MAJAMAYO

Healthy eating is great, but are you starving yourself to the point where your diet becomes too restrictive? That can have significant health implications and, most importantly, can lead to weight cycling and the yo-yo effect. In a well-known study, mentally and physically healthy men who went through a period of restrictive eating (dieting) developed an unhealthy relationship with food: they ate far more than usual and even became obsessed with food because of the psychological effects of food restriction. When we restrict certain foods too much over a short period, it can trigger intense cravings for those very foods, simply because of our biology.

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Support from a professional can truly help improve your relationship with food. It’s more useful to work on changing habits, with a way of eating you can maintain over the long term, because it’s sustainable and won’t lead to short-term weight loss at the expense of your mental health, which is what restrictive diets often push us toward.

You can also ask yourself the following questions:

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• Do you restrict foods you love?

• Do you focus on eating a set number of calories?

• Do you cut out entire food groups, such as unprocessed, healthy carbohydrates, which then leaves you craving huge portions of pasta when you’re out with friends?

• Do you skip meals?

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If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, there’s a good chance you’re restricting your diet too much. Working with a health professional, such as a health and wellness coach, can help you build a sustainable plan you can follow over time, one that delivers the results you want without going to extremes.

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Chronic stress

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Chronic stress, a difficult condition we all face, can also affect your appetite. One study found that chronic stress can increase our motivation to eat foods that act on the mesolimbic dopamine system, which is essentially our reward system. When we’re under chronic stress, our hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is constantly activated, which leads to high cortisol (the stress hormone) and increased food cravings. That means when you’re chronically stressed, you tend to crave more processed foods or sweets, which works as a kind of coping mechanism. It’s very important to have coping mechanisms that aren’t food-related when we’re under stress, so we can reduce the guilt that usually follows overeating and, in turn, adds to our stress. To reduce stress, try a relaxation method: mindfulness meditation, a 30-minute walk in nature, listening to music, deep breathing, or simply calling a friend.

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Managing stress doesn’t have to be complicated, expensive, or a long, exhausting process. It can be simple, accessible, and practical. We just need to know we have these tools in our pocket, ready to pull out at any moment.

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Listening to your body

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Eating when we’re hungry and stopping when we’re full sounds simple enough, right? But it turns out to be more complex. Often, you may not actually be hungry. You may be thirsty, stressed, tired, or something similar. To truly know whether you’re hungry, you need to pay attention to your body’s internal signals.

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Paying attention to those signals is what lets you understand what your body is trying to tell you. To achieve this, MAJAMAYO relies on intuitive eating (IE), a nutrition framework built on respect for the whole body. IE teaches you to develop awareness of your body’s internal cues, so you can understand when to eat, how much to eat, and what to eat. Intuitive eating is a great way to connect with your hunger and fullness signals, make peace with food, and give yourself unconditional permission to eat when your body wants to. It creates a trusting, kind, respectful relationship with yourself, in which fear of food and preoccupation with your body and food decrease, because you’ve given yourself the space and kindness to make peace with food and your body. In fact, there are almost 150 studies on intuitive eating that support its impact. However, tuning in to your body’s signals after a lifetime of ignoring them can be hard, which is why it’s important to first turn to a professional who can help you understand your body and give you the tools to build a healthy relationship with food. Health and wellness coaches are one example of professionals who can work with you to build that understanding and a healthier relationship with food.

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Not eating properly after exercise

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If you don’t eat after exercising (or if you eat the wrong combination of foods, or too little), you’re not doing your body any favors, and you affect your hunger levels throughout the day. After activity, you should eat within 30 to 60 minutes of your workout, and include both carbohydrates and protein for optimal recovery. During exercise our muscles use up their glycogen, or stored glucose, which is the body’s preferred energy source, especially during high-intensity workouts. This partially depletes muscle glycogen, and the best way to restore it is to replenish it. If you don’t take in enough protein and carbohydrates after exercise, it affects not only your muscles’ ability to recover but also your hunger levels. Studies have shown that exercise can lower blood sugar, which can lead to intense hunger if you don’t refuel properly afterward. It has also been shown that the longer you delay eating when you’re hungry, the more your blood sugar drops, which can lead to cravings for sugary and refined carbohydrate foods to bring blood sugar back up. That’s why it’s essential to eat a balanced combination of protein and complex carbohydrates after exercise, to stay fuller and improve recovery.

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If you struggle with overeating, consider working with a health and wellness coach and nutrition experts at MAJAMAYO to identify the underlying cause and build a healthy relationship with food.