Relearning “how to drink” is a great example of how basic healthy principles can benefit you in many ways. First, relearning to drink small by sipping frees you from excess fluid consumption. Next, this training reinforces your habits of eating small as well, so the amount of food and drink your body asks for will drop over time.
By this method, you can avoid the toilet bowl effect. Even better is the change you’ll find in your appreciation of food. When your drink is merely functional—used to fire hose your lunch down—it drowns out the flavor of the food. You can’t enjoy it and you’re certainly not drinking for taste or pleasure. You’re solving a problem created by your eating habits.
All these small factors add up to producing lower weight for life. And, because you’re learning new habits, they continue to work for you even after you forget about them.
CHEAT SHEET: HOW TO DRINK
This lifestyle approach to weight control relies on some very intuitive principles: Eat well. Love what you consume. Take your time. Overconsumption (of anything) is bad for you. Moderation will save your life. And all that goes for your drinks as well.
Water is good, but most healthy people don’t need “at least eight eight-ounce glasses” each day.
Always sip your drink, whether water, wine, tea, juice, or beer.
Practice not eating and drinking at the same time.
Swallow your food before you take a drink. That way, you’ll never use your drink to wash back your food.
Always buy the small drink size. Take your time and enjoy what you have.
The Results You’re Looking For
IMMEDIATELY
You will reinforce your habits of eating small.
You will enjoy your food more.
You will find it easier to eat small when you’re drinking small as well.
WITHIN A WEEK
You will become aware that you never needed more than a small drink anyway.
You will not need to carry a bottle of water around with you.
HOMEWORK: DRINKING
Practice eating at the table without a drink, to overcome the toilet bowl effect.
You also use this exercise as your practice for eating small. If you have trouble swallowing, your bite was too big.
Practice your habits of healthy drinking:
Only sip, never gulp.
If there’s food in your mouth, set your drink down.
Buy only small-size drinks.
Step 7
Eat All You Want (You’ll Just Want Less)
Whenever I’m asked about how often we should eat during the day, I remember a particular experience I had visiting the Mediterranean coast. On an impulse to go south and smell the Provence sea air, Dottie, the kids, and I hopped in the car for a long weekend trip to the little coastal village of Sète, about three hours from Lyon. It was a brilliant blue day, and we were determined to get to Sète as quickly as possible to make the most of our mini-vacation. By the time we arrived, we had worked up a good solid hunger since we hadn’t bothered to stop for lunch. So off we went to find a restaurant at three in the afternoon.
At the very first one, we noticed a waiter standing out on the patio overlooking a cyan sea that almost matched the cloudless sky. I was ready for a long communion with that view. We practically skipped up, startling him with our puppy-like eagerness to sit down for lunch.
“Non, non,” he said with the patience of a kindergarten teacher accustomed to explaining the most basic realities of life. He looked at his watch before slowly returning his gaze to us. “C’est finis. Lunch is over. It’s three o’clock”
Our embarrassing lesson? The French eat at mealtimes and mealtimes are when they eat.
This, of course, is so contrary to our normal habits of chronic consumption and noshing all through the day. Incessant eating has even turned into health advice, with the most recent faddish theory telling you to go ahead and snack all the time—every three hours. “You should eat six or more meals per day,” experts have said. (The problem is, we’re doing this already!)
It reminds me of Eisenhower’s response when asked how to be a good parent. “Oh, that’s easy,” quipped Ike. “You just find out what your kids want, then advise them to go do that.”
The theory of eating all day long is interesting in an academic sense: You have to keep your insulin levels up so you don’t get hungry so you don’t have to eat all the time (say, every three hours). But what culture grazes all day long except Americans (whose obesity rate is greater than 30 percent)? The Japanese (whose obesity rate is 5 percent), Italians (whose obesity rate is 12 percent), and French (whose obesity rate is 12 percent) don’t consume their way through the morning and afternoon. In fact, the French eat only two and a half meals per day.
If you want to eat like thin, healthy people, eat for pleasure, and get their results, you have to do what they do: Eat only during meal times.
Science of the French Lifestyle
In a recent issue of Obesity Surgery, “grazing” was classified as a high-risk behavior. And it indicated a disturbed eating pattern similar to bingeing in patients who have undergone gastric bypass. In fact, patients often just substituted bingeing for grazing (Saunders, 2004).
When I worked in Lyon, the break room at our research building had no snack machine. There was a refrigerator with people’s lunches and some coffee in it. But there were no banks of vending machine options for the candies and chips we’ve become used to. (There were plenty of people at the coffee machine, but they just don’t snack like we do.)
So how do you stop snacking without being hungry all day long? How do you get from where you are now to where you want to be, painlessly? The answer comes right back to the intuitive eating habits the French have been enjoying for the past few centuries. And perhaps the most decadent and delicious part of their meal is the “ender,” the final mouthwatering morsel that also helps end the between-meal cravings that drive total consumption through the roof.
