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Hey everyone, Mikki here. You're listening to Mini mikkipedia on a Monday. And today I wanna chat about a few of the behavioral things that you can do that allow you to continue to adhere to your diet plan and assist in fat loss. Obviously what you eat really matters because if you're not eating in a calorie deficit, prioritizing protein, it's gonna make it a-

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more difficult in the long run for you to effortlessly lean out and sustain your weight loss approach. But how you eat is really important as well. And other things on the periphery of your diet can impact how your body responds to food. So if you're in this position where you feel you're doing all of the right things, yet you have sustained hunger despite the fact that

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you're eating a lot of what appears to be a lot of food or a lot of volume, or if you're not able to shift body fat but you feel you're doing everything right, then some of these things might be helpful for you, or at least give you a little bit more guidance as to things to think about. So the first one is pretty obvious, but it's something gets lost, I think, in the way that we live our lives. It's don't be distracted when you eat. It really matters.

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that your brain is in tune with what's going on with your mouth. So if you are eating in the car on the way from a meeting to, I don't know, the gym or in between meetings for eating your lunch in the car, if you are clearing emails whilst having breakfast, if you are sitting on the couch having dinner whilst watching TV, all of these environments, they're not necessarily going to lead you to eating more.

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but they definitely can. And one of the reasons is because our brain isn't in tune with what's going on with our mouth and our stomach. So it can change the speed with which you eat. It can also change your hunger signals. So despite the fact that you're eating, your brain isn't really engaged in the process. When this happens as well, you don't enjoy your food nearly as much, and it's very easy

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not get that sort of pleasure or that sensation that you've eaten, and then you just want to eat more. So outside of the fact that it feels like you haven't eaten at all because your brain wasn't engaged, you might not even enjoy the food that you're eating because you're not fully appreciative of that particular meal. Now, obviously there are factors of the meal which can obviously change that last point, but the reality is that weight loss is so much more

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easier when you are satisfied with what you eat. And if you are distracted the majority of time when you sit down to a meal or you're not even sitting down to a meal, then it makes it hard for your brain to fully appreciate you've actually had food on board. So try not to be distracted when you eat. And some of this is just setting some, you know, sort of guardrails around your meals.

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suggest to clients is to never eat standing up. If you eat standing up, then you are more likely to be, for example, in the kitchen in front of the pantry or the fridge, or you are picking when you are preparing meals. So by ensuring that you're sitting down at a table, then it takes away a lot of the times where you would otherwise be grabbing something to eat, but not really sort of engaged in the process. It makes sense, right, as well.

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not to eat in front of the TV, or whilst you are in a work-based setting, or you're travelling in a car because your brain is occupied with other things and it's not fully engaged in that eating process. Therefore, those satiety signals that are sent when you do actually consume food, they will get lost a little bit along the way and you're less likely to experience that same satisfaction.

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So try as much as possible, if you are someone that is struggling with hunger in your fat loss approach, try as much as possible to be really mindful when you do eat, to sit down and enjoy those three meals that you're having, because that is going to change the signals that your brain is getting around the food that you're eating and you'll be far more likely to be satisfied. And,

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therefore less likely to want to continue to eat after your meal is done. Something else which is related to this is how much you chew. Some of the research in this area does suggest that you chew for this quite a long period of time, like take 32 bites, or sorry chew each bite 32 times, which to me is a tiny bit excessive to be honest. However, if you ask someone that shovels down your food

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then this is definitely something to bear in mind. Like the whole process of eating begins, or digestion begins in the mouth. And if you don't chew your food properly and you just swallow it, then you're less likely to break it down to the extent that you need to fully extract those nutrients from that food. And part of overeating can, or inability to be successful with the diet.

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is the lack of nutrients in your diet as well, or you're not able to digest or absorb properly the nutrients that you eat. If you chew your food well, maybe not 32 times, but hey, can you do 20 for each bite, then you're much more likely to extract those nutrients and less likely to overeat because your body is sensing this nutrient deficiency. But importantly as well, it does come down to the speed with which you eat.

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And again, this goes back to that first point about not being distracted. If you're shoveling food in and you finish your meal within 10 minutes, your brain just has not kept up with the speed of food going in. So you can really be at much more risk of overeating and therefore make it harder to eat in a calorie deficit. So try to be really mindful when you are eating.

