Do you stay on target with your weight loss goals all week, and then come Shabbat feel like you undo all of your progress?
You are not alone; so many of my clients struggle with the very same thing. After all, we are told we should eat three full meals on Shabbat, and the food should be plentiful and tasty. Along with praying, resting and spending time with family and friends, eating is a top priority.
The priority placed on food on Shabbat makes it a very challenging day not to overdo it. Below are five strategies to help you both enjoy your food intake on Shabbat and head into the week feeling like you have not sabotaged your progress.
- Tastes, licks and bites while you are preparing for Shabbat count. Eating while cooking can add up to an extra 500+ calories. Be mindful if you are nibbling while cooking. Instead, sit down and have a meal on Friday with protein, fiber and healthy fats.
- Don’t go into Shabbat starving (10/10 on the hunger scale), but ready and excited to eat your Shabbat meal (6/10 on the hunger scale). If you go into Shabbat starving, once you make Hamotzi, the challah doesn’t stand a chance.
- Taste your food and eat mindfully. Of course you are going to taste your food when you are eating it, but I mean really pay attention to tasting your food. You take the time to say a bracha before eating, so also take the time to appreciate and enjoy how the food tastes. So many times we are on autopilot; challah, soup, meat, kugel. When we slow down and really appreciate what we are eating, it makes us more mindful of our eating and allows our body to more naturally feel our fullness cues.
- Kiddush shouldn’t be Shabbat’s fourth meal. Whether you are having kiddush at shul or at home, consider it an appetizer versus another meal. What does that mean? Choose a small bowl of cholent, or a piece of potato kugel, or a plate of fish. I tell all of my clients that at a kiddush and smachot, be a “food snob.” Don’t settle for the bottom of the cholent pot that has been picked over by everyone in the shul. Remember #3, taste your food, don’t just eat the cholent because that is what you usually do. Choose one thing that looks and tastes the best to you, enjoy it and move on.
- Create mental check-ins with yourself when you are sitting at the Shabbat lunch table. Think about your Shabbat lunch; you have a piece of challah, make yourself a plate and then sit at the table way longer than you typically would during the week. This leads to eating even when you aren’t hungry. And remember, tastes, licks and bites count! Instead of going back for a second plate without thinking about it, sit for 10 minutes and then assess if you are feeling full. An effective tool is getting up from the table momentarily or having a cup of tea to create a pause in the automatic behavior of going back for more food. After that 10-minute pause, you can more accurately assess how full you are feeling and if you indeed want more. You have now taken an automatic behavior of going for more food and made it more mindful.
When your goal is weight loss, your focus on Shabbat should not be restriction but rather finding balance with enjoying the delicious food and the festive Shabbat environment without overdoing it. The only way to do this is to be more intentional with your choices and aware of how full you are feeling.
Like any other mindful practice, mindful eating takes time and patience. There will be some Shabbats when you are able to enjoy the food more mindfully and other times when it will be more of a challenge. The most important thing to remember is that both are opportunities to learn and hone your mindful eating skills. Shabbat Shalom!
Alyson Small is a registered dietitian who helps women achieve a sustainable weight loss of 10 pounds or more without food rules or an all-or-nothing mindset. Once an avid follower of food rules, she realized that eating more balanced and mindfully was the key to a healthy diet and food freedom. You can follow her on instagram @alysonsmallnutrition for more nutrition tips, recipes and freebies.
