Do small impediments stop you from eating well?
Posted by kathryn in Uncategorized
I had breakfast with a friend over the weekend.
Amidst the discussion of books, politics and mutual friends, we also talked about his diet. He’s a smart man, knows about food, earns a good income.
And yet he’s not happy with his diet.
Each day starts off well. Breakfast is sugar-free natural muesli with fruit, nuts and yoghurt. He has fruit on his desk for morning snacks and eats well at lunch.
However from mid afternoon, the health value of his eating goes down hill.
We talked about why this was and possible solutions.
His reasons ranged over the usual suspects: time, food enjoyment, shopping and planning. They were all small scale issues. None of the limitations were insurmountable and all had a relatively simple fix.
However, all these small impediments added up to him eating badly for half the day.
Small impediments
While there are often large and complex reasons why people eat badly, for many it’s the micro stuff that gets in the way.
No milk in the house, can make the difference between having breakfast and missing out. You forget your afternoon snack and end up raiding the junk food machine. Running out of crucial ingredients makes it seem easier to eat takeaway.
Individually these are not insurmountable. However put together, these small impediments overwhelm and confound our good intentions. Together they can make it seem too hard to eat well.
How to overcome small impediments
Overcoming small impediments takes a bit of problem solving and some lateral thinking.
But first you need to identify what gets in the way.
Have a think about your own diet, or what you’ve eaten over the past week. When did you eat well and when did your good intentions fall over?
The key question to ask yourself is: what specifically stopped me from eating well in that instance?
Were you missing a key food? Did you leave too much time between meals? Would you have been better off with a different food? What could you have changed to make it easier to eat well?
By thinking about it you can often see patterns in the way you eat. By thinking about it, you can come up with solutions to those small impediments. Once you’re clear about where and why your diet isn’t working, it’s much easier to come up with a solution. A way to make your diet better.
Be creative with your solutions, but don’t try to change everything at once. Instead choose one issue at a time, come up with a solution and practice doing that. Then once you’re in a routine, try changing something else.
An example from my own life
After seeing my friend I thought about my own impediments to eating well – which made me think of my hatred of stir-fries.
Don’t get me wrong stir-fries are a great meal and I love eating them. They’re quick, easy and healthy. You can add in lots of vegetables, limit the fat, include protein and still have a tasty, tasty meal.
Plus we always have tofu and vegetables in the house, which are perfect stir-fry fodder. Our mid-week meals would be better and easier to prepare if I made more stir-fries.
Instead I hate and avoid cooking them.
There are lots of reasons for this. I don’t think I cook them very well, we often run out of necessary condiments etc, etc.
But the real reason I don’t cook stir-fries is . . . I can’t stand cleaning the wok.
We have a mild-steel wok. Unlike stainless steel, it’s difficult to clean, rusts easily and requires constant seasoning. And this is enough to stop me from cooking a stir-fry.
There are some obvious answers to this problem. Telling myself to get over it and just clean the damn thing, being one of them.
Instead, thinking about this on Monday night, I hit on a much better solution. Using the elements of a stir-fry meal without actually using the wok.
Instead of stir-frying I grilled slices of tofu and steamed a huge pile of vegetables. I then whisked together a tangy dressing of pre-made Pad Thai sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil and shoyu. I drizzled this over the vegetables and tofu, sprinkled on some sesame seeds and that was dinner.
A not-stir-fry.
For me it’s the perfect solution. I now have the formula for an easy, healthy mid-week meal, which I can make in 20 minutes. And it doesn’t require me to touch the wok.
What are the small impediments that get in the way of you eating well?
Photograph by Adam Cohn under the terms of a creative commons license.
07 May, 2008
Comments
You post reminds me of one of the reasons why I don’t make stir fries much either – I used to live in a house with a lovely big grungy wok and a great place by the stove to hang it – I would love to buy a wok but don’t have anywhere to store it – I must remember though to do some stirfries in my big frypans!
Get a non stick fry pan – we have a calphalon(spelling?) one and it is great.
My impediment. I love food. I want to try everything. It is a constant challenge to stay within my limits each day. Now I am learning that i can try things from just a taste not a whole bowl. That I do actually feel better if I don’t eat so much that I feel bloated the next day. Small steps and I often stumble.
exhaustion at the end of the day is the number one reason… but also, often I crave something fattier and more substantial for an evening meal, or I pour a glass of wine and start snacking and then lose interest in cooking, or I want to try out a recipe and it’s got more fat or carbs than I know I should be eating …. like the long bean and minced pork stir-fry I did tonight…divine, chinese-style, but really, the only good thing in it was the long beans…. oh, some packaged Chinese preserved vegetables too… K.E… is there any nutrition in Chinese preserved vegetables????
Interesting post! It’s easy to see how these small impediments can add up over the long run. Thanks for the tips!
