Addicted to snacks? How to stop snacking so much

 

Have you gotten into the habit of snacking too much? Are you snacking mindlessly throughout the day? Are you still snacking after your lunch or dinner? Maybe you're snacking when bored, or snacking at work?

Does boredom make you head to the fridge and take out the ice cream tub? You finish one bowl and before you know it, the entire tub is over!

Did that one chip you took out to munch turn into the entire bag of chips?

The pandemic has got us all feeling very worried and uncertain. If you're anxious, tired or experiencing strong emotions, you might actually tend to eat more and there's even a term coined for this- Emotional eating. 

Emotional eating is something we resort to, even when we're not hungry but instead eating just to feel better. This happens especially when we feel stressed out, nervous, anxious or even lonely. 

And each of us have our own variety of "comfort foods"- foods that can instantly make us better. Most comfort foods are either very sweet or salty or fatty because these tend to trigger the pleasure centres in our brain, which can make us feel instantly better by reducing stress and improving the mood. Generally cravings are for ice cream, chocolate, candy, chips, etc- no one really craves for cucumber.

Once you get into the habit of snacking incessantly or emotional eating, it tends to have bad health effects. You might start feeling lethargic, put on weight and increase your blood cholesterol levels too! Combined with a sedentary lifestyle, it can have devastating effects for your fitness.

Here are some tips to counter the excessive snacking and to help you overcome emotional eating.

1) Wait till you're hungry before you eat

With all the snacking, we might have forgotten the sensation of what it feels to be when you're hungry. As an experiment, wait to see whether you're really hungry before you reach out for the snack. You might find that you can do without that snack after all.

2) Hungry or thirsty?

Don't mistake thirst for hunger. Have a glass of water before you reach out for a snack. What could be dehydration is often mistaken for hunger. Dehydration can make you feel sluggish and exhausted.

And when you eat foods high in sodium, you might feel more thirsty.

3) Follow regular meal and sleep times

Go to bed and get up at the same times. Avoid the temptation to press the snooze button and get out of bed at the same time.This will normalize your Circadian rhythm and your lifestyle.

Follow regular meal times for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don't skip your breakfast because this will disrupt your body's rhythm and will end up in feeling hungry. Your breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Have a hearty breakfast like oatmeal that will keep you full for longer and will stop you from reaching out for snacks. Try to have an early dinner- eat your dinner before 8pm and better still at 7pm.

Time your snacks- a mid-morning snack between breakfast and lunch and an evening snack between lunch and dinner will tide you over.

4)  Substitute for healthy snacks 

Instead of processed snacks, try to substitute them for healthy snacks. Choosing snacks with some protein in it like nuts, hummus or peanut butter will help you feel full for longer.

Here are some options for healthy snacks.

- 1 medium banana, apple or pear

- 50 g unsalted nuts

- 2 wholegrain toast with hummus

- 3 or 4 dried figs

- 1 small steamed sweet potato

- 1 small square of dark chocolate

- 1 serving of unsweetened low fat yogurt topped with berries 

- a slice of watermelon

5) Do something you like

Find something else to do that will trigger your pleasure centre. Whether it is to take a walk outdoors or to listen to some music, try to distract your mind instead of thinking about food.

 If you're bored and don't know what to do, this might act as a trigger to eat snacks at different times of the day. Instead of feeling bored, try to take up a hobby which you really enjoy doing like drawing or painting. Or else, call up your loved ones and have a chat.

 

 

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