The approach we have towards a healthy lifestyle is a key factor when it comes to if we are gonna live healthy or we are just gonna think we do. I am the queen of mistakes. I’ve made almost every single mistake in my diet, and I have tracked the negative consequences of it – how my body reacted to it, how my mind reacted to it and what happened with my health status.
There isn’t a person who have gone on a nutrition plan and hasn’t made this mistake – a mistake, which takes away the pleasure of food and forces us to eat just because we believe it is healthy and just because we believe it will help us achieve the body we want. This mistake has to do with the type of foods, that we eat and the way we prepare them.
Today I will explain you how with less food, you could feel satiety. The only thing you need to do is stay away from the mistake I am talking about.
I will explain you how you could get rid of the dependency on crappy foods – those that you love and those you believe you can’t live without. Actually, you can, but you are still not aware of what is about those foods that is tempting you. It took me some time to realize it, but since then I haven’t looked back.
1.How to get rid of the dependency on some foods
In the past, I was one of those people who believed, I couldn’t live without junk food. No chocolate? What did I do wrong to deserve such a punishment? ( ;)) It turned out that I can live without chocolate, without cakes and grainy foods.
Actually, what used to tempt me, wasn’t the food itself, but the spices in it. As the time went y and with the change in my nutrition habits, my taste changed tremendously. I started feeling the taste of real food. If back in the days, an apple used to be the tasteless food in the world, nowadays it is extremely sweet for me. Besides that, I started sensing when some food contains an artificial ingredient.
I started identifying what is it about a particular food, that I like and what I do not like. It turned out, that what used to tempt me wasn’t the food itself, but the spices it contained.
I used to think I love cinnamon bread. Turned out that what I love is the cinnamon itself.
I used to think that I love brownie and its smell. In reality, I love the smell of vanilla and cocoa.
I used to think that I like salty, doughy foods and what I liked was the dried spices they contain.
You know that I have a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. I remember, how we used to study how smells are really important and how in some Malls and shops, they place flavoring agents. For example with the smell of vanilla or cocoa. When we go shopping and we sense the smell, it provokes a reaction. Smells wake up memories ( I will explain it scientifically later in this post).
These memories, provoke an emotion and urge us to behave in a way, that predisposes us to consume more, to buy more. The smell of vanilla… doesn’t it remind you about your childhood and the cookies of your mother? A time when you felt secure and loved and a time that you long to come ack. You get emotional and you become a slave of your emotions and you are the perfect target for marketing.
How does this matter about your nutrition plan?
Everything that you need to remember is that you are not starving for a particular food, but for the spices in it. Spices are healthy and you can use them, actually you should use them in a healthy, nutrition plan. Experiment in the kitchen and add different spices. They make your meals tastier. A steak could be cooked in a hundred ways, when you marinate it in different spices.
Omelets and salads are different, when you add basil, oregano, dried parsley or dried tomatoes.
You can prepare healthy pancakes, which contain vanilla and cocoa. Then you will feel satisfied and you will get the taste you are starving for. Unlike crappy foods, this food won’t make your body starve. You will get the taste you want, and your body will receive the food it needs.
Ето идеи за здравословни десерти:
The Most Delicious Healthy Pancake: Coconut Pancake Jovaylo
Healthy Dessert with Chocolate, Avocado Cream
What determines the taste of your food?
The taste of your food is not determined just by the data that is being registered in one particular sense – i.e. the taste of food is not determined just by the perception of our taste buds. The smell, the touch, the look and the sound of the food also have a key role when it comes to evaluating a food as delicious or not.
When something delicious gets in our mouth, its chemical structure, is broken down by the saliva and the freely circulating molecules enter the taste buds. If the molecule binds to a receptor cell, it will provoke the cell to conduct a sequence of chemical and electrical signals.
It is supposed that later on, everything comes down to the signals that are being sent to the brain, but the process is a lot more complicated.
As I mentioned earlier, the taste of food and the information we receive about it is based on a lot more than the data registered in the taste buds.
The taste in most cases is a combination of smell and taste and what is interesting is that taste takes second place.
The nervous fibers of our odor, direct towards the brain. Some of these fibers, reach the hypothalamus – the center, that controls appetite, fear and satisfaction, and others reach the hippocampus, which is responsible for memories; some of them reach the brain stem, where main functions like breathing happen.
This explains the reason why smells provoke such a strong emotional response.
Actually our perception about taste is one of the most multi –sensitive, when we keep in mind that taste is the combination of smell, taste, the perception of our sight, hearing and so forth.
That’s why the more spices are a part of our meals, the more it will satisfy our taste and mind.
2.How you could feel more satiety by eating less?
The quantity of food, that our body urges us to eat, is determined by if our body receives what it needs. If we deprive it from fats, then it doesn’t matter what is the quantity of the carbs and the proteins we eat. Our body will urge our mind to search for more food.
Often times, the desire to eat a particular food, is not a consequence of the fact that we didn’t eat enough, but of the fact that our body has some kind of a deficiency.
Often times, when we start following a nutrition plan, we eat really plane. We forget the cooking book with recipes and we completely ignore the art of cooking. We consider that boiled eggs, boiled chicken breast, and plane salads are the foods that we MUST eat. We think we are eating enough, yet we always feel hungry for more. What is it that is missing? Maybe it is exactly the taste!
I realized that when I add more spices to my meals; foods with a more intense taste, I get full a lot faster and I feel satiety for a longer period of time. I eat what is healthy, I eat less, yet I feel satiety.
The reason is exactly what I already told you – taste is a multi – sensitive perception. The more we satisfy all of our senses, the more signals get to our brain and it is the one that dictates our behavior, based on the information it receives.
What is the difference between those who can follow a nutrition plan without problems and those that encounter difficulties?
Those that successfully follow a nutrition plan, use spices and turn food into an art. They know that healthy nutrition, doesn’t mean tasteless food. They know that the combination of tastes I what brings satiety and they know that by giving their body a variety of quality food, they offer it what it needs in order to be healthy, strong and fit.
You don’t believe me?
Try adding basil to your salad; marinated dried tomatoes or some oregano.
Try to marinate your steak with different spices or prepare a homemade dip for your boiled eggs!
Then write me what is the difference. 🙂
