Does lockdown make you wonder if you might have a problem with food? Do you find yourself craving sugar or bingeing on snacks or treats, especially at nighttime? This is exacerbated by the fact that we are all home (ALL the time), and all that tasty food is right there for the taking. There are several steps you can take to identify or overcome emotional eating. The first and most important thing is to determine what causes your food cravings. Determining the cause will help you discover whether or not you have a food addiction or if there is another potential cause for your food cravings.

How to Determine what triggers your cravings

Check in with your intakes 

Most of the time, cravings are a response to a need for fuel. Many of my clients get cravings in the evenings, especially for sweets or salty snacks, because they are undereating either carbohydrates or calories throughout the day. More than half of my clients who are trying to lose weight are actually undereating, so honestly assess the possibility that you might be over-restricting. Common symptoms include low energy, poor sleep (or sleeping too much), brain fog, fatigue, memory issues, anxiety, emotional dysregulation/moodiness, and food cravings (especially cravings for carbohydrates or sugar). There’s nothing wrong with eating those foods, by the way, but we want to be in a place of intentionally choosing to eat them because we will enjoy them, not feeling compelled to eat them because your body is just so. Dang. Hungry!

If you aren’t sure (most of my clients assume they need to eat less than they actually should), find a Registered Dietitian to help you know how much you should actually eat. I’m still offering video appointments during the lockdown! Most adult clients should be eating more than 1400 calories and well over 100 grams of carbohydrate daily (even if you’re trying to lose weight or if you have diabetes). Calorie tracking apps and online calculators are often inaccurate.

Assess your emotions

If you are certain you are meeting your body’s needs and you still struggle with a compulsion to eat unhealthful foods on a regular basis, try looking at your emotions. The second most common cause of food cravings has to do with dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain that makes us feel content. Negative emotions are usually paired with low dopamine. The brain sees low dopamine as a problem that needs to be fixed and will often go hunting for a way to raise it. Eating delicious food is a quick way to get a rush of dopamine. So, often our brains will go straight to the fridge to fix the problem! Your brain doesn’t care if you eat ice cream, it only wants dopamine.

1. Ask yourself if you are experiencing a negative emotion. Boredom, loneliness, stress, anxiety, and depression are common culprits.
2. If the answer is yes, the first line of attack is to try to raise dopamine in a way that doesn’t involve food. You can do this by turning to an activity that you truly enjoy. Calling a friend, doing a crossword, going for a walk, or reading a book are examples of activities my clients have used. The key is that you enjoy it – otherwise it doesn’t raise your dopamine!
3. Sometimes you don’t have the time to do an alternative activity, so the next line of attack is to try to find a healthier food option. Craving salty snacks? Go for a couple handfuls of tortilla chips with salsa,  pretzels, or whole grain chips or crackers (Sun Chips and Triscuits are great options). Sweet tooth calling out to you? Try frozen grapes,  graham crackers, or berries with vanilla yogurt or whipped topping. Finally, if you know that a healthier activity or alternative will not do the trick, it’s not a failure.
4. Try to moderate the amount of a craved food that you eat. Three to four bites of a desired food can cause the peak amount of dopamine response within the following 10-15 minutes. The take-home message? Rather than eat continually until your dopamine peaks and you feel better, try to savor that tasty food for 3-4 bites then wait 10-15 minutes. After that, reassess to see if you still feel like you need more.
5. If you are certain that you really want the food you’re craving, go for it! It is not a failure to eat food you love. Do not feel bad about it! Food is meant to be enjoyed. The most important thing is that you choose to eat intentionally and not because you are underfueled or you feel out of control.

Seek an outside opinion

If you have evaluated the above topics and are still struggling to get to the root of your food cravings, it could be possible that you have a food addiction. Evaluation for food addiction is still in its early stages. Researchers from Yale University have created a food addiction scale but the scoring system is complex and it is not widely used. For now, the best method is to meet with a Registered Dietitian and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Since food addiction by nature is a crossover between mental health and food habits, each professional can have a valuable perspective. If it turns out that you do have addictive food behaviors, a holistic treatment plan will involve them both as well.

