coach tawnee

“Restriction” and “dieting” go hand in hand, or maybe you’re not dieting per se but you’re a restrictive eater. Either way there’s a common theme: We’ll deprive ourselves to succeed in hard-to-reach (often unrealistic) goals, we’ll deny any and all cravings, we’ll swear off anything unhealthy and make “the right” disciplined choices instead. We’ll stop eating long before we feel any fullness and we’ll fill our bodies with zero-calorie fillers to stave off hunger. The more willpower we can muster up and the leaner we look in the mirror, the more in control and more victorious we feel.

But is this sustainable? No. Is it healthy? No. Is this just another form of disordered eating even if your intentions are to be lean and ripped for sport or competition? Yes. It may not be a full-blown eating disorder, but it’s very close and/or on the path to one. And it’s not something to be ignored.

Last night I spoke at the International Society of Sport Nutrition’s Annual Conference here in Phoenix, Ariz., which let me add, Arizona is so lovely this time of year with temps in the 110-120 degree Fahrenheit range. I kid. It’s miserable outside. How do local triathletes deal?!

I digress.

The first day of the conference was on female athlete health & nutrition, and among the presentations a couple personal stories were featured to highlight the reality of female athlete issues—my story and that of Michelle Arent, CISSN, who was a professional bodybuilder turned marathoner. This particular day at ISSN focused on women, but men are certainly not immune to the same issues, so whether you’re a guy or gal read on. Maybe you can even help identify someone whom is suffering to get this person back on track.

Michelle and I have different backgrounds—she on the stage flexing in tiny bikinis, me in tight tri suits busting ass on the race course for 5+ hours—but there is almost a scary amount of parallels with our fueling stories. We both suffered for years from diet restrictions—whether intentional or not—and there are a lot of common behaviors that happen when you’re over-restricting. These behaviors may seem innocent enough but they are most certainly red flags.

Click here to see Tawnee’s power point that she presented during the ISSN Annual Conference!

16 Red-Flag Behaviors

These may indicate your restrictive nature with food has gone too far and is unhealthy

1. Day-dreaming and obsessing about food all the time, especially food you wouldn’t eat or food you don’t even like (i.e. donuts). This can get to the point of interfering with things you need to get done (school, work, chores, errands, family, kids, pets, etc.).
2. Being too obsessed and concerned with calories and/or macros—these are important of course but the obsession can go way too far. Related to this:
   1. Incessantly logging your food every day in order to meet certain numbers, mostly so you can avoid going over your allowance.
   2. Measuring out anything that goes into your mouth on a food scale, measuring cup or otherwise.
3. Browsing through cooking magazines to drool over the food pics and recipes—but knowing you would never dare cook anything over which you’re drooling.
4. Watching food shows on TV, often while working out (in my case, I watched Food Network all the time on the bike trainer)—and you’re not doing it to get ideas for what to make for dinner that night if you know what I mean.
5. Spending too much time online searching for low-calorie recipes or special-diet recipes that meet your macro or restrictive requirements—and convincing yourself that these taste amazing when you know it’s not true.
6. Only eating significant meals after a hard workout, or in the evening. Another presenter at the ISSN conference discussed Junior Olympic swimmers and those with amenorrhea were often only eating 1-2 meals a day and 1-2 snacks (2100 kcal or less), with most their calories (70-90%) between 5-9pm.
7. Only indulging yourself after competitions—for bodybuilders they will starve until after their show then binge on all the food (often a lot of junk); for an endurance athlete like me the only time I would ever eat pizza, burgers, fries and rich desserts was after my races.
8. Chewing gum, drinking zero-calorie drinks or having other low-cal/no-cal supplements to create a false feeling of fullness.
9. Only going to restaurants if you research the menu first and approve of it.
10. Avoiding social invites to restaurants, parties or eating with others because you’re “afraid” of what you may be forced to eat, or what it would look like if you didn’t eat.
    1. Also, refusing to eat something if you don’t know the ingredients to the tee.
11. Eating the same foods and meals day in and day out.
12. Weighing yourself nearly every day or multiple times a day and checking your shape out in the mirror throughout the day—and being preoccupied with these things even when you’re doing something else.
13. Forcing yourself to stop eating well before you’re full or lying and saying you’re full when you’re not.
14. Having a hard time keeping yourself from binging when you let in a little of something you’ve been craving.
15. Feeling abnormally hungry all the time to the point where you’re dizzy, foggy, lacking energy or strength and having a hard time doing what you need to do. (This is not the same as a carb addiction with wild blood sugar fluctuations, this is starving yourself.)
16. Only allowing food at certain times (usually the same times every day) and looking forward to the moment when it’s feeding time on another level, i.e. you obsess and dream about it all day.

 

When To End Dietary Restrictions

If you nodded your head to a few of these or more, it’s time to rethink your approach to nutrition and fueling. As I mentioned, you may innocently not even realize that you’re dangerously underfueling and a simple calculation of determining calories in vs. calories out may get you back on track. But sometimes the mental and psychological component doesn’t make it so easy—you don’t want to add more calories and it’s not that easy to say “I burn 4k a day therefore I need to eat 4k a day.” It’s very dependent on the person, and like Michelle and I realized in our journeys, sometimes folks will reach rock bottom before you can start doing it right again—learn from us and don’t get to that point.

