Saskia, our talented Chef and Food Stylist here at Fresh Start, shares her story and six practical tips to help you develop a positive relationship with food and maintain your weight in the long term.
First up, there are no magic shortcuts or quick fixes for long-term and sustainable weight loss. Deciding to make a change and committing to a health goal is a big step and making changes can be some serious hard work. So, take a moment to congratulate yourself on completing the Fresh Start Reset!
Now that you’ve finished the reset, it’s time to give your next steps some thought. Have you made positive changes that you’re able to keep up in the long term? Maintaining the changes you have made in a sustainable and healthy way is often the most challenging part of the process (ref 1).
We all have a “diet” even if we’re not actively following one! The word “diet” just refers to what we eat. When we make food choices, considering health and what makes us feel energised is an important part of making the lasting lifestyle changes required to maintain a stable weight. Eating healthily should never mean going hungry, and it’s important to enjoy food whilst still meeting your health goals.
For most people, the ultimate goal is to enjoy the foods we love while intuitively achieving energy balance. This can be quite challenging in today’s modern food environment. That’s where Nadia’s nude food philosophy comes in. It emphasises eating plenty of minimally processed foods that can be easily recognised as coming from nature – the ground, the sea, or the sky (ref 2).
Saskia’s Story
I love food – both cooking and eating – and have always worked in the food industry. After my second baby, I found myself 10 kg heavier than in my twenties. After trying an overly restrictive approach I had a light-bulb moment.
When I consistently prioritised nutrient-dense whole foods I naturally found myself eating fewer calories. After 6 months, I lost the weight. It may have taken longer, but it was a more sustainable and enjoyable approach to losing weight than the traditional mindset of just ‘Eat Less’.
One of the most enlightening things I found was focusing on nourishing my body significantly impacted my mood and mental health. Focusing on the quality of what I was eating and how it made me feel in my day-to-day life made reaching and sustaining my goals that much easier.
And that is when I started my forever “diet”, and I have maintained that weight loss for seven years now. I felt empowered during the journey, not deprived.
My six tips for managing your weight over the long term:
1) Allow yourself time
“Slow and steady wins the race” ― Aesop Fables.
The biggest lesson I learned throughout my own journey was the importance of allowing yourself time and setting realistic health goals. While losing weight may require you to eat fewer calories than you burn, being overly aggressive with a large calorie deficit, restricting too many foods, or engaging in prolonged fasting can have adverse effects, leaving you feeling ravenously hungry and fighting your brain’s basic survival instincts. And when you inevitably lose the impossible battle against your brain (because we all need food!), you have feelings of failure, guilt, or shame, and it can end up in a binge eating and restrictive dieting spiral.
2) Planning for success
“A goal without a plan is just a wish” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Meal planning for the week ahead is a powerful tool and can help you to make good choices especially when you’re busy or stressed. By proactively organising and planning our meals, we make achieving our health goals easy. Consistency is key, and while unexpected situations may arise (and you should enjoy them), planning most of the time will help you be more consistent than you otherwise might be.
3) A solution for obstacles
If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got” ― Henry Ford.
The Fresh Start resets can spark the beginning of positive changes. Take the time to reflect on your habits before the reset and after. What worked for you, and what didn’t? Find the barriers preventing you from making permanent changes, and then find solutions that work for you to make the long-term lifestyle changes you need. For many of our Fresh Start foodies, having a plan and reducing the mental load of conjuring up healthy dinner solutions day to day is a massive key to sustaining their health goals. Prioritising self-care and stress management is important as these can quickly become road bumps that can set us off course.
For me, this was avoiding getting too hungry by eating three meals a day and making them super nutritious and delicious, so I was less likely to reach for the snack drawer. Plus a few squares of dark chocolate in my day because I do love chocolate!
4) Eat to nourish your body
“Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food” ― Hippocrates.
Eating for satiety is being talked about more and more in the nutrition space, and in my mind is one of the most critical parts of the puzzle. Satiety is not about feeling physically full. It is the inhibition of wanting to eat between meals. Certain foods help us to feel satiety more than others, even if they have the same calories. For example, a doughnut and a piece of salmon might have the same calories, yet one provides much better nutrition per calorie. When we tune into our hunger levels and eat foods to nourish our body we naturally eat more intuitively (ref 3,4).
5) 80/20
“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. A small habit—when repeated consistently—grows into something significant.” James Clear
Don’t beat yourself up over food choices. One “less healthy” meal won’t ruin everything. A healthy lifestyle is about balance and getting enjoyment from food is part of that. Focus on long-term consistency for lasting changes. Food and social activities are part of life. If you aim to eat well most of the time, you can relax and enjoy those special occasions. Just be mindful of things from sliding so much that the 20% becomes the majority.
6) Your forever “diet” starts now
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending” — CS Lewis.
So, if you’re on your own weight loss journey, remember to be patient with yourself and set realistic expectations. Pay attention to how you feel. Remember that the number on the scale is just one part of the story. It’s about embracing an overall healthy lifestyle and nourishing your body to thrive!
The right diet is the one that you can stick to long-term – that is nourishing, energising and so darned delicious that sustaining it is something you’re motivated to do.
REFERENCES
Ref 1. Hall KD, Kahan S. Maintenance of Lost Weight and Long-Term Management of Obesity. Med Clin North Am. 2018 Jan;102(1):183-197. doi: 10.1016/j.mcna.2017.08.012. PMID: 29156185; PMCID: PMC5764193.
Ref 2. https://nadialim.com/nude-food/
Ref 3. Hall KD, Ayuketah A, Brychta R, Cai H, Cassimatis T, Chen KY, Chung ST, Costa E, Courville A, Darcey V, Fletcher LA, Forde CG, Gharib AM, Guo J, Howard R, Joseph PV, McGehee S, Ouwerkerk R, Raisinger K, Rozga I, Stagliano M, Walter M, Walter PJ, Yang S, Zhou M. Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake. Cell Metab. 2019 Jul 2;30(1):67-77.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2019.05.008. Epub 2019 May 16. Erratum in: Cell Metab. 2019 Jul 2;30(1):226. Erratum in: Cell Metab. 2020 Oct 6;32(4):690. PMID: 31105044; PMCID: PMC7946062. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31105044/
Ref 4. Angelo Tremblay and France Bellisle. 2015. Nutrients, satiety, and control of energy intake. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. 40(10): 971-979. https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2014-0549
