My husband once asked me to help him find something that could replace his bread. He was trying to shed a few pounds and he thought that letting go of bread was a good strategy. Bread in itself can be healthy. There are great options. There are sprouted grains, thin slices, whole flour, gluten-free, etc. In itself, bread is not causing us to be unhealthy or overweight. The two main problems with bread are the fact that we may eat too much of it, and the fact that it is often a vehicle for foods that are not so healthy or high in calories.

It is very common to find the following on top of toast: butter, coconut oil, Nutella, jam, peanut butter, almond butter, cheese, etc. Even if some of these options are healthy, like the coconut oil and the almond butter, we are very often surpassing the recommended portion size. One or two tablespoons is all we should use. If you think about how thick you spread your favourite things on your bread, you more than likely have way too much of it.

Knowing this, how he puts way too much nut butter or cheese on his toast (of which a portion size should be a pink eraser) and acknowledging that he was going way overboard with this ‘vehicle’ for calories, my husband wanted to quit bread. He asked me to help him find something else that could fill him up. We usually eat oatmeal (steel-cut oats) in the morning. With the oatmeal or with cereal, my husband used to like to have a piece of toast which would help him feel full. He found that just the oatmeal was not enough for him to have a ‘full’ feeling.

When discussing this with me, I suggested that instead of trying to find something to replace the bread, we should work on changing the limiting belief that he needed to feel full after a meal. We do have a big stomach with enough room to store food, so that our ancestors could skip even a few days before eating again as they were hunting their next prey.

In our society, it is really not necessary for us to fill up. This sensation of feeling full is actually a detriment to our health. If you feel full, it is actually because you ate too much. We should not be feeling full at the end of a meal. In fact, as soon as you had your first bite, you are not hungry anymore. We are only hungry when our hunger and satiety hormones are sending a signal to our brain.

Switch your plates for smaller ones and eat only one serving. You can always have a healthy snack mid-morning or mid-afternoon to keep you energised until the next meal. (See number four on snacking).

By switching his mindset, my husband was able to shed the pounds he wanted and he now eats regular portions of food without needing to feel full.

How do you get your mind on board?

Before each meal, continually repeat to yourself that you will be satisfied with the food. As soon as you eat your first bite, tell yourself that you are getting full with every bite.

CHEW

It’s a great thing to do the mental work. We also need to get biology to follow. The first step of digestion starts in your mouth. You need to puree your food in your mouth by chewing completely. When you start changing your eating process, it can feel like an eternity in the beginning. If you do chew every bite patiently until it is fully pureed before you swallow, it will help your digestion considerably and slow down your eating process. This will allow some time for your satiety hormones to have time to travel from your stomach to your brain in order to send you the message that you can stop eating now because you are full. (See tip number six on making sure you are fed.)

Chewing is a wonderful thing. I went for blood tests once at my Naturopathic doctor and he explained to me that some softer foods, easy to swallow without proper chewing, show up a lot in the bloodstream when doing allergy tests. Nowadays, most people who get tested come back with eggs, wheat, etc. in the list of food they have a ‘sensitivity’ for. It may be true. Or as the doctor explained to me, it may simply be that the person did not chew their food enough.

When you don’t chew, your food is not fully absorbed by your cells to give them the nutrients. Therefore, this food can show up in your blood test, just as if you were allergic to it. Most people are not. They are just not chewing enough. Think about it, when you eat an egg, which is soft and easy to swallow, a few bites will do the trick for it to pass through your throat, right? But it still won’t digest properly. You want your food to go through every single step of the digestion process, which starts in your mouth. If you skip a step, just because it is a soft food, you will require much longer to digest it and risk not being able to digest it completely. You want your food to be used as energy. You don’t want it to simply be causing you heartburn all day.

Since this explanation from my Naturopathic doctor, I have been chewing forever before swallowing my food. Not only does it allow me to feel full faster, causing me to eat less and ingest fewer calories, it also helps me to digest easier, avoiding some foods being stored in unwanted areas.

EAT NUTS

I have mentioned this a few times already. Here is more on the nuts subject. If you are gaining weight because your portions are too big, eating nuts will help you lose weight. Here’s how. There is good fat in a nut, which sends a signal to your brain that tells you you’re full. It takes about twenty minutes for the signal to make it to your brain. Eat a few nuts about twenty minutes before your meal; it will send a signal to your brain that you’re full by the time you start eating. You’ll keep your portions smaller. How much are a few nuts? A handful. Whatever doesn’t fit in your hand is too many.

This was an extract of THINK Yourself® HEALTHY. You can read in full in the paperback now available here on my website and on Amazon.