Breaking Bad Eating Habits to
Lose Weight
| There is no doubt that bad eating habits can cause you to gain weight! If you want to lose weight successfully, it’s a good idea to change questionable practices that are contributing to the extra pounds! |
The simple truth is that most people get into eating routines that can span over a lifetime. Some new habits will be easy to implement while older habits may be harder to change. The good news is that once bad habits are broken, new habits are formed. You will be able do them automatically, without thinking about them.
The whole point of food is to nourish your body. It simply can’t function without food. However, your body doesn’t function well with a full gut either! There is a happy medium that must be attained if you want to lose weight! Bad eating habits are easier to break if you can remember that you should: Eat to live, not live to eat! Here’s a list of bad eating habits you may have and some tips on how to change the behaviors that lead to them. How to Break Bad Eating Habits
The Worst Bad Eating Habit - The worst bad eating habit is to have bad eating habits in the first place. Many habits are learned from family members and can be passed down from generation to generation. The only way the cycle will ever stop is for something to disrupt/interrupt the pattern. Be that generation that forms good eating habits and pass them along to your children to end the bad eating habits cycle. Couch Potato Eating – When you eat without thinking about it, you are bound to overeat. Mindfulness is always the first step to change any behavior. You need to be conscious of something before you can change it! Not eating - If you skip over meals, you signal your body to conserve fat. When there’s no fuel to burn, your brain thinks you’re starving so it signals your body to hold onto it’s reserves. (fat) Also, when you don’t eat, you also risk feeling ravenous later and overeating to satiate hunger pangs. To fuel your body correctly and to increase your metabolism, eat several small healthy meals or snacks throughout the day instead. This turns up your metabolism and helps you lose weight. Break bad eating habits by not skipping over meals! It only backfires on you! Keeping fatty foods in your kitchen – If you bring fatty foods (chips, french fries, frozen pizza’s, processed foods, breads) home from the store, you will be tempted to eat them. Why buy them if you’re trying to lose weight? Junk food may taste great but in the long haul, they are only weighing you down further. Realize that losing weight is all about the choices you make! Eating alone – People who eat alone eat more than their fair share. When you eat your meals with other people, you get wrapped up in conversation so food becomes less important because it’s typically not the focus. Boredom eating – Many people reach for a bag of chips when there’s nothing else to do. However, if you don’t keep fatty foods lurking in your kitchen cabinets, you can’t reach for them when you have free time. The easiest way to avoid this trap is to simply keep temptations out of your shopping cart from the git go! Eating on the run – Fast foods do not supply ample amount of nutrients that your body requires to create energy. They are also packed with calories and fat your body does not require to survive. American’s alone, are set to spend $175 billion in fast food restaurants this coming year. That’s a whopping lot of cash and just one bad habit you can eliminate immediately, without effort. An occasional cheeseburger is OK but if eating out is an everyday occurrence for you, you would do well to start packing your own meals and skip over the fast food craziness. Hiding food around the house – If you hide chips, cookies, candy bars or other treats in your bedroom for example, (which I am also guilty of) you are not helping with your weight loss goals. You should never fully deprive yourself though. You'll only be tempted to overindulge later! Try this trick: An occasional treat is a great way to reward yourself with any weight loss accomplishments you’ve made. Just don’t go overboard! Make eating treats the exception, not the rule. However, if you are obese, hiding foods is not a good idea under any circumstance. Hiding food may also foster other bad eating habits so until you’ve lost some weight, make hiding food tabu! Eating processed foods – Those boxes of Hamburger Helper you buy are packed full of preservatives, sodium, and have little nutritional value. You may save time fixing dinner but you’re also cheating your body of nutrition. Boxed meals are not considered to be wholesome foods. Many preservatives are toxic to your body and can cause toxins to form in your body. Fat cells surround toxins that enter your body. These are then stored in deep visceral tissue. Belly fat is one of the most dangerous signs that you need to lose weight and processed foods are a major contributor. Buying into processed foods is one of the worst bad eating habits for your health. Try this trick: Its just as easy to make your own Hamburger Helper from scratch. Boil enough macaroni noodles for 6 - 8 servings while you're browning 1 lb. hamburger. Drain off fat. Add cooked noodles to hamburger. Melt 1 T. butter with 1/4 C. milk and 2 T. Parmesan cheese or 1/4 C. cheddar cheese. Heat to melt the cheese, then blend into the macaroni and hamburger. Easy right?