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to chew your food properly and really break it down and then take your next bite. And part of the skill of this, I think, to stop shoveling down your food is to pop down your cutlery between each bites because that way you're not in the habit of consistently bringing your fork up to your mouth and then forcing you to swallow the food that's in your mouth so you can put that next sort of lot in. You've got to get out of that sort of shoveling motion. So if...

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between each bite, you're putting down your knife and fork, you at least give yourself that pause or that space to chew your food properly, and then you can take your next bite. So that's another thing that I suggest you do. Another thing related to eating behavior is not to drink with meals. And again, this is related to that last point that I suggested is that it's really easy to sort of wash down your food and not chew it properly. So oftentimes,

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Drinking with meals sort of takes away from the proper sort of digestion process of chewing your food properly. So try not to drink with meals either. Of course, drinking before a meal is fine. Drinking after a meal actually is fine. In fact, drinking before a meal has been shown to reduce calorie intake overall. But drinking with a meal...

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might discourage you to chew your food properly and you'll just wash it down. So I would suggest having your fluid before or after you eat. And you might find that this also allows you to slow down when you're eating. It forces you to chew your food properly and then having the liquid or the drink of water before your meal allows you that

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additional feeling of satisfaction that can actually result in additional weight loss as well. And there's actually some quite good research to show and support that premise. Something else which I think you could instigate and it would almost kill two birds with one stone is going for a seven minute walk after your meals. I chat to a lot of people who feel they don't have the time to go for a 30 minute walk.

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To be fair, I'm just going to be blunt, 30 minutes walking for most people shouldn't be considered as exercise. It should just be movement and creating steps. For fat loss, you really need to do more. Your best physique will not be built by walking. Let's just say that. However, it can be challenging, as I said, for some people to sort of put that 30 minute window in. They're not able to see how they can do that in order to get the steps that they need. So, if you instigate,

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A seven minute walk after each meal, you'll kill two birds with one stone. First bird is the one that I've been talking about. You'll get your steps up, that incidental activity that helps sort of boost your overall metabolic work, which is great. You want to be burning some more calories. And oftentimes that incidental activity is one of the first things to go when you're in a calorie deficit. Second, though, it does change your post-Prandial glucose response.

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Postprandial refers to post meal. So if you eat a meal and then you go for a walk, your blood sugar is in much better control than if you are not active. And part of the challenge, if you like, of any sort of dietary approach is your ability to maintain stable blood sugar and to avoid wild fluctuations. Because we know that that's related to appetite, it's related to overall metabolic health.

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It's related to glucose disposal as well. If we can instigate walks after a meal, then you'll get and I'm talking fairly brisk sort of seven-minute walk. It'll allow for digestion, so that's great. If you feel hungry after you've finished eating, it'll give your brain the opportunity to catch up with your stomach and your eating.

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it'll lower your overall blood sugar response and balance that out. So if you can avoid a peak of blood sugar after eating, then you avoid the inevitable crash that occurs afterwards. So obviously food choice plays a big role in this as well, but we know that eating after a meal also does. And this is like a recommendation that's been born out of research that has shown that

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glucose is much more stable if you walk after a meal. So I would definitely suggest that to be one of the things that you do because of the benefits that I've just discussed. Now with regards to food order, this is also another really important point and it can really make a difference. And look, I know that we eat mixed meals and oftentimes you're eating forkfuls of all these things in one bite, which is fine, of course. But

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If you are noticing that you struggle with hunger, then do try to eat your protein first. Eat your protein first, then eat your vegetables, and then save the carbohydrate for last. There are people out there who love to do it the other way around. They love saving the best bit, like the protein, to the end of their meal, and that's fine. But if you're super hungry, try doing it the way that I've suggested.

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takes longer to digest. There's a higher metabolic cost to digesting protein. So these things make it favorable. Ensuring that you're chewing it properly, as I've mentioned, will also sort of elongate the meal a little bit longer. And then, of course, you'll have the vegetable fiber afterwards. Both protein and fiber help stabilize blood sugar, and both of these also lower that postprandial glucose response. And then by the time you do get to your carbohydrate,

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you'll be way less likely to overeat that. And so, this is obviously if you're including carbs in your meal, and the blood glucose effect will be lessened because you've had the protein and vegetable fiber first. And overall, this can result in eating less calories and helping with that fat loss effort. Again, if you're having absolutely no problems with losing weight and your fat loss approach and you're doing everything the opposite way around,

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This is obviously not something that impacts, will necessarily impact on your appetite. But we know that from an appetite perspective and blood sugar perspective, this is something which can really help some people. Oftentimes, people eat without really thinking about why they're eating. They just eat, right? And a lot of emotional eating can come up in this space. So writing down what you feel before and after eating.