The Best Kept Secret of the French Approach: “The Ender”
To be able to eat all you want (but just want less) is your goal. And the easiest, most sumptuous strategy for getting there is to punctuate the pleasure of the meal with a little something extra—a rich delicious portion—after you’ve finished the main part of your meal.
How do you define the ender? Think of it as the exclamation mark of eating enjoyment. I’m certain this fantastic French habit didn’t become a part of their eating routine to control snacking. But this is exactly the effect it has. When practiced right, the physiological consequence is that you will no longer feel hungry between meals. This, of course, makes you consume fewer calories, which in turn makes you lose more weight. And it’s the best kept secret of the entire French approach.
Here’s what you do: After you’ve finished your lunch or dinner, wait ten minutes. If you can somehow manage to sit and relax for the eon of ten whole minutes, do that—it’s good for your digestion! If you have ants in your pants and have to do something all the time, put away the food, the dishes, and then sit back down for your ender. But the preferred method is definitely to sit and enjoy the last of your wine and the company you keep.
After the ten minutes have passed, have your ender. The ender is a calorie-dense bit of oral bliss, so keep the amount under control. Your instructions are to enjoy it, absolutely guilt-free.
I’m told so often by our PATH participants that they love the ender because it’s their signal that the meal is over. After you’ve had it, you’ll find that you don’t want any more food until dinner (or tomorrow’s breakfast) because you’ve reached the end of the meal. Think of it as a stop sign and you can create the correct mental association.
Wonderful example enders include cheeses, rich chocolates, and nuts. Liquid enders include coffee and tea. I’ll spend a little time talking about each of these.
Cheeses
Almost any cheese is rich enough to satisfy as an ender, so just choose your favorite. Brie, Camembert, or any variety t
hat has no hydrogenated oil or the words food product on the label are wonderful. If you’ve never tried these before, I recommend starting out with a basic Brie. (You don’t have to eat the rind, just trim it off if you like.) From there, you can branch off to any variety at all—although blue cheese can be a little strong for an ender, especially if you’re planning on coming within three feet of someone anytime soon.
Shop for cheese enders in specialty stores that feature a wide variety of them or in supermarkets that have their own cheese sections, where you’ll find the best ones.
As you eat the cheese, try not to use your teeth on the softer varieties and only nibble on the harder ones. Just work it over in your mouth so you can make the taste last as long as possible. This lets you enjoy the rich flavor, while keeping the amount low enough to make sure it stays healthy for you.
DO END WITH: Any rich delicious cheese that you like.
DON’T END WITH: Cheese product, cheese food, Cheez Whiz, or plastic-wrapped American singles.
HOW MUCH: Remember the rule of thumb, and have no more than two thumbs’ worth, or a piece the size of four dice.
Chocolates
The botanical name for chocolate translates as “food of the gods.” Who is really surprised by this? Chocolate makes an excellent ender—and is a favorite of the French. The key is not to settle for bulk chocolate, which can contain fillers, partially hydrogenated oils, and corn syrups. Remember, you avoid high-quantity eating when you choose high-quality foods. So get the most natural chocolate you can find—it’s much better for you.
Next, keep in mind that the part of the chocolate that’s good for you is the cocoa itself, and the part that’s bad is the fake oils and sugar. So choose a dark, natural chocolate (the darker the better). Most healthy food stores such as Whole Foods or Trader Joes will carry delicious dark chocolates from places like France and Belgium, but if your town doesn’t have a store with good varieties, you can also order any variety on the planet, online, from places such as Chocosphere (www.chocosphere.com).
When you eat your chocolate, never chew it. Chocolate melts in your mouth very slowly, which means that even a very small amount will gradually and steadily give off its flavor, leaving you with chocolate, and chocolate, and more chocolate. And after all that delicious flavor, all you will have had is one very small piece.
DO END WITH: Dark chocolate, preferably French or Belgian.
DON’T END WITH: White chocolate, light milk chocolate, anything other than solid chocolate (no candy bars, wafers, or chocolate-coated candies), or anything that contains hydrogenated oil or high-fructose corn syrup.
HOW MUCH: Two thumb-size squares.
Nuts
Eating nuts as an ender is not a French tradition, but it is an innovation that works very well. Make sure the nuts you choose are unsalted (the salty ones make you crave more). Wonderful candidates include Brazil nuts, cashews, walnuts, and almonds. By the way, in addition to helping you stave off between-meal snacking, their oils are very good for your heart.
I spoke with one woman on the phone who really wanted to make the ender work for her, and called me to troubleshoot why it wasn’t working. Her appetite was not settling down between meals and (because she was still grazing through the day) her weight just wasn’t coming off. When I asked what she was having as her ender, she simply informed me that she was doing exactly as I recommended and was having a few nuts.
“Nuts. What kind?” I asked.
“Oh, those honey-roasted Boston baked beans. They’re wonderful.” So we had to have a conversation about sugar and I pointed out that, even if you’re having healthy foods, if you’re drowning them in sugar and preservatives and Red No. 40 dye, you’re not going to make much progress! Many food products seem healthy, but you have to make sure they really are by reading the labels.