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Monday was my last day following the Mediterranean Diet recommendations. My goals throughout this week were to work on increasing the variety of my plant-based proteins to deal with the boredom I was experiencing after the first two weeks. I also wanted to really try to make sure that I met my vegetable recommendations.

What Went Well

I met my goals! Instead of just beans and nuts this week, I incorporated tofu stir fry for lunch as well as hummus, tuna, and salmon throughout the week. It definitely helped with the boredom factor. I also managed to meet my veggie goals and actually met the recommendations each day individually, though I did end up eating one more serving of white meat in the whole week than I should have (gasp!).

Overall, following the eating pattern got easier as time went on. I was pleased to see that over the course of the 3 week experiment my grocery budget averaged the same as normal ($100 per week). The Mediterranean Diet, using a meal plan, was easily doable on a budget of $100 per week for four people. Eating a lot of plant-based proteins was actually a great way to save on groceries (and helped to balance out the cost of seafood).

Without specifically trying, I lost 2 lbs over the course of the 3 weeks on my normal level of activity (possibly a tiny bit less even in the third week). That is a normal, healthy rate of weight loss, so the evidence that the Mediterranean Diet can promote healthy weight loss was backed up in my case.

What Could Have Gone Better

While the variety of plant-based proteins helped, I still just came to the conclusion that I don’t enjoy most plant-based proteins as much as I enjoy chicken. I really didn’t miss beef and pork that much – I don’t think I really eat more than 1-2 servings of those per week normally, they aren’t really my thing. Chicken though, is a staple in my diet. While I do enjoy plant-based eating and I aim for it often, my biggest struggle over the three weeks was limiting my white meat intake to two servings per week.

That leads into one of my least favorite things about the Mediterranean Diet pyramid: the restrictions. For example, no more than 2 servings of sweets or 1 serving of processed meat per week.I’m a little torn because I am a type-A person who appreciates tracking and having concrete details and recommendations, but the psychology of restrictions still causes me to feel deprived and want more. That’s no way to live your food life! Skim the recommendations and use them as a guideline, but don’t stress if you eat a little outside them here and there. Eating more plant-based meals and fewer sweets than you do now is a great step, even if you don’t hit the exact limits on the Mediterranean Diet pyramid.

How I Did

Stay tuned for more posts about the Mediterranean Diet – we’ll talk about eating out, tips for making the Mediterranean Diet easier, and more!

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Meal planning takes many forms depending on your lifestyle, budget, and personality. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a fully written-out meal plan. Some people prefer to plan only a couple of days in advance. Others prefer to buy groceries for a few different meals then have a bit more flexibility.

For the last two weeks I’ve been following a Mediterranean Diet (you can read more about it here). I’ve learned some tricks to make following this eating pattern a bit easier with meal planning. If you’re new to meal planning, first check out this post for my step-by-step instructions on making a meal plan. In today’s post, I’ll give you some ideas I’ve picked up in the last few weeks for meal planning on a Mediterranean Diet.

Keep Track

The Mediterranean diet pyramid has specific guidelines for how many servings of different items to eat per day or per week. When making a meal plan, it can be helpful to keep track of these groups (particularly the protein sources) to make sure you’re aiming in the right directions. I’ve created a free printable Mediterranean Diet checklist that you can download here to help. Even if you don’t follow these guidelines exactly (in fact, I’d recommend that you give yourself a little wiggle room), this checklist can keep you from straying too far from recommendations.

Leave yourself some flexibility

Some of the recommended serving amounts are quite limited (like 1 serving processed meat and 2 servings sweets per week). Because of that,  I find it helpful to plan for fewer servings than the recommendations allow. This gives you the opportunity to have flexibility throughout the week in different social situations (or if you’re just tuckered out). For example, I didn’t include processed meat in my weekly plan and I only included one serving each of red meat and chicken (2 each are allowed). This meant that if I ended up in a place where processed meat was on the menu (high school football game hot dog, anyone?), I had the opportunity to choose it. One day when my son scored his first job, we wanted to celebrate with some DQ blizzards, and since I didn’t build sweets into my meal plan, I indulged without having to go over, go without, or change my meal plan.

