Old Tastebuds, New Tricks

I came across this article yesterday and it was the perfect explanation for something that I blather on about to people all the time in a much more long-winded way: how to retrain your taste buds to actually crave healthier foods. It's a simple concept, but not always so simple to put into practice until you are really ready for change. But, with the holidays on the horizon (trust me, Halloween candy will be on the shelves in the blink of an eye) this is the perfect time to prepare your mind for the sugar that lies ahead.

The article focuses on one detail: we crave what we eat a lot of.  So, to crave healthy food you have to EAT healthy food!  Simple, but not always easy!  Well, not at first. Habits can be hard to establish, but luckily the habit of healthy eating has such quick rewards that sticking to it isn't as hard as we anticipate it will be. 

The real clincher in this process goes back to one of my tools of goal-achievement: Intention.  Simply put: doing stuff on purpose. Eating with the intent of training your tastebuds to crave different food takes focus, determination, and intention.  Here are some ways you can achieve it:

1. Assess and alter your environment. Are you expecting yourself to not eat chocolate anymore, but you have bags of candy in the pantry for other people? Do you have habits that frequently put you face to face with what you're trying to avoid?  Get rid of it!  Change your routine! Change your pantry. Real change requires real change.

2. Look and plan ahead. For me, it's weekends. All week I trot right through happily on my plan, and then Saturday morning it's all wonked out. My routine is erratic, I'm invited to a party, or I'm bored and my mind wanders. So, I anticipate that and plan for it. I make sure I have a schedule, even if it's not filled with work. I volunteer to bring something to the party to share with everyone else.  And, I keep my hands busy! 

3. Dig in your heels. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for your own wellness is to get stubborn and adopt a "my way or the highway," mentality. No, that doesn't mean everyone else has to bend to your will, but 9 times out of 10 am able to stick to my plan in the face of chaos. It takes determination and sheer will, but again: real change takes REAL CHANGE.  

4. Get a support system. I have clients and friends who text me in those hard times. It's not unusual for my phone to beep all weekend with messages like, "I'm at the wedding! They're bringing out the cake!  Distract me!"  Or, "at a bbq joint, not making eye contact with the dessert menu..."  And, I send them to friends, as well!  We all need our support systems and they really really help. 

The article I linked to also has some great tips. You can get rid of your penchant for whatever is holding you back or just plain annoying you in your nutrition. Try some of these this weekend and remember: get out there and get healthy!

The Case of the Missing Sweet Tea

I'm born and raised in the south, where sweet tea might as well be part of the state constitution. It's sold by the gallon, gulped and slurped through straws in styrofoam go-cups, and practically poured into baby bottles.  So naturally, I hear all the time from people who want to lose weight that, "I'll never be able to give up my sweet tea." 

I just nod and smile because I've been there and thought the same thing. I've never been a sweet tea drinker myself (I blame that on my midwestern parents) but diet soda?  We used to go steady. I'd go through four cans of Diet Vanilla Coke in the course of one football game (that's what kept me from eating chips, dip, wings, and pigs in a blanket).  Eventually, though, I wised up to the damage of artificial sweeteners and weaned myself off. Now I've been soda free for going on five years. *applause!*

Sugar, whether it is real or artificial, has a death grip on our country. I'm not exaggerating too much - we're learning more and more about the role that sugar plays in obesity and disease. So it's imperative that we start creating strategies for getting off sugar and retraining our tastebuds to appreciate food and drinks without it.  I help people create these strategies all the time, and nothing makes me happier than two recent events that had me smiling from ear to ear.

The first was my incredibly handsome and witty husband. I've been systematically lowering our sugar intake for years, but he continued to drink his coffee with loads of artificial sweetener. I felt like such a hypocrite buying it at the store and would want to hide it under other groceries in case I saw someone I knew. But, he's an adult and it's his coffee so whatver.  Well, a couple of weeks ago he stirred up his coffee, took a sip, and made a face. Looking at his mug with an upturned lip he said, "I just can't drink this stuff anymore. It tastes way too sweet!"  Then he wanted to know why I was smiling so much. I filled him in on some exciting news - his taste buds were changing. Enough sugar had started to be eliminated from our nutrition that his taste buds were actually changing. I had a very hard time not doing the happy dance right there. 

