Weight Loss for People Who Feel Too Much by Colette Baron-Reid

be eating that? Just saying.
    Eat lots of fresh food, and make most of your food plant based.
    If you’re not a vegetarian or vegan, and you choose to eat fish, poultry, meat, and dairy, eat cleanly. Avoid processed meats and cheeses, and as mentioned, buy organic foods whenever possible. You’ll learn later why I recommend not eating factory-farmed meat or dairy products at all, but you don’t have to be a vegan or vegetarian for this weight-loss plan to work. I have gone through periods of being strict vegetarian, then vegan, and now I feel better eating fish; I will have grass-fed humanely slaughtered beef a couple times a month. It’s personal for each of us. For now, just eat simply and concentrate on eating mostly plant-based foods that contain no additives and eating cruelty free.
    Go ahead have some fruit, and if you like fruit juice, drink it in moderation—just a few ounces a day (you can mix it with water) so you don’t take in too much sugar at once. Just be honest with yourself; if you are drinking lots of juice because you crave the sugar, cut down or cut it out altogether. I love carrot and beet juice. Of course, I do! It has the highest sugar content of any vegetable juice. Be aware of your choices.
    Second-Best Eating and Off Days
    If you normally use sugar as a sweetener, try to go without. If you can’t, use a little maple sugar or syrup, dark agave sugar, stevia, or unprocessed honey (don’t use fake sugars like Aspartame). Using healthy sugars, eating some processed foods, chowing down on white pasta, and having a latte or a cocktail isn’t strictly forbidden, but it is second-best eating. You can do better—try to avoid these foods completely. Coffee? Tea? Green Tea is your best option, but if you’re like me and love your coffee, buy organic coffee and make it at home; and if you can, make it with alkaline water to cut down on the acid in it (more on that later).
    That said, you are going to have off days, when you just have to grab for cookies, chips, candy, cake, or other comfort foods to deal with feeling too much. These are not “Faturdays,” as my girlfriend Jennifer calls them: “cheat days” when you plan in advance to eat a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. These are the days when you don’t just sneak a latte with a tablespoon or two of sugar, you eat a huge frosted sugar cookie or a candy bar (or two or three) furtively in the bathroom when no one is looking—or you pretend you’re sick so you don’t have to go out with others, preferring a good old-fashioned binge in the comfort of your own home. But it doesn’t count if no one sees it and I eat over the sink. Wrong!
    On these days, when you recognize you’re about to eat a food that’s on your “avoid” list, ask yourself, Is this what I really want right now? If the answer is no, abstain. If the answer is yes, go ahead and eat a small portion of that food on a plate or napkin or in a cup or bowl. Do this even if you bought it from the gas station checkout display or a vending machine at work. Having comfort food once in a while isn’t bad or wrong—it’s how you eat it. A great rule of thumb is this: if you can’t eat it in public, right out loud and in front of people, and you only want to eat it when no one’s looking, it’s not the right choice. That would be a no .
    To maximize your chances of sticking to at-your-best eating, don’t skip meals, be sure you have access to healthy foods when you’re likely to be hungry, and eat mindfully. Serve yourself the food, sit for a moment, and either do the Landscape of Your Hunger exercise described earlier in this chapter or go through the steps of “how to eat” before you take a bite. The more off-days you have, the more important it is to slow down and work with the exercises in this book, which will help you melt away your resistance to changing your