Plan around your life

Along those lines, check out your calendar when you’re making your meal plan. If you know that you’re going to be eating a soul dinner (hello, football game!), try to load the rest of your day with the nutritious foods you’re not likely to get there. On the Friday I knew I was headed to the game, I knew I would get nachos and a hot dog for dinner (not much in the way of veggies or fruit) so I had a veggie scramble for breakfast, plenty of salad with veggie soup for lunch, and a couple of fruits for snacks.

I tried to check all those boxes before I went to the game to make it easier to follow Mediterranean Diet recommendations while still enjoying my social life!

Work with Family Dinners

Even if you decide to aim for a Mediterranean Diet eating pattern, the people you eat with may or may not be on board to eat the same way. These differing preferences can be a struggle – family members or partners don’t always make healthy changes in the same ways or at the same paces. Try to work with this when making your meal plan. If there are meals where you won’t be eating with your family members (lunches are commonly eaten separately, for example), plan for those to include the protein sources that aren’t limited like seafood or legumes. Shared meals (often dinners) can use some of the more limited protein sources like chicken, pork, or beef that your family members would want to enjoy.

Another trick for meal planning with a family is to include a balance of what I call “combo dinners” and “compartment dinners.” Combo dinners are meals like casseroles or soups where everything is mixed together. These are the types of meals where it makes the most sense to use the limited proteins like chicken or beef. Compartment meals are meals where each item is separate (usually in a meat + starch + vegetable configuration). These are good opportunities to make yourself a different protein from the rest of your family. It’s helpful to choose one that can be prepared and cooked in the same way as the rest of your family’s meal. For example, if the meal is baked chicken with vegetables and mashed potatoes, simply bake enough chicken breasts for the rest of your family and on the same pan, bake yourself a fish fillet. You’re not making an entirely separate dinner, just giving yourself some flexibility to eat with your family and still meet Mediterranean Diet recommendations.

Hopefully these tips are helpful to you as you aim to improve your health! The key is to make changes gradually, never expect perfection, and work with your lifestyle and personality, not against them. You can do it!

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Week two of following the Mediterranean Diet is done and I’m learning a lot! The experiences I’m having help me provide tips to my clients for following a Mediterranean Diet.

What went well

This particularly week, grocery shopping was significantly cheaper than my normal grocery budget. I only spent $67 on groceries this week! Now, it’s pretty normal for my shopping trips to alternate from a more expensive “stock up” week to a cheaper “fill in” week (averaging $100 per week), so it’s likely that this next week’s shop will be quite a bit more expensive, but we’ll see. Regardless, I’m excited that the Mediterranean Diet is turning out to be so affordable so far!

My goal from last week was to try to increase plant-based proteins in my diet, and decrease fish intake a little. This is only because some Mediterranean Diet recommendations limit fish (others don’t) and I wanted to try not to go crazy with it since it seems to vary depending on the recommend-ers. Anyway, I succeeded! I swapped 7 servings of seafood last week for 4 this week, and 3 servings of legumes last week for 9 this week.

Challenges

One of my go-to proteins pre-Mediterranean diet was chicken, which is limited in the “white meat” category to twice weekly. That is significantly less than I’m used to…which is probably more like 5 times weekly (or more). I’ve found logistical ways to swap out chicken (mostly tuna, salmon, and beans), but I’m finding myself bored with these limited options since I’m having them so frequently. I need to work on incorporating more variety – there are other options, I just haven’t explored them as much as I could be yet.

