3 Simple Ways to Practice Moderation EVERYDAY

Eating with moderation has two fundamental aspects:

1. Satiation: the feeling of fullness from adequate servings
2. Satisfaction: the feeling of enjoyment and contentment from foods we enjoy and desire

 
Satiation, or fullness, comes from nutritious foods that are dense in fiber, protein and micro-nutrients (ie: vitamins). These foods are what will fill our stomach as well as provide energy for our bodies. Fueling our bodies with proteins and vegetables keeps our energy high, our skin clear and our brains functioning!
 
Satisfaction, or contentment, comes from smaller portions of “not-so healthy” foods like candy, chips, alcohol, doughnuts, etc. All parts of our food intake are individualized based on our needs, wants and likes, however nothing is more individual than what we choose for satisfaction. Some people crave salty foods like chips and salsa, others only care about chocolate and sweets, while someone else might give up everything for beer.
 
In traditional diets, satisfaction foods are off limits except for maybe one cheat meal or even a cheat day per week, where we get to go bananas on whatever we want. We get to eat any and all foods on our “endangered food” list, but then the next day we’re back to stict dieting.
 
Meanwhile, moderation’s over here like, “chill out, bro, we don’t need to make this stuff such a big deal”. With moderation we’re trying to find the balance between feeding our bodies good food to control hunger and treats to avoid cravings.
 
We don’t feel good about complete restriction because we do get massive cravings and feel deprived if we never get to eat “the fun stuff”. We also don’t feel good when we’re only indulging because, by and large, those foods are unhealthy and leave us feeling sluggish and guilty.         
 
Today I want to give you three simple ways to incorporate the principles of moderation into your daily eating, to help you straddle the fence between restriction and overindulgence.
 

1. Find your “salad”. “Salad” is an ambiguous term here that I use to refer to a nutrient dense meal that’s satisfying and yummy. I prefer (actual) salads to most other meals because I can get protein and veggies from it and feel full and content after the meal. I make my salads with an assortment of veggies because that’s where the variety and enjoyment comes from.
Your meal of choice could be a turkey sandwich with lettuce and tomato. Or a chicken wrap with spinach and peppers. It doesn’t have to be a meal that’s strictly meat and veggies, it just needs to provide both satiation (protein & veggies) and satisfaction. When you make your “salad”, look for the right mixture of healthy and satisfactory. If you going for an actual salad, add cheese and bacon bits or candied nuts and avocado. Choose “add-ons” that make the salad feel indulgent, when really it’s not!
 
For me, what usually ups the amount of satisfaction is the salad dressing or sauce.
Traditional diets poo-poo sauces because of high sugar contents, but if BBQ sauce on your sammy helps prevent a binge later on, then go for it!
Moderate eating involves a give and take of foods that most diets say are off limits.
 

2. The Exposure Trick: The idea of food exposure is pretty scary at first. We don’t trust ourselves to have any sort of self-control around our favorite sweets and treats. Which is why we refuse to buy them or “hide” them from ourselves once we bring them home. We’re afraid that if we’re in the same room as a plate of cookies, we won’t be able to hold back and we’ll eat the entire freaken thing!
Exposure takes away that fear by making those treats feel less scarce. When we put limits on foods and tell ourselves we can’t have them for “x” amount of time (usually forever), it puts those foods on our “endangered food” list. Which means when we do finally get put in the same room as that endangered food, we can’t help but eat it, because who knows when we’ll allow ourselves to have it again?!
 
I used the exposure trick with M&M’s a few years back. I have always loved chocolate and for a long time I was constantly steering clear of it and put it on my forever-endangered foods list. I would go a week or two without any chocolate, but if I was out to eat and someone ordered dessert or a friend had chocolate candy at their house, I was instantly a ravenous beggar.  

When I experimented with the exposure trick, I dove in head first! I decided to have a handful of M&M’s after every meal for two weeks.
I didn’t shove the whole handful in my mouth at once, I took my time, enjoyed them and when I was done, I really didn’t want more…because I knew I was going to have some after my next meal! After a week, I was almost (almost!) tired of eating chocolate after every meal, so I decided to only have it when I was craving it, like after a spicy or salty meal. Eventually I started to see chocolate as just another food, nothing to be scared of and something that could be abundant in my life without guilt (as it is now).
 
 
3. Daily Gimmes: A daily gimme is something that a traditional diet would consider to be off limits, but is an incredibly satisfactory food for you. You eat these foods in small portions during your day to keep your satisfaction level up, so you don’t end the day with cravings and feeling deprived.  
Chocolate has become one of my daily gimmes and it’s my most used for sure! I also use peanut butter and sweetened coconut milk creamer in my tea.
These three things help me the most with cravings and feelings of deprivation. The idea is to choose foods that satisfy your cravings, but aren’t something you’re going to easily overeat on.
An example of that for me is chocolate cake. I often crave chocolate cake and it can happen any time during the day! So instead of going and getting cake, I eat dark chocolate, which soothes the craving while still providing me a food I love! The satisfaction of chocolate is high enough that I’m relieved of my cravings without the caloric/health implications of a daily piece of cake. :)
 
Daily Gimmes are to keep cravings down and satisfaction up! Once again, they’ll be different for each person, one person might use a couple slices of bacon in the morning, while another will feel satisfied with cinnamon raisin toast at lunch.

Finding the balance between restriction and indulgence takes time and I’ll admit, when I started practicing moderation I had a crazy couple weeks of indulgences. It’s bound to happen when we’re changing our lifestyle from restriction to acceptance. The important part is to try and get back to the middle of the fence when indulgence or restriction happens because if we keep jumping back and forth, we’ll never find the right balance.
 
#straddlethefence