7 Steps To Loosening Restrictions

1. Adjust your language. Don’t label foods as “good” or “bad,” this is playing with fire by labeling certain foods with a negative connotation. Instead, you can label them as “efficient” or “inefficient” or something similar.
2. NOTHING is off the table. Heck, even if you go to a restaurant where the food is cooked in vegetable oil, you’ll survive and you’re not going to develop heart disease from isolated incidents like that. If you’re in good health you don’t need to worry about eating out every now and then and “hidden” ingredients like cooking fats. The other day I intereviewed Dr. Minkoff and this came up; he agreed and said we don’t need to live in a cave fearing what’s out there—BUT if there is a threatening health problem present like autoimmunity, diabetes or heart disease, then maybe you do need to pay a bit more intention to your food sources and ingredients.
3. Moderation is key. I prefer the 80-20 rule and lifting all food restrictions unless you have a diagnosed food allergy or sensitivity in which a medical practitioner advises avoiding said food. This approach can save you or prevent you from an eating disorder, disordered eating, all of it.
4. Allow a little freedom. Grant yourself stress-free indulgences every now and then regardless of your training, racing or competition schedule. If it’s in moderation, it won’t derail your health. Instead, something awesome happens. Not only does your mental health improve but you also free up your mind so you can focus on other more important tasks since you’re no longer day-dreaming about all the things you won’t let yourself eat.
5. Listen to cravings. While we often think of cravings as a bad thing this is not always the case. If we are not giving the body micronutrients or macronutrients it needs and/or are deficient in something it will “speak up” and let us know in the form of cravings! It’s an amazing response if you think about it. I remember having intense carb cravings when I was too low carb and training a lot around 2013, but because back then I viewed too many carbs as “bad” I would often deny those cravings or only very carefully calculate out what I would allow in—never really fully satisfying the need for that particular fuel. If there’s a craving that you just can’t shake off you may want to investigate it further—are you denying your body something it dearly needs? Interestingly, now that I’m pregnant I’ve been craving carbs more than ever in my life and I refuse deny myself anything, thus appropriately giving my body all it needs to build a human. That said, cravings when in a deficient state are very different from food addiction cravings. I discuss the latter below.
6. You don’t need to force feed. Don’t feel obligated to eat the too-sugary cake, junky casseroles or Doritos and dip at parties and holidays if it makes you uncomfortable. When you lift restrictions and enjoy a treat it should be because YOU want that food—not because you feel socially obligated or forced to eat it (sorry, we don’t mean to offend Grandma). It’s perfectly fine to politely decline a dessert or dish that doesn’t appeal to you for whatever reason—normal people with no food hang-ups do this all the time, trust me, I see it often.
7. Set the scene. If you’re still struggling, what you can do is set up your dining area like you’re preparing for the date of a lifetime—candles, dim lights, calming music, no electronic devices, and so on. Then cook yourself up a meal that used to be on the “no-no” list, sit down, and enjoy it slowly and be fully present with it. Work through ay stress responses and mentally let yourself enjoy and not feel guilty. This one works very well with my clients, and I promise if you do this enough and you will undoubtedly make progress.

 

Are Restrictions Ever Ok?

So far I’ve been highlighting the dark side of restrictive eating. But is there ever a time and place where implementing some restrictions are ok? You bet! For the right person, this approach can save your health, and even your life. That said, I don’t like to think of it as restrictions but rather as opportunities—opportunities to try new things, adopt new habits and let go of what’s harming you. It can be as simple as having guacamole and carrot sticks instead of toasted Wonder bread with jelly. Who knows, you may find new foods you never knew you loved!

When Should You Consider A Diet Transition?

1. If your BMI is above the normal range (and it’s due to being overfat not very buff).
2. If your waist circumference is half your height (also discussed on this podcast).
3. If you have poor blood sugar regulation and often have very high or very low blood sugar.
4. If you find yourself mostly craving and eating carb-based, sugar-based and refined or junk foods.
5. If you’re having trouble focusing and often dealing with brain fog related to food choices.
6. If you’re facing severe gastrointestinal problems beyond a little leaky gut.
7. Or if your diet falls into any of these categories: your definition of 80-20 is 20% healthy food and 80% “other,” you eat out a ton (and often convenience foods), and/or you’re not taking good care of yourself via nutrition and you just know a change is needed.

Food choices make a huge impact: You may feel it physically, you may see it in how you look, you may sense it in how your brain is operating, you may have intense food addictions and cravings—or all of the above. But the idea of change is scary.

I see this all the time with carb- and sugar-addicted folks. They can’t imagine any other way than fueling on bread and sugary treats, and their waistline and cognition are suffering big time. The good news is we are incredibly adaptive and in as little as two meals we can start to change our taste buds and the chemistry in our body to “get over” unhealthy food addictions and diets. Sometimes it takes up to 3-4 weeks to effectively succeed at diet transitions, and as such there will be some self-discipline required up front.

So initially, yes, we have to be strong in making a transition back to healthy eating. But instead of just laying down willpower, set yourself up for success by understanding WHY these changes and the transition is important. It’s about your health, your wellbeing, your potential as a human, and so much more. Maybe it’s about your family and kids—you want to have the energy and body to run around with them for years to come. Whatever it is for you, understand the importance.

If you’re having trouble in your diet transition, think of it this way: Life should not be a free-for-all, and a little delayed gratification builds character. In terms of diet, if your approach is a free-for-all, it will very likely end in an undesirable way that could negatively affect health and decrease your ability to know what’s good for your body—food addictions like sugar have a scary way of desensitizing us to listening to our bodies. The least you can do for yourself and for your family is treat yourself with care.

This also goes for the person who’s underfueling. It’s really the same thing, just a different side of it. If you’re chronically underfueling you’re doing yourself no good, and you’re most likely affecting your health and relationships around you—not to mention your fitness. An underfueled athlete will simply not be able to keep up over time.

If we can all land somewhere in the middle, where all the food can be on the table at some point, and you can take it or leave it without it being a huge thing, then we’ve found food freedom and a healthy approach to diet, fueling and fitness. Congrats.