The limited protein options I’ve been choosing has caused me, primarily out of boredom, to eat less protein overall. Since protein is very satisfying, this causes me to be hungrier overall and to be more likely to avoid eating when I’m hungry because I’m tired of my options. That isn’t very fun. As I mentioned, this limiting of my proteins is only partly due to the nature of the diet and partly due to my lack of effort in finding and using other protein options. I hope to remedy that in the upcoming week by picking up some hummus, pistachios, a different veggie breakfast sausage, and some tofu.

How I did

This week I did better on individual recommendations and succeeded in swapping seafood for more legumes. I also ate quite a bit more fruit (still within recommended ranges). I did, however, have two soul meals this week (celebrating my son getting his first job and enjoying some delicious nachos at a football game). These are not “cheat days,” by the way. They are living life, and living life is not cheating. These two meals threw off my count for days that I met recommendations.

Next week I’m going to focus on upping my veggie intake – it’s been low both weeks. I’m planning to get some snacking veggies and some hummus to up my protein and veggie munching next week.

In case you were wondering…

My digestive disturbances have resolved…thank you for asking.

That’s two weeks, folks! One to go and much more to learn…

*Based on the FDM recommendations I chose to follow. AHA and ACJN limit fish to “low to moderate” amounts.

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This past weekend I had the opportunity to try out a weekend of celebration, liver-friendly style. Every year in January we go with some friends for a weekend away, this time to McMenamin’s Grand Lodge in Forest Grove, OR. Typically, this weekend consists of delicious food, a few cocktails and ciders, and a lot of board games. We always have a great time. Since I’m on a liver-friendly diet this year, I decided to do the best I could to navigate my nutritional recommendations while still having a great time with my husband and friends.

Whether it’s a whole weekend away or a single meal, my primary strategies for meeting dietary recommendations while eating out: plan and prioritize.

Planning Ahead

Check out the place you’re going to (if you haven’t been there before) and find out what kinds of food are going to be available. We have been to the Grand Lodge many times, so I already know that the lunch and dinner fare is primarily pub-type food (with amazing tater tots). Veggies, protein, grains, and dairy will be no problem, but fruits will be lacking. I’ll have to be careful with fat and sodium, for sure.

Also, I know that there is an amazing chocolate milkshake made with their Terminator Stout that I usually get that I won’t be getting this time because it’s loaded with saturated fat and sugar and contains alcohol.

To address these two anticipated issues, I brought along some mandarin oranges and a dark chocolate bar. The chocolate bar contains some saturated fat and sugar, but it will be far better for lil’ ol’ liver than that Terminator Stout milkshake, and I’ll still get some chocolate!

Prioritizing

Think about what menu item would most delight you to eat, whether it’s an entree, a side, a dessert, you name it. Even if it’s a bit high in sodium, fat, or sugar, get that thing. Enjoy it! Surround it with healthier options.

We headed out Friday afternoon and on the way down we decided to stop at a burger joint recommended to us by a friend. None of us had been to Smashburger before, but we decided to give it a go. After checking out the menu, I saw that they had some rosemary herb tater tots. I am a big tot fan, so that was going to be my priority. My main dish was going to have to be healthier. They had a black bean burger on a multigrain bun with avocado, and it sounded tasty!

It was pretty dang good, but the tots were even better. I rounded it out with a water.

Later that evening, we went to soak in the hot tub. This is when I would usually end up getting a mojito, but since alcohol is a no-go on my liver-friendly diet, I asked for a seltzer water with a lime.

Was it as delicious as a mojito? No, but it was refreshing, tasty, and certainly more hydrating! Besides, I’m really out there to relax in the soaking pool, so mission accomplished.

After soaking we settled in for some board games and snacks. The Grand Lodge has some epic Cajun-spiced tater tots. If you remember from earlier, tots are definitely a priority for me. Those had to happen. We ordered some pretzel sticks with cheese sauce, but I only ate a couple of the pretzel sticks and avoided the cheese sauce. I would rather have tots!

They were fantastic as always.

