When talking to a client recently, she cited the hardest thing about meal preparation is trying to think of food as only fuel, not pleasure.  Hold the phone—what?? This made me very sad!  I was also struck with the realization that I have not been clear in my message to clients.  You absolutely can associate food with pleasure and still lose weight.  In fact, it is a necessity if we are to create a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable in the long term.  Here’s why:

1. Eating food is one of the basic human pleasures—take that away and what do you have left? It is important to be mindful of the tie between emotions and over eating.  When eating is your primary coping mechanism you are stuck in an unhealthy cycle of not addressing feelings (Smith, et.al, 2017)However, for most people, food needs to be appealing for them to eat it day in and day out.  According to Marc David, founder of The Institute for the Psychology of Eating,...