The one that gets me is when our kitchen ends up in a mess. As well as finding time to cook I then need to factor in time to clean too before I can even start on food prep which can make the whole enterprise just seem too much. My strategy at the moment is to tackle the tidying parts a bit more in advance so that a) I can cook when I want to and b) I don’t have to find one big chunk of time all at once
Great post, and a good push to get me to figure out why I’m not sticking to my plan. My 2 impediments are a) making the time to prepare my meals and snacks the night before, and b) convincing myself that I don’t need an extra “snack” with way more carbs and calories than I should have.
Kathryn, I second the idea to get a new wok. I recently traded in my old seasoned wok for a new non-stick one and couldn’t be happier with it. I’m not a fan of non-stick pans, but it seems great for this.
My impediment is having access to all the ingredients for a balanced meal. If I have it there, I will cook healthy. If I am organised and bring my lunch, I will eat healthy. Organisation is definitely the key. This week I have been planning meals and writing them up on the fridge and listing every ingredient – it seems to be working so far.
Great post. Like Liz, I have trouble with the extra snack. I never need it really, but I just have trouble staying away.
And like a few others, I definitely have trouble with preparedness. I just can’t seem to get a working list together on the weekend to plan my meals ahead of time. And then I get home from work, am too tired to go grocery shopping, and instead eat a bag of chocolate to avoid cooking.
Johanna – such a small thing and yet it’s changed your behaviour. A good example.
Sue – is Calphalon the brand? Yes I should get a new wok, but in the short-term I’m happy with my solution. Wanting to try everything that’s a common response! Knowing you can taste, without having to eat big quantities is an important step. I also kind of follow the 80 / 20 rule in eating – if 80% of what I eat is good for me, then I can be more relaxed about the other 20%.
Stephanie – wanting something fattier and more substantial in the evening could be connected to what you’re eating at breakfast and lunch. They’re not giving you the foundation you need? Exhaustion is a common one, which makes it good to have foods in the freezer. And YES preserved veg do have nutritional value. You’re losing the vitamin C, but still plenty of antioxidant goodness.
Wheeler – they do add up, often by stealth!
Sophie – I can relate to the messy kitchen syndrome. On the days I work from home I often forget to clean up after lunch. Which means the kitchen is messy before I even start on dinner – makes the task seem so much bigger.
Liz – thanks for commenting. Try to nut out what actually happens in the evening to prevent you from putting together meals and snacks. Or is this something you could do while making dinner? And make sure you’re getting the protein in there – it will help with the carb and calorie cravings.
Kalyn – there are so many kitchen items I want, which pushes the new wok down the list!
Fiona – planning and organisation are the fundamentals to eating well. In the absence of a home chef / butler / housekeeper it doesn’t just happen! The trick is trying to fit that planning and organisation into your weekly routine.
Cookinpanda – could you plan a small snack in the afternoon. Something to give the sensation of having snacked, without going too crazy. Or save part of your lunch? And maybe with preparedness you’re aiming too high? Try to get half a week’s shopping list together on the weekend? Half a week is better than none of the week.
I’m not being ego-centric, but Dietgirl has written a post about her experiences with this topic. And how she combats the impediments she’s experienced. I particularly like this quote:
The full article is here.
Sometimes I’ll consider cooking up a piece of chicken for myself for supper… and then I think about how easy it is to make popcorn instead…
I hate cleaning the garlic presser. If I can avoid using it in any way then you can bet that I will!
Sagan sounds like you have my problem. The hatred of cleaning something stops you from cooking. Do you have to use garlic? Or could you use a different method of breaking up on the garlic?
I personally never use a garlic crusher at home. Instead I place the flat side of the knife over the garlic and give it a bang with my hand. This crushes the garlic, and you can then chop it up.
I have given up on the garlic press. Too finicky to clean. I’m like you Kathryn, crush it flat with a knife and then chop it up fine. Good knives make the world of difference to food prep too!
So funny, I use my wok for everything because I hate washing saucepans! The secret to having a mild steel wok is never wash it – seriously. Once it’s seasoned (see below), unless you really burn something badly then all you need to do is wipe it out with a damp sponge. Absolutely no scrubbing and no detergents or soaps.
I bought a $15 mild steel wok from Chinatown, then I wiped it with oil and put it on my bbq wok burner outside and left it for about 45 minutes; reapplying oil whenever the smoke died down (about every 10 minutes). The wok smokes like hell, goes through all sorts of interesting colours and eventually gets to black; if you do this again the next day (or once the work is cool) even better. What you’re doing is converting a very thin layer of iron on the surface to black iron oxide, which is non stick and wont rust. Maybe once every few months I’ll do this again if I have been cooking something very acidic that is taking off the iron oxide patina of the wok, but otherwise it should be fine.
Anna: thanks for your information about preparing a wok. I’m quite enjoying my not-stir-frys at the moment. It’s a different meal, but still wonderfully tasty. You’re tempting me to overcome my wok hatred though!
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