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Our quick quiz is the first step toward developing insights into what it takes to achieve and maintain optimal weight and wellness.
I was riveted when I read the headline “What to do when not even Oprah can stay skinny?” Even with a personal chef and trainer, Oprah is given to yo-yo dieting and weight gain, I read. Then the reporter asked, “If Oprah can’t do it, who can?”
Actually, I would have asked, What’s the secret of the many women who can lose weight and keep it off? And what about women who have maintained an optimal, healthy weight throughout life without dieting? What are their strategies? And if they can do it, what does it take for the rest of us to do it, too? Our pioneering research offers a key clue: not only is overeating the No. 1 reason women become overweight and obese, we discovered seven newly identified eating styles that lead to overeating and ensuing weight gain. The antidote calls for a commitment to make your relationship with food as important as having a quality relationship with your spouse or partner, friends, family and work.
Your Personal Eating Style Profile
To help you get a better understanding of your relationship with food and eating, we created the mini-quiz, below, for you to fill out. Called “Your Personal Eating Style Profile,” each of the eight questions gives you clues into why you may overeat. As you look over the questions, ask yourself if it is time to change the way you relate to food and eating. Because, as you’ll see, weight-loss success is not just about what you put into your body—it also includes eating styles that consider how, why, where, and with whom you eat.
To get a sense of where you are now, write in the number (0, +1, +2, etc.), next to each question, that fits your current eating practice.
POSITIVE SCORING
Never 0
Rarely +1
Sometimes +2
Usually +3
Almost Always +4
Always +5
1. I savor the scent of food when eating. +_____
2. I eat fresh vegetables. +_____
3. I eat in pleasant surroundings. +_____
4. I eat with friends or family. +_____
POSITIVE Sub-total Score +______
NEGATIVE SCORING
Never 0
Rarely -1
Sometimes -2
Usually -3
Almost Always -4
Always -5
5. I overeat. -_____
6. When I overeat, I feel guilty. -_____
7. I overeat when I feel anxious. -_____
8. I eat in my car. -_____
NEGATIVE Sub-total Score -____
For your total score, tally your positive and negative scores, above, separately. Then subtract your negative sub-score from your positive sub-score. Your TOTAL SCORE may be either positive or negative.
TOTAL Personal Eating Profile Score_____
Evaluating Your Score
16-20: Excellent. Congratulations! The “excellent” level sets a high standard in terms of an optimal relationship with food. This means you have achieved mostly positive food-related behaviors and your experiences with food are typically healthful and fulfilling.
12-15: Very Good. You’re doing fairly well! To achieve a “very good” score is quite an accomplishment, because it means that more often than not, your eating behaviors and experiences around food are positive and beneficial.
9-11: Good. A “good” score suggests your relationship with food and eating is more positive than challenging—but that there’s room for improvement. You may have some conflict around food, and would benefit by improving your relationship to it.
6-8: Fair. Falling into the “fair” category suggests that you include both positive and negative eating behaviors in your relationship to food and eating. Positive behaviors are included in your everyday relationship, but sometimes, you turn toward negative eating choices and habits.
3-5: Poor. A “poor” score means you’re choosing positive eating behaviors and experiences just a little more often than negative behaviors and experiences. A “poor” score suggests you may be finding it difficult to eat optimally.
0-3: Very Poor. A “very poor” score means your relationship to food and eating is most typically negative and unpleasant. You probably want to make improvements, but aren’t sure how to go about changing your food choices and eating behaviors from mostly negative to positive.
-11 - -1: Awful. An “awful” score means that poor food choices and health-robbing eating behaviors and experiences characterize your relationship with food. Your overall relationship is far from optimal, and you would benefit by deciding that you do, indeed, want to improve your relationship with food.
As the quiz suggests, if there’s a secret to achieving and maintaining optimal weight and wellness, it’s realizing that all aspects of your relationship to food and eating count. In other words, the more you practice positive eating styles, the more you’re likely to achieve and maintain normal weight. The opposite also applies: if you have a mostly negative relationship to food and eating, you increase the odds of overeating and being overweight or obese. The choice is yours.
If you want to know more about how to optimize your relationship to food, our book, The Enlightened Diet: 7 Weight Loss Solutions That Nourish Body, Mind, and Soul, offers our complete questionnaire. It also includes a comprehensive Program that gives you the insights you need to optimize your relationship to food and eating, and ultimately, your weight and well-being. You’ll also discover more in “The Enlightened Diet: 7 Strategies for an Optimal Relationship with Food,” the next article in our “Women and Weight” series.
Copyright © 2009 by Larry Scherwitz and Deborah Kesten
Deborah Kesten, MPH, and Larry Scherwitz, PhD, are certified wellness and cardiac coaches, who specialize in preventing, halting, and reversing overeating, overweight, and obesity and heart disease. They are also international lifestyle and nutrition researchers and award-winning authors. Visit them at www.Enlightened-Diet.com to take their FREE and complete 72-item What's Your Eating Style? quiz, and to learn more about them and their Coaching and Optimal Eating programs.
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