How to Keep a Check on Your Eating Habits

Getting up at midnight to steal a delicious slice of your favorite choco-caramel cake; mindlessly chewing your way through the latest episode of that sitcom; stuffing yourself full till you hear that satisfactory burp at the end.

These are only some of the things that most of us can be held guilty of. When it comes to food, and good food, we seem to forget everything that we have been told; whether it be about the importance of a balanced diet, eating healthy and wholesome food or bettering our eating habits.

How to Keep a Check on Your Eating Habits

So let’s do a quick re-run to remind ourselves of how to keep a check on our eating habits:

Pen it down

Sometimes, facts have to be in black and white for you to believe it. So we suggest you get a pen and a paper and write down what you ate and drank during the day and make a note of the calorie count of each either by reading labels or looking it up on the internet. Becoming more mindful of what goes inside your body can be an important step in becoming conscious and aware about your eating habits and realizing how you can improve them.

Curb your cravings

Let’s be honest. We aren’t even hungry half the time that we are craving something. Sometimes our cravings are psychological and sometimes physiological. Every time you hear ‘movie night, you are conditioned to want pizza- a classic rendition of Pavlov’s dog experiment. Well, spot the pattern and take a conscious step towards breaking it. When you know the ‘why’ to your cravings it becomes that much easier to break it.

Alternately, your craving might be triggered by a physiological condition; such as craving for salty food after an intense workout session, where you have, understandably, lost a lot of salt through your sweat. Be clever and carry some vegetable chips with you so that you don’t have to turn to the French fries.

Take Well- Planned Baby Steps

Trying to do too much too soon can be counter-productive. Make a realistic, logical plan and set yourself small goals or introduce minor changes, gradually, so that you can get accustomed to the changes.

Eating without any distractions, using mustard as a spread instead of mayo, cutting down on sugary drinks, trying portion control or new methods of cooking like grilling and baking are some small changes that can go on to make a big change eventually.

Additionally, planning adequately in order to accommodate these changes is also important. How will you exercise portion control? Will you avoid second helpings or fill up half your plate? How will you increase your intake of fruit and ensure that you don’t skip breakfast? Will you take a fruit to office and keep milk and cereals handy so that you can make yourself a quick breakfast? Plan it out.

Keep the right things around

This can be a great cheat code that you can use to get on the path to the right eating habits. Keep the right things around you.  Keep a lot of fruits, vegetables and whole grains at your home and pack yourself a healthy lunch for work. Keep a bottle of water by your side and set a reminder to drink it from time to time.This automatically puts a control on your eating habits.

Adding healthy components to your everyday diet can be an easier step than taking out the unhealthy ones.