Appetizer
Eat MORE moderately. There really is no food or drink that you can’t have at least occasionally because everything is okay, in moderation. If you’re waiting for me to give you an exact amount that you can get away with, you’ll be waiting for a long time. I’m not going to do that because you already know. How do I know this? Because we’ve all read just enough, watched just enough T.V., and have been educated just enough to know when enough is enough.
Do you want an Oreo? Go ahead and have one then. Heck, go ahead and have two of them, but please don’t eat the whole bag.
Maybe you’ve been craving pizza for two weekends in a row. Put your appetite out of its misery, and have a couple of slices on Friday night, but (a) don’t have more than that, and (b) don’t save the leftovers for Saturday.
Moderate = “Being within reasonable limits; not excessive or extreme”
Strive to live a life of moderation, and you won’t have to concern yourself with crash diets or the newest food fad because you’ll still be able to enjoy your favorites from time to time without feeling like you fell off the wagon or ruined all of your hard work.
Main Course
I’m by no means psychic, but I already know what many of you are thinking… “Amber makes this whole ‘moderation’ thing seem so easy, but she doesn’t know how hard it is for me. If I had that kind of willpower, I wouldn’t need her help.” Ahhh, but you’re so wrong! If you think back to what I told you the first time you dined with me, all of the information that I provide is for you – the every day person, not for all of the super dieters of the world or the genetically gifted. I know and understand your struggles, and we’ll work through them together – just stick with me!
If you have an addiction to certain foods, then I’m pretty sure that my whole discussion on “moderation” just doesn’t seem feasible to you. In fact, it probably sounds as though I just told you to scale a huge building in a single bound.
You may have even noticed that others can take a small pinch of the to-die-for birthday cake and be okay, while for you, a small pinch leads to the complete and total destruction of the entire upper left quadrant of the darn cake.
Moderation, you say? Humph!
If this sounds familiar, take heed of the following tips (and keep visiting Café Physique for more on the subject):
1) Eat regularly. When you’re super hungry, it’s very tempting to forget about good nutrition.
2) When you go out to eat, share your meal or dessert with a friend; ask for a doggie bag or a smaller portion.
3) Balance your food choices over time. Not every food has to be “perfect.” When eating a food high in fat, salt or sugar, select other foods that are low in these ingredients. If you miss out on any food group one day, make up for it the next. Your food choices over several days should fit together into a healthy pattern.
4) Make concessions. Do you add a lot of butter, creamy sauces or salad dressings? Rather than eliminating these foods, put them on the side & just dip your fork into it rather than drenching your entire plate.
5) Make changes gradually. There aren’t an easy answers to a healthy diet, so don’t expect to totally revamp your eating habits overnight. Begin to make small changes that can add up to positive, lifelong eating habits.
6) Buy your favorite snacks in pre-packaged portions like Kraft’s 100-calorie snack packs of Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Nabisco cracker, Ritz Chips and Wheat Thins. Otherwise, create your own snack packs (measure out single portions into plastic baggies) as soon as you come home from the store so that you never find yourself double dippin’ into a huge bag of something.
7) Get over the notion that you can’t throw things away. Yes, I know that there are people starving in other countries AND right here in the U.S. If that’s your excuse for why you have to clean your plate at each and every meal, then arrange to give your leftovers to a local homeless shelter – keeping in mind that you eating the extra food isn’t going to help prevent starvation.
Dessert
Last weekend, I had every intention of just tasting ONE of the tiny pecan puff cookies my sister’s accountant was kind enough to give her for her birthday (thanks a lot buddy!). They had been sitting on her kitchen counter, wrapped up all nicely since mid-April. Every time I went to her house, the cookies would start talking to me. This particular day the conversation went like this:
Evil Cookies: Amber, look at me! I’m wrapped up really nice in a fancy package, so you know that I came from a yummy bakery or specialty store – not just the local grocery store.
Amber: I don’t care what you look like ‘Oh Evil Ones!’
Evil Cookies: OK, but I just want to point out that each one of me is made with a delicious looking pecan – your favorite – tucked into the center, wrapped with a light “puff” of melt-in-your-mouth, indescribable cookie-type pastry.
Amber: Yeah, I know. I totally peeped that when I walked into the kitchen today.
Evil Cookies: And look how small I am. I mean, how many calories do you think I can actually contain? You can easily eat me in single bite.
Amber: That’s probably true, but I don’t need you.
Evil Cookies: You may not need me, but you certainly deserve me. After that hard-core, sweaty workout that you put in this morning, surely you can have just one? What’s the point of working out if you can’t enjoy yourself sometimes?
Amber: 
So, yeah I went ahead and had one. I tried to make it last, but just as the Evil Cookie Master had warned me; it melted in my mouth before I had a chance to fully absorb the essence of its goodness. So, I had another and another and another…and then I spilled the entire container all over the floor…and continued to have several more as I returned them to their proper place – while all the time reasoning that my sister is a clean person so therefore her hardwood floors are quite clean by association, despite the fact that they are trampled on by two teenage boys and their friends daily…but, I digress.
All in all, my attempt to MODERATELY taste just a single Pecan Puff (PP) led to a guilt-ridden ride home as I attempted to calculate just how many Stairmaster steps I would have to climb to work off my PP binge. I eventually came to the conclusion that, somewhere on the books (what books?), there was a law prohibiting the usage of any stair-climbing apparatus for more than 225 consecutive minutes. Cool…
About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.