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can go a long way to helping you understand better about what's going in and why. And it can also give you that reflective pause before you actually eat. And oftentimes that pause is all that you need, right? You know, if you're putting together a meal, and then if you just take a few minutes writing a note either on some pen and paper or notes on your phone, and just sort of write down how you're feeling. Are you eating because you are hungry? And you're really looking forward to the...

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the meal? Are you eating because you are bored and want a distraction from whatever's going on around you? Are you eating because you've got a really highly demanding task and you're trying to distract yourself from that? Are you eating because you're upset or angry? All of these things will help you understand better about what's going in your mouth, even if you don't necessarily change what you're doing. And then subsequent to that, write down how you feel

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after you eat? Do you feel stuffed? Are you just satisfied? Are you still hungry? Are you annoyed at yourself because you ate and you weren't really hungry to begin with? Like, all of this stuff just gives you data and intel into the eating process. And it, of course, it all sounds like work, but changing your diet is not easy, right? So, having these things in place that allow you to better understand why you eat will only make it easier for you to make

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better decisions that allow for your fat loss to be more successful if you're struggling in this area. It doesn't take a lot to write down how you feel before you eat. So always look at this as just sort of gaining more insight into your behavior and your decisions. I would also say what also really works is taking a picture of your food before you eat it, then actually looking at the picture. This in fact gives you almost like a different perspective on the volume or amount.

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I can't tell you the number of times, because of course I take my pictures of my food all of the time, whereas I look at it and like, oh yeah, that's a plate. Then I take a picture of the food, and then as I'm uploading it to Instagram, I'm like, wow, that's a ton of food actually. So it can give you a different perspective to the amount that you're eating, and that might then, in combination with some of these other things I've mentioned, like chewing your food properly, putting your fork down between bites, not drinking the meal.

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can maybe help you reduce the amount you're eating if you don't necessarily need to eat that amount. And then finally, this is related to food intake, absolutely, but what's your sleep like? You know, if you are struggling a whole lot with hunger and you are going through a terrible time with your sleep, that is only gonna make things worse and is a likely contributor to your overall hunger. Even one night of sleep deprivation increases

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your cortisol and insulin to a point where you might look insulin resistant actually. When you're insulin resistant, your cells aren't getting the energy they need, so your brain gets that hunger signal. And we know that cravings go up, blood sugar is dysregulated, hunger goes up after a night of poor sleep. In addition to that, your feedback reward system in your brain is enhanced when you

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eat the foods that you crave as well. So you may derive more pleasure from them and that is only going to further exacerbate those cravings. Your energy and motivation to exercise is reduced after a night of poor sleep. That is going to change your hunger signals and appetite. And all of these things do matter for your fat loss approach. So if you are taking care of your food, if you are ensuring that you're exercising,

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But if you're ignoring your sleep and your hunger is suffering for it and your diet is a grind, then that is definitely something to think about as well. And look, sleep is one of the first things to go, to be fair. So those are just some tips for anyone who is struggling with their hunger or their fat loss approach. And hopefully there may be one to three or four things that you can think about that in addition to your awesome protein-centric, abundant vegetable diet.

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you can pop in place to help for a smoother ride with your fat loss approach. Now, just to remind you, I have my master class running this Sunday, 7th of April, 2pm NZT, all about the hierarchy of hormone support. We're going to be talking about blood tests to get. We're going to be talking about the changes that occur. We're going to be talking about supplements that help and diet approaches that help. And we'll also give you...

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A bit of a frank, my frank take on why you're getting so many mixed messages from all the experts, and also how to delineate what is the approach that's going to work best for you. So we are covering all of this. If you can't make it live, it is being recorded and I will send it out. I've already got some really great questions from you if you've already registered and I will absolutely be addressing them. And there will be time for questions on the call as well. It is $37.

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How much money do you spend on supplements a month for your hormone health and feel like you're not getting anywhere? $37 for this session is a bargain. We'll put links in the show notes as to how to sign up to the webinar because I know that you will want to. But also of course, DM me about it and I can send you the link. I'm over on Twitter, threads and Instagram @mikkiwilliden Facebook @mikkiwillidenNutrition, or head to my website, mikkiwilliden.com.

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and you can see the pop-up box that comes when you click on my website. So I would love to see you there and enjoy your week. See you later.