Wolfing your food – Eating food too quickly is one of the worst bad eating habits. Your food is much better digested when it’s been properly broken down into smaller pieces. Also, when you inhale food, your brain can’t keep up with the contents of your stomach. It takes 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that it’s had enough. A study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that slow eaters took in 66 fewer calories per meal, but compared to fast-eating peers, they actually felt like they had eaten more. Try this trick: Sixty six calories may not sound like much but if you can slow down your food consumption at every meal throughout the year, you can lose more than 20 pounds! So simple! Eating too many simple carbohydrates – Complex carbohydrates (dried beans, sweet potatoes, long grain brown rice) stick with you because your body converts them to sugar slowly. Simple carbohydrates (donuts, white bread, white rice) raise sugar/insuliin levels really fast. They can make you feel hungry soon after you’ve consumed them. Researchers found that meals with limited carbohydrates (up to 43 percent) were more filling and had a milder effect on blood sugar than meals with 55 percent or more carbohydrates. When you eat fewer simple carbs, your body stores less fat and you're far less likely to feel hungry later. You could also try the low carb foods diet to assist weight loss plans. Not paying attention to what you eat – You can’t change any bad eating habits if you aren’t aware of what you’re eating! The key is to keep a food journal of every little bite of food (and drink) you have in a day. People who keep a food journal are much more successful at losing weight. Why? Because it forces you to pay attention to not only the quantity of the foods you consume, but also the feelings you associate with the foods you eat. Not regulating portion size and serving sizes – In order to lose weight, there need to be healthy boundaries for the amounts of food you consume. It’s not only about the type of foods you eat, it’s about the proportions of foods you consume. Super sizing anything is a super bad idea. Eating the correct portion sizes and serving sizes can make all the difference in the world to your weight loss goals. Try this trick: To keep your servings and portions in check, try eating off of smaller plates! You will think you're eating more, when you're actually eating less. Eating while watching TV – When your mind is distracted, you are more likely to overdo eating in general. In order to lose weight, you have to be mindful about what you consume! Researchers found that overweight participants who reduced their TV time by just 50 percent burned an additional 119 calories a day. That’s an annual loss of 12 pounds! Try this trick: Instead of munching while you’re watching the boob tube, try folding the laundry or sweeping the floor. When hands are occupied, you’re far less likely to overeat. Eating too many white foods – Many white foods (breads, rice, milk, potatoes) are devoid of most nutrients. Bread also contains wheat gluten’s that slow down metabolism. This is especially true for people with O Blood Type in the eating right for your blood type diet. Whole grain foods and brightly colored foods are fiber-rich foods, which improve digestion. They also have a stronger nutritional value than ordinary white foods. Focusing on food – If you think about food all the time, you will have a much harder time losing weight. Surfing around recipe sites all day only makes you hungrier! Also, if you have to run into the store to buy last minute items for last minute decisions about meals, you will be tempted to buy other foods that you don’t need. When you’re trying to break bad eating habits, less time in the grocery store works to your benefit. Try this trick: The best way to avoid last minute splurges is to plan your meals ahead of time. Weekly meal plans can help keep bad eating habits out of your house! Eating convenience foods too often – Those snack machines can look really enticing if you don’t have time for lunch and need to grab a snack but hold little nutritional value. Truly, its just as easy to bring an apple from home as it is to buy something unhealthy. Make convenience foods the exception, not the rule! Try this trick: There are some healthier choices available today in most snack machines. Do your homework though! Find out what preservatives are in the snacks that you deem healthy and avoid snacks that only pack on the pounds. High fiber snacks or cereal bars for example, are a much better choice than a candy bar. Eating the wrong foods – The more fatty foods you buy, the more likely you are to be overweight. Lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, high fiber foods, and fresh vegetables and fruits can help you shed real weight. Try this trick: Don’t buy into foods labeled as 'low fat'. They only save a few calories by replacing beneficial fats with low-performing carbohydrates. These are digested too quickly which can cause a sugar rush and rebound hunger pangs later. You can however, try a healthy low fat diet to help you shed weight!
Bad Shopping Habits that Feed Bad Eating Habits
You can’t change bad eating habits without changing your shopping habits. Here are a few things you should avoid to help you lose weight. Shopping when you’re hungry. Not making a shopping list and sticking to it. Giving into temptations or last minute purchases. Not reading labels. Not planning meals before you shop. Not adding enough vegetables and fruits to your basket. Bad eating habits can be difficult to break. Its only human nature to resist change. However, things change around you everyday. Remember that losing weight is about a mindset. It’s about creating balance in your life. The bottom line is that you can change bad habits if you have a burning desire to follow through!
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