The next morning I was fortunate enough to eat one of my favorite dishes, and it just so happens to be liver-friendly! This salmon and red potato hash is made with veggies, anti-inflammatory salmon, and red potatoes. If you want to try it, check out this copycat recipe. My hubby’s breakfast came with a fruit cup but he’s not a melon fan, so he ate the rest and then I got some fruit too!

Breakfast did not disappoint.

That afternoon, my friend and I went to see Mary Poppins Returns. It was so well done! For the movie I would normally have chosen to order a hard cider. I wanted something sweeter than the lime water I had last night, so I ordered a seltzer water with lime juice and a half-shot of simple syrup. It had a couple grams of sugar, but it was a definite liver-friendly improvement.

A side benefit of these “alternative” drinks is that the bartenders wouldn’t even charge me for them since they were mostly water and a little bit of fruit juice. I spent a few dollars in tips instead of the $20-25ish I would have spent on my usual drinks throughout the weekend!

For a late lunch, we ended up at a Hawaiian fusion restaurant. Everything on the menu looked so good, but I had to go with chicken katsu curry. While it does contain veggies and lean meat, the meat is deep fried and the curry is loaded with sodium. This one may have been a little over the top, but the last time I ate katsu curry was in Japan and I about died from delicious, so I wasn’t going to pass it up. It was supposed to come with macaroni salad, but I subbed that out for the house salad. The curry was the priority!

After lunch, we were going to settle in for some more board games and snacks. The crew stopped at the grocery store to buy some junk food. My oranges and chocolate bar came to the rescue so I was satisfied with only 2 cookies instead of…however many I would otherwise have eaten…

For our final breakfast, I had been itching to find out what the chef’s “daily scone” was. I am Scottish, after all. I asked my server – it was caramel apple. Guys. I was definitely going to have that. Now, I realized that a caramel apple scone was basically breakfast dessert, so I needed some protein and ideally veggies to balance this sucker out. I ordered the veggie sausage on the side and got another cup of unappreciated melon from my husband. The whole thing was dee-licious.

Then it was time to leave relaxation for the regularity of normal life. Sigh…it was such a great weekend. While the food I ate was certainly not as low in sodium, fat, or sugar as what I would eat at home, I feel great about the balance. When you’re eating out, gauge your choices based on the foods that are your priorities. The tastiest and most wonderful should take center stage, backed up by a chorus line of nutritious extras. You’ll enjoy yourself and feel great!

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So far in this Eating Well on a Budget series, we’ve already covered several ways you can save money on groceries right away – meal planning, buying in bulk, effective couponing, and preventing food waste. Today I’ll share about one of the things I do throughout the year to save money in the future: food preservation. 

This is one of the ways I am able to keep our grocery budget at $100 per week for a family of four. When you preserve delicious in-season produce purchased at rock-bottom prices, you aren’t going to be paying absurdly high prices for sub-par flavorless produce the rest of the year. Each year I spend about $250 on produce to preserve, which would add $4.80 to each week’s budget, though I hope to reduce that by growing a garden next summer. Even without the garden, it’s definitely cheaper than buying fresh (and not as tasty) produce throughout the year.

Start with this post to help you know when to buy the cheapest and most delicious produce en masse. Buy them in boxes from a local farm stand. Start small – you can always adjust the amount next year. Then, decide how you’d like to preserve all that tasty nutrition. We’re going to talk about three easy methods of food preservation: freezing, drying, and canning.

Freezing

Freezing is the simplest method of food preservation, as it does not require special equipment and takes the least amount of time and preparation. Often, all you need is a freezer bag and a permanent marker. Personally, I choose to freeze berries, jams, corn, and meat. I like the way these foods come out when frozen much better than when they are canned or dried. Applesauce and stock are great frozen as well. For most foods, you can simply place them in a zip-close freezer bag with the date and description written on it until you are ready to use them, though it is much easier if you take a little time to prep them first.

