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Ask The Health Coaches

by Julie Walker
Wednesday Feb 19, 2014

Question: How do you know when to stop eating? I can't tell during my meal when I'm full and I find myself overeating a lot.

Answer: Your question is one many people deal with! Some people were taught from an early age to finish everything on their plate, no matter how they felt which can lead to children losing the connection with their bodies around fullness, or even hunger. Other people have lost track of their hunger/fullness signals because of excessive dieting or a result of using food for emotional reasons.

The way to avoid overeating is to create new awareness around your body and the signals it provides you during meal times. Here's how you can begin: Do a check in with your body during your meals. This takes a conscious effort! Once you've eaten some of your food, ask yourself some of these questions: does the food still taste good? Is my hunger beginning to subside? After a few more bites, am I beginning to feel satisfied? Put your fork down halfway and just notice how you feel. Rate your fullness from 1-10, with 1- ready to collapse from hunger and 10- so full I feel sick. Ideally you should stop eating around a 7 or 8, where you feel no longer hungry and you are comfortably satisfied.

Other things that will influence your experience around fullness: going too long in between meals, not eating nutrient dense foods that have a balance of rich complex carbohydrates, protein and fat, or your last meal was too small (a problem for dieters). The most important part about eating to a pleasant fullness is to eat consciously. This takes practice! Too often, we distract ourselves with other activities such as TV, online reading or work and we aren't able to tune in with ourselves or even with the food and suddenly the entire pizza is gone! In order to sense fullness you must get present with your food, slow down and listen to your body.

Question - I'm starting a cardio regimen but I'm not sure what my target heart rate should be. How do I find this out?

Answer - Great Question! There are two ways to do this: a simplified way and a more detailed way. To get a general idea of where your heart rate zones should be use this formula. As an example we will use a 40 year old person. Step 1. Subtract your age from 226 (226-40=186). Step 2. Multiply the result by 65% which is the lower range of a fat burning exercise heart rate (186x65%=120) and by 85% which is the higher range of a fat burning exercise heart rate (186x85%= 158). The general range for a 40 year old person would be between 120-158 BPM. Note that this simpler way only takes age into account and not the current fitness level of the person. To more accurately access your individualized target heart rate you must first obtain your resting heart rate. The best way to do this would be to take your pulse for three days and record the average of the numbers. Optimally, this would be done directly upon waking when you body is at a state of rest. A resting heart rate that ranges between 60-80 beats per minute is considered normal. As an example we will use 70 beats per minute for resting heart rate. Step 1. Subtract your age from 226 (226-40=186.) Step 2. Subtract your resting heart rate from the result (186-70=116). Step 3. Multiply the result by 65% (116x65%=75) and 85% (116x85%=99). Step 4. Add your resting heart rate to the two results (75+70=145) and (99+70=169) to obtain your individualized target heart rate. Aim for 30-60 minutes of activity in your target ranges to achieve maximal results.

Question - I tell myself every day that I'm not going to cave and have cookies/candy/chocolate/sugar but every day, I cave! Why can't I control myself from staving off of the sweets? Feeling discouraged and weak!

Answer - For starters, make no mistake that (refined) sugar is incredibly addictive and we as Americans consume it by the truckoads (approximately 152 pounds per person/per year or 6 cups per week! )

Sugar is the most popular ingredient added to foods in the US. It is found in cakes, cookies, candy and other sweets. Sugar is also added to many processed foods like ketchup, crackers, bread, soups, cereals, peanut butter, cured meats and salad dressings. Most processed foods contain sugar. Reading food labels will help you find out how much sugar is in the foods you eat and you may be quite alarmed by what you learn. Manufacturers put sugar in their products knowing that it's power of addicition to keep us coming back for more of their goods. Pretty shady, huh? Here are 5 signs that you may be a sugar addict:

1. You consume certain foods even if you are not hungry because of cravings.

2. You worry about cutting down on certain foods, try and then fail.

3. You feel sluggish or fatigued from overeating.

4. You have health or social problems (affecting school or work) because of food issues and yet keep eating the way you do despite negative consequences.

5. You need more and more of the foods you crave to experience any pleasure or reduce negative emotions.

Now, the hard part, how do I break the chains and free myself from the sugar demon once and for all?

1. Create awareness by reading your labels on the foods that you eat. Know what has sugar in it

2. Stock your kitchen sugar-free style

3. Just say NO. You CAN do it but it's not easy. Try downing some water, going for a walk or immersing yourself into a good book or project that you've been putting off.

4. And once you yank that sweet tooth out it doesn't mean that you can never have it again but it does mean that you need to stay in control by not making it a daily habit.

In a word, willpower!

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