One of the big concerns people have when 'going on a diet' is the fear of never again having some of the things that are often seen as treats. I have lost count of the times I have heard 'oh but I could never give up cake/ice-cream/toast/crisps/beer/wine........ (fill in as you like)' and that goes for pretty much all diets – whether it's Weight Watchers, Slimmers' World, The South Beach Diet, Atkins, etc. etc., etc., and even Primal.
As I have blogged about before, food is not just about nutrition – our relationship with food is hugely complex and encompasses our emotions, memories and experiences as well as our current mood, hormones and, ultimately, our goals. When I hear 'Well, just stop eating (insert food item here)', I want to scream – clearly, yes, from a purely physical point of view, if you do just stop eating sugar, bad fats, doughnuts, processed/fast food etc., your health will improve, but we all know it's just not that simple – if it was, there would be no diet plans, no slimming magazines, no health clubs and no health coaches like me, and we'd all be walking round with beautiful healthy bodies. I know there are some serious Type A peeps out there who can eschew all temptation and focus just on their health, but the majority of us need to manage our relationship with food in a way that's kinder to ourselves and consequently more sustainable.
In this blog I'm looking at what we view as Treats, what Cheating really is (who exactly are you cheating?) and the Primal approach which encompasses the 80/20 rule.
Hunger Hormones and Carb Dependency
The first obstacle we face when 'going on a diet' is feeling hungry and deprived. There are two factors here that seriously affect our ability to stick to a new eating plan (I really hate the word diet – it has so many negative associations). The first, and this is bad news for all of us, is that there are two key hormones which play a major role in our hunger levels – Ghrelin and Leptin. Ghrelin is the hormone that makes you hungry; it is secreted when your stomach is empty and travels to your brain telling you it's time to eat. Leptin on the other hand, is the hormone that lets your brain know when you have eaten enough and to stop eating. The bad news is that when you reduce your calorie intake, ghrelin levels go up and leptin levels fall - talk about sabotage! I'm sure you're all too familiar with the sense of being extra hungry as soon as you go on a diet – well you're not imagining it. There are good evolutionary reasons for this effect but it's obviously not helpful for those of us who are trying to get rid of the kilos. There are ways to help combat this however which I'll go into in a minute.
The second and probably most unhelpful obstacle is our long-term dependency on carbs.
When we consume a lot of carbs, even whole food ones, we get a consequent rise in insulin; unrefined carbs will undoubtedly cause a slower rise, but in the end, the body has to produce enough insulin to balance out the glucose in the bloodstream. The rise in insulin has two effects – firstly, it tells our body to lock away fat while it deals with the glucose and secondly, it causes the blood glucose levels to fall and we suddenly feel hungry again. Last week I wrote about having porridge and banana for breakfast and feeling ravenous by mid-morning – that is exactly what was happening.
To really help when starting out with Primal, reduce your carbs but DON'T COUNT CALORIES. Eat when you're hungry and just make sure it's low carb and nutritious. Leptin responds primarily to fat levels so by eating food which is relatively high in (good) fats and protein but lower in carbs, you really will get full up quickly and stay that way, unlike when you snack on high carb food. Take a look at my recipe page for some really tasty and quick snack ideas and have these on hand as you gradually reduce your overall carb intake.
Cheats
I find the concept of cheating quite interesting when it comes to food. It's very common in many dieting programmes to talk about 'cheats' or 'cheat days'. I even see it regularly on Primal Facebook groups – people saying how they cheated and had x,y, or z. People often say things like, 'oh I cheated and had a piece of cake' or 'I felt like cheating so I had some chips'. My question is - Who exactly are you cheating? The dictionary definition of 'cheat' is 'to act dishonestly or unfairly to gain an advantage' So here is another question: If we are trying to get healthier by changing our eating habits and we 'cheat' by having something we know probably isn't particularly going to help us towards that goal, who are we treating unfairly and what advantage is that going to give us? It seems to me that the only person being cheated is ourselves. I suspect this reaction goes back to our natural instinct to break rules, especially if we don't like them very much, and this is why it is so important to have a lifestyle (not a diet) that we can live with and feel happy – if we feel the need to cheat, then something is wrong and ultimately we won't stick to it long term.
Treats
This is another difficult one coming as we do from a culture of treating ourselves with food – usually food high in carbs and/or sugar. A while back I wrote about how our eating habits are often set in childhood with sweets and biscuits used either to cheer us up or reward us. And it's really hard to break that mindset – believe me, I'm still working on it. Sweet sugary food and even high-carb high-fat stuff like chips, pizza and pastries are so embedded in our psyche as being 'special' that it's almost impossible to think of them differently.