Then last week a friend who is on her way to becoming a Wellness Without Pity success story (13 lbs down, yahoo!) confided that what she thought was the impossible, giving up sweet tea, was happening. On a road trip, she ordered sweet tea thinking she would splurge and treat herself. The shock of the sweetness was too much and she simply couldn't drink it. Again I couldn't contain my smile. Just a few months ago she had stood before me and adamantly sworn that she would not, could not, absolutely positively had no intentions of giving up her sweet tea, ever.

Well, until her tastebuds changed.  Now she just plain doesn't care for it.

I'm estatic over these two cases.  To me, it's proof that deliberate behavior change can achieve more than we ever dreamed possible in our nutrition if we just give it a try.  I've been there. I have a sweet tooth, too. But I don't live with the paralysis of thinking I am destined to a life of obesity because of it.

Give your tastebuds a fighting chance against sugar.  I promise you 100% they can and will change if you give them time. If you need help, let me know.  I love to do the happy dance.

Now get out there and get healthy!

Sugar: Who Needs It?

A friend sent me this video last week, and watching it was pretty scary because I could see myself being like one of these women someday...and I don't want to be either!



It's a spoof on the commercials expressing how high-frutose corn syrup really isn't bad for us at all, not any more than real sugar.  To the uneducated ear, it makes a perfectly sound argument.  But the truth is, even if is was the same as real sugar, we still don't need it in our diets because we don't need that much sugar.

WE DO NOT NEEEEEEED PROCESSED SUGAR.

We need glucose.  Glucose is a naturally-occuring sugar in fruits and vegetables that is necessary for energy and balanced nutrition.  But we do not need added sugar in our diets.  I promise.  I swear to you on a stack of apples that you can absolutely stop drinking sugar, putting sugar on your cereal, baking with as much sugar, or tricking yourself into thinking that because it is expensive or fancy-sounding it's an okay sugar.  Agave is sugar. Honey is sugar. Sugar in the Raw is sugar.  And sugar don't like you.

If you don't believe me, read what some scientists said about it.

And then, test your sugar IQ with this quiz.

And then cut out the sugar.

Bye, sugar!

Sugar: Knock it out in 4 steps

Sugar.

Some people say it's the devil.  I have been one of those people!  Truth is, when you've got sugar cravings or you're trying to reduce it in your nutrition, it can definitely feel like you're fighting a losing battle.  But rest assured, it can be done and is well worth it.  It's not easy, it's NOT EASY.
It. Is. Not. Easy.  Seriously.  But it is sooooo worth it.
Here's how:

1. Know your sugar. Sugar goes by many names, and lurks in just about every processed food, even clean products.  We have gotten so conditioned to expect sweet foods in our society that sometimes sugar is one of the first few ingredients listed.  Since ingredients are listed in order of quantity, this is a huge tip-off.  Look at the ingredients and the nutrition label to see what kinds of sugar are in the food and how many grams. 

2. Do the mental work. Getting off sugar is mostly mental. You will crave it, but that's just your brain wanting it.  You don't need processed sugar.  You just want it.  Luckily, in the next step, we can change that.

3. Re-train your tastebuds. It doesn't take as long as you think, but give it a few days or maybe a week for your tongue to get used to the taste of food without added sugar.  Expect your tongue to turn into an angry toddler at first, kicking and screaming for the sugar it knows and loves. Cut it some slack, it didn't know you were going to do this!  But once you break it's will and it realizes who is in charge, it will grow up and begin to like the actual taste of real food.  Trust me, this is a hard step but it doesn't take long.

4. Notice the difference between sweet and sugar.  Our tastebuds are conditioned for astronomical levels of sweetness.  If you eat a traditional baked good after a few weeks of not having processed sugar you'll be shocked at how saturated it is with sweetness.  But, plenty of food is naturally sweet without added sugar!  Eventually, these naturally sweet foods will become your base and your tastebuds will recognize them as all you need to satisfy your sweet tooth.

The next time you have a sugar craving, stop and ask yourself whether it is sweet or sugar that you really want.  Eat a mango, a handful of strawberries, or mix some fresh blueberries into plain greek yogurt.  Give your tastebuds a chance to appreciate the difference, they're smarter than you think!

Good day!

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