You are about to put of a fork full of food in your mouth….do you ever stop and ask yourself…”why am I eating this?”
The first step in making any change in your nutrition or behavior is to find out why you are doing what you are doing. Do you keep going for coffee and sweets at 3pm because you are having major emotional cravings? Or is it because it is easy, convenient and tasty? Do you always go for vegetables at lunch because you love the taste? Or is it because eating more vegetables makes you feel healthy and strong?
A small study was recently conducted where individuals had to tweet photos of their food for three days and add a hashtag associated with that food. People could add something as simple as #protein or #grains or explain the reason they were eating their food such as #social, #taste or #convenient. The study found convenience and cost to be the main motivators in the participant’s reason behind their food choices.
Now I am not the most techy of gals – in all honesty, I am still a bit confused as to what Twitter is in many ways…but this study does make me wonder how our attitudes and relationships around food would change if we tried this exercise. Would your behaviors change if you had to think through the “why” before each meal?
#Convenience – If the main reason you eat certain foods is due to their convenience, are you doing what you need to do to take care of yourself? Yes, your food is easy but how do you feel about your health? Could you do a smidge of planning to get things to move a little more in your favor?
#Social – I love being a social butterfly too but it can get dangerous if you eat at every function. Could you eat before you go to an event? Could you drink a bit less? Could you choose the restaurant next time so you can get what you want?
#Health – What if you were confident the foods you were eating were making you healthier and happier? Imagine how tasty each bite would be?
What would your most common hashtag be? Any of you want to try this for a day or two? Shoot me an email and lets make it happen. It would be quite a reality check!
#setyourselfupforsuccess