So the first thing we need to do is set our 'Why' – this is our solid, overriding reason for changing our lifestyle habits; is it to combat ill-health connected to overweight or ageing? Is it the desire to stay healthy and strong as we get older so we can continue to enjoy the things we like doing? Is it to lose weight and feel and look fabulous? Is it to stay feeling young enough to keep up with our grandchildren? Or maybe it's a combination of all of these? Once you have your Why – that will help you to keep going even when temptation is strong.
The second thing to do is to reframe our idea of what makes a treat. Sugar, and to some extent, other high carb foods, create a response in the brain which releases dopamine – a hormone associated with motivation and pleasure. The high we get when we eat chocolate or cake is real – dopamine is released and we feel good, but like so many things that make us feel great, once the high wears off, we want to repeat it. There are some doctors who believe that sugar is as addictive as cocaine, others disagree but it's definitely the case that sugar triggers a high so it's understandable that we associate it with feeling good.
However, there are many things in life that might make us feel great for a while but can, in the end, leave us less healthy – alcohol, smoking, drugs, gambling to name but a few. I think it's important to recognise sugar and high-carb junk food as being in the same group. I realise that sounds extreme – Is she really saying that sugar and junk food are as bad as cocaine or smoking?
Seriously, yes I am. The ill-effects of a bad diet might not be as instant or dramatic as some other addictions but the long-term effects can be just as debilitating and serious.
So when we're thinking about a treats, we need to think of things that will make us feel good – not just in the moment, but for the long-term as well. If someone said to you 'Here, try this cocaine, it will make you feel great' I strongly suspect you would turn it down; and I can't imagine many of us would treat ourselves with a nip of heroin when we feel like a pick-me-up. I realise that maybe I'm way over-dramatising this, but we need to adjust our thinking so that treats really are things that are great for us physically and mentally.
As we adjust to a Primal lifestyle, we find that gradually our ideas about treats begin to change. I rarely crave cake or biscuits but show me a bowl of big beautiful cherries and I might take your arm off to get to them. My friend who has been Primal for over two months told me that she bought some little cakes as a 'treat' the other day and after eating half of one, gave the rest to the dog – it just didn't appeal to her any more, but she'll happily munch on strawberries with a dollop of cream.
So try rethinking what a treat is for you; what can you have as a treat that will not only please you now but won't leave you with the guilt and health consequences of traditional 'treats'? Get stocked up and have them on hand for when you really want to treat yourself – well.
The 80/20 Rule
Ok, so I'm sounding a bit like Oliver Cromwell - 'No, you can't have Christmas pudding, it's the work of the Devil' but this is where the 80/20 rule comes in. The thing I love most about Primal is its flexibility and the way it can be adapted to just about any lifestyle and any occasion. The problem with Cheats and Treats is that in the end, despite their undoubted attractions, we feel guilty and think that we have failed. And this can be a serious self-stoking cycle – I feel guilty so I feel bad so I have another cheat or treat to cheer myself up and so it goes on, and we women just don't need yet another thing to feel guilty about!
In Primal the 80/20 rule is that you are 80% compliant which leaves you a good 20% to play with. For example, if I go out for a meal and the waiter puts down a basket of warm crusty bread with the salad, do you know what? I'll have a piece (or two); or I might go out with a friend and have a scoop of fabulous local ice-cream, or I might even go to visit my family in the UK and just have a carb-fest for a week (I usually do). The point is, most of the time, I eat Primally and if on occasion I decide to have something non-Primal, I do it with full awareness and absolutely no guilt. If you eat Primally 80% of the time, you'll still be doing your health a whole lot of good and when you feel like going 'off-plan', you're not going to undo all your hard work and you don't have to feel guilty about it.
What's interesting is that, like the change in attitude to treats, I find that I mostly don't want to go off plan – I feel so good on Primal that I just don't want to eat otherwise, but I know I can if I want to.
Just a word of caution though – you can be 100% compliant 80% of the time, or 80% compliant 100% of the time; if you go down the road of 80% compliant 80% of the time that's actually only 64% compliant and you may find yourself slipping back into a high-carb-high-sugar diet and you could end up losing the real benefits of eating Primally. I use the 80/20 rule as my safety net – I try to be as Primal as possible but I know that I can occasionally have something I fancy that isn't Primal without feeling guilty.
So next time you find yourself wanting a Cheat or a Treat, put those definitions aside and choose what you really want to eat – savour every mouthful without guilt and just enjoy the blessing of having good food to eat.
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