DO END WITH: The nuts you enjoy the best, as long as they are un-salted.
DON’T END WITH: Candy bars with nuts or sweetened honey-roasted varieties.
HOW MUCH: No more than the size of your palm (so you might have eight almonds, but only five Brazil nuts, for example).
Ender Drinks
A little coffee or tea serves as a wonderful ender. Especially when you’ve just had dessert—you don’t need both an ender and a dessert when you’re trying to shed pounds. Just like the rule for food enders, liquid enders can be overdone when you order, so never get the large size and never get versions with any added sugar.
Coffee, at a level of one to three small cups per day, also acts as a wonderful appetite suppressant. In addition to its healthy antioxidants, it also seems to stabilize your insulin levels. This, in fact, may help explain just how it stops between-meal cravings.
Why the Ender Works
Why does this delicious French habit work? Physiologically, the natural fiber and oils of the ender accomplish two important things for your digestion. First, they slow the rate that your stomach empties into your small intestine (where your food will be absorbed into your bloodstream). Slowing this rate down stabilizes your insulin levels because the food is absorbed more gradually. The oils also trigger hormonal satiety signals, such as cholecystokinin, which go to your brain and say, “I’m satisfied, you can stop eating now.”
That’s how the ender conquers between-meal cravings on three fronts: It becomes your mental association for the meal’s end, helps stabilize blood sugar, and sends the message of satisfaction to your brain. In fact, not only is the ender one reason the French approach leaves people satisfied without having to eat all the time, we have seen this habit help alleviate the symptoms of hypoglycemia for our clients on the PATH Healthy Eating Curriculum.
But don’t forget that you can mess this up by having too much of a good thing. In other words, the wonderful satiety effect of your rich ender can decrease if you have too much of it. When that happens, you will consistently have to eat more to get the same hunger-relieving effect. Don’t go down that path; keep your ender small to keep it healthy and effective.
Managing Between-Meal Hunger Blips
The ender becomes your bridge from one meal to the next, freeing you from nagging hunger. But even with the ender, you may still face between-meal cravings from time to time (especially in the first few weeks). You can easily manage these interim cravings, but you have to understand what they actually are because so many people misinterpret these sensations.
We’ve already talked about how much our mind overestimates true hunger and thirst. The same thing happens with your between-meal pangs. Here’s what you need to remember: Hunger comes in little waves. Its first sensations are small and last just a couple of minutes before they go away. And when they’re gone, you’re not hungry anymore.
These are authentic hunger feelings. But when you’re in the middle of a hunger blip, you normally don’t realize that it’s just passing through and lasts only a few minutes. All you know is the feeling of urgency, with delusions of spending the next few hours in a state of stomach-grinding famine. And the gnawing feeling prevents you from getting any work done, because you can’t get thoughts of the snack machine out of your head. In this little mental microcosm, your desk items start looking tasty!
Extrapolation is the problem here. You think that, because you’ve just become this hungry, you’ll get even hungrier over the next three hours before the meal. But the hunger blip lasts only a couple of minutes before you’re freed from having to launch yourself into the break room fridge. It’s just a blip.
It’s truly amazing when you get to the other side of this little hunger snag and realize that it’s gone. Where did it go? It makes you wonder if it was ever real at all. Of course the feeling was real—you felt it. But how could you be that annoyingly hungry one minute and then “not hungry at all” the next? This tells you, loud and clear, that your hunger feelings are interpretations of your body’s needs—not your body’s needs. It’s an apparition that you can let go.
Don’t leap at the ghosts of hunger. Wait them ou
t and let them pass.
Simple Solutions for Getting over Hunger Blips
Did you quit smoking by going cold turkey? If you’re this kind of all-or-nothing person with strong self-discipline, just be patient and wait out the little hunger pang. After all, you know it’s going away in a few minutes anyway. So distract yourself with your job or a conversation or a walk outside until you’ve bumped over the blip and it’s gone. This is the best-case scenario.
Another strategy, for the orally fixated, is to have a small cup of water. Health professionals say that sometimes thirst can seem like hunger, and you should drink some water when you feel hungry. Essentially, it takes three or four minutes for you to get up, get the water, and sip it. In that three to four minutes, the blip is gone anyway! It works, but may not have anything to do your thirst seeming like hunger. More likely, you’re just giving your blip a chance to fade away on its own.
At the other extreme, if you’re melting down like the witch in The Wizard of Oz, “Aahh, what a world, what a world,” and you can’t stand it anymore, by all means have a snack. Any of the enders make wonderful snacks, but you must look at this as something to get you over the blip and through the afternoon. Do not eat to fill up. After you’ve had a little something, notice when your cravings go away again.
Starting today, experiment with your between-meal blip. Everyone’s hunger profile will be different, so find out what yours is like. Time how long it lasts, and write down what you do that pulls you through it.
The French Don't Diet Plan Page 16