• Berries: Wash berries and remove stem, if there is one. Spread berries one layer thick on baking sheets and freeze for two hours. Remove from sheets and place into labeled freezer bags. Freezing on sheets makes them much easier to separate and use throughout the year.
• Jams: Prepare according to freezer jam pectin instructions (or try a chia jam recipe like this one – I haven’t done this myself yet, but I plan  to try it…let me know if you have experience with chia jam!) and pour into a labeled freezer-safe container (leave 1” of space for expansion).
• Corn: Carefully remove corn kernels from cobs with a sharp knife (hold the cob vertically and shave down and away from you). Place kernels in labeled freezer bags.
• Meat: Place meat in a labeled freezer bag. If you want, you can trim and cut it first, but you don’t need to.
• Applesauce/stock: Follow the instructions on your favorite applesauce or stock recipe. Pour cooled applesauce/stock into labeled freezer-safe containers (leave 1” of space for expansion).

Keep tabs on what’s in your freezer – don’t let perfectly good food sink and sink and sink into the deep-freeze abyss, only to be tossed due to years-old freezerburn. This process is about saving money, not tossing it! Taking quick stock during your budget-driven meal planning is a great way to make sure you’re cycling through things and saving money!

Tip: You certainly don’t need one, but a vacuum sealer is a handy tool for freezing, as it removes all of the air from the bags your food is preserved in, saving space and preserving freshness even more!

Drying/Dehydrating

Also very simple, drying/dehydrating foods can be a great way to preserve nutritious food for meals and snacks 

throughout the year. You can dehydrate some foods in your oven, or you can use a dehydrator. They are about $30-40 online or in most kitchen or home goods stores.

Instructions for dehydration times vary depending on the food and recipe you are using. In general, the steps involve preparing the food you’d like to dehydrate, popping it in your oven or dehydrator, and waiting. It’s pretty much that simple.

For some example recipes, check out how you can make your own banana chips, raisins, beef jerky, or dehydrated meals for backpacking or an emergency kit. The dried food possibilities are pretty endless.

Tip: If you’re drying onions or garlic in a dehydrator, place it outside while it’s working. Trust me. Your house will smell like a sulfurous vegetable for days.

Canning

Canning is the most seemingly intimidating method of food preservation, and while it is a little more labor-intensive, it’s typically much easier than most people think! The simplest method is water bath canning, which can be used for high-acid fruits. For water bath canning, all you’ll need are prepared fruit, water or extra-light simple syrup, canning jars with matching rings and lids, a jar lifter, a canning rack,  and a very large stock pot. No pressure gauges, no fancy equipment (though if you can spend a tiny bit on a canning kit like this one it will definitely make it more convenient).

Basic steps for water bath canning

These steps are an overview – please check out more detailed instructions before canning to ensure safe results. 🙂

1. While completing remaining steps, heat enough water to boiling in your stock pot to cover all of your canning jars when full.
2. Place prepared fruit (in most cases, this means removing pits, stems, and peels, but check out the recommendations here) in hot, clean jars, leaving 1/2”-1” space at the top.
3. Ladle hot syrup over top of fruit, leaving 1/2”-1” space at the top.
4. Wipe the top rim of the jar with a clean rag to remove any debris or syrup. Place a hot lid on the jar and tighten a ring on top of it.
5. Place jar gently in stock pot. When all jars are placed in stock pot, cover and bring to a boil. Boil for the recommended processing time for your specific fruit and size of jar.
6. When processing is complete, gently remove the jars from the pot with your jar lifter. Place on a cooling rack in a non-drafty area and avoiding touching them as they cool. Over the course of the next hour or two, you should hear the satisfying sounds of the jars popping sealed. Congratulations!

See? Not so bad! In fact, it’s pretty darn fun, especially if you can with a friend or family member. Many hands makes light work! You can enjoy your home-canned goodies all year round.

You can also can lower-acid foods through a method called pressure canning. This is slightly more involved, but not by a lot. Follow these instructions for safe and simple pressure canning.

Tip: Home-canned fruits and vegetables will ruin you for the store-bought versions. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

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