweetspot meal. We feel good, no need for food and we can hold out for the next meal, no problem. We feel comfortable and okay.
#7: This number is when we can have a few more bites of food to get to #8. We’re starting to get in tune with our #sweetspot of feeling satisfied and could be comfortable eating a few more bites of our meal.
#8: **This is ideally where we want to be the majority of the time post-meal. This is our #SWEETSPOT. Here, we feel completely satisfied, no need for anymore food. We’re not feeling stuffed by any means and we feel comfortable and terrific. We could possibly have a few more bites, but if we chose that route, we might be too full.**
#9: We have taken a few too many bites and we definitely feel a little tight in our pants. We might have to take a big sigh and lean back in our chairs because we’re feeling a bit full. Nothing major, we just know we ate a bit too much.
#10: At this number, we are so overly full we can’t breathe. This might be considered a binge or so much food we are incredibly uncomfortable.
With all of this being said, we can’t always predict how our food is going to get prepped at a restaurant. (Even if we say grilled our steamed) Often times everything is still laden with butter and oils so we will probably get full much quicker than if we eat at home. I find it very important to stay mindful during the meal process and really be in tune with your #sweetspot. That means eating slowly, putting the fork down to rest and have a conversation and being mindful of how the food tastes.
I wrote a long email about this strategy and why it worked to my email list a few months ago. I went to New Zealand for my honeymoon and we ate out every single meal for 21 days straight and I still lost 6 pounds. You can read more about that HERE.
2. I eat a lot of PROTEIN + FIBER + WATER. This one is a biggie you guys. I mean, how many people do you know that binge on grilled chicken breasts? If you do, omg please tell me because I’ve yet to meet one. These 3 are HUGE!!! Protein is so important for our satiety levels and has been proven to be more satisfying than fats. Protein is harder to break down so it takes a moment to fully dissolve in our digestive track, which means we will stay full longer. I also eat a crap ton of fiber from many fibrous foods including TONS of greens, some fruits, some grains and so forth. You really can’t go wrong with a #HAS. (Huge ass salad) and I try to get one in my diet daily when I’m not traveling. Talk about staying full all you need is a #HAS and protein and you’re good to go! Also, make sure to drink lots of water. I’m not too keen on the whole gallon a day thing as I think that can be a bit too much. But-I do however, suggest getting at minimum below based on your weight. Remember to include more if you’re more active than average.
100 pounds 67 ounces
110 pounds 74 ounces
120 pounds 80 ounces
130 pounds 87 ounces
140 pounds 94 ounces
150 pounds 100 ounces
160 pounds 107 ounces
170 pounds 114 ounces
180 pounds 121 ounces
190 pounds 127 ounces
200 pounds 134 ounces
210 pounds 141 ounces
220 pounds 148 ounces
3. I always carry a snack just in case. I can’t tell you how many times snacks in my glove box have kept me out of trouble. Haven’t you ever gone to the grocery store starving and you walk out buying so much crap that you wouldn’t typically buy if you were not hungry? Me! Sometimes we just do not have time to eat so I will usually have a protein bar handy to take the edge off.
I like Quest Bars such as this: (My favorite!). I also have some homemade trail mix in the car that I keep on hand just in case. Again, whatever you find works best for you but I think having some snack that has some protein content really helps hold us over until the next meal.
Hope this was helpful!! I’ll be talking about this stuff a bunch in my #leanin14 private FB group which begins next week! I hope you join us for 14 days of free workouts!! You can sign up