EFM coaches give final advice

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Tips from Ann Reidenbach, the Behavior Coach:

1. Continue to practice mindful eating skills.
     • notice your choices in beginning or ending a meal based on awareness of hunger and satiety cues;
     • identify personal triggers for mindless eating, such as emotions, social pressures, or certain foods;
     • value quality over quantity of what you’re eating;
     • feel deep gratitude that may come from appreciating and experiencing food

Mindfulness helps focus attention and awareness on the present moment, which in turn, helps you disengage from habitual and unsatisfying habits and behaviors. Engaging in mindful eating practices on a regular basis can help you discover a far more satisfying relationship to food and eating than ever imagined or experienced before. A different kind of nourishment often emerges, the kind that offers satisfaction on a very deep emotional level.

2. Continue to take time to plan for feeding yourself and your family. Take time to eat, not just grab food. Skills needed to be successful include meal planning; grocery shopping, cooking and managing money budgeted for food.

Tips from Brian West, the Activity Coach:

1. Be sure to dedicate time each week for family fitness

2. Cut out at least two hours of TV each day and utilize the time for family fitness activities such as taking a walk outside or going to a facility to exercise.

 

Tips from Kathy Wehrle, the Nutrition Coach: 

Recognize your success when you PLAN ahead:

Wonderful, tasty eating doesn’t happen automatically. It takes purposeful thought and effort. Start by reviewing food ideas and new recipes you might want to try. Use a variety of resources/cookbooks that have been gathered from the project. Try your own makeover on existing family recipes. Check to see what’s on sale for the week at your local grocery store. Get your menus organized, get your list together and go for it!

Know that “healthy” and “delicious” can go hand and hand. Try new foods and new ways of prep, for a diet full of variety and enjoyment. Remember how Chloe liked Chef Mike’s creation even though it had tomatoes in it! She got out of her comfort zone, tried it and liked it!

Keep up communication – not only with your family members but with your body!! Let me explain!

1) External communication: Keep on top of communicating feelings and expressing needs (Shapedown magic words…I feel…I need…, etc.) to those in your family. Buried feelings and unmet needs will only fester and repressed feelings can trigger overeating.

Lovingly communicate the limits that you set – they will need reinforcement from time to time. We all have chores we give our kids, but don’t forget to follow through with limit setting on TV/video time and how much you expect them to move and exercise on most days of the week (regardless of whether they are in a sport).

Offer helpful praise and keep priming the nurturing cycle by spending “special” time with each child. And don’t forget to have some family meetings now and get feedback on how things are going. Talk about goals you would like to set for your health and fitness for the coming year.

2) Internal communication

Keep fine tuning your feelings of hunger and fullness. As Ann taught, eat mindfully and slowly, savoring each bite. When hunger disappears, it’s time to stop eating. Remember, we need to feel satisfied or comfortable, not “full/overfull”. This tip, when added to high nutrition food, and wonderfully fun, frequent exercise, will get you guys where you want to be!!
 

Contact Kathy to join a Shapedown class by calling: (260) 373-4228.

Contact Brian for more YMCA information by calling: (260) 432-8953.

Contact Ann for Mindful Eating classes by calling: (260) 486-5251.
   The next mindful Eating class starts February 7.