5 Major Tips To Stop Bad Eating Habits Permanently
Diet is a big struggle for most people, especially those trying to lose weight. We all at least have some what of an idea of what a good food choice is and what a bad food choice is, but there’s one obvious element to diet that no one really talks about. That element is the psychology behind your food choices.
There are 5 major tips to stop bad eating habits and if you do them long enough, you can get rid of these habits permanently.
- Prioritize the right foods
- Make good food choices more available
- Time your meals in your favor
- Setup a reward system
- Study what is motivating your eating habits
Prioritize The Right Foods
Just simply cutting out the bad food from your diet doesn’t work so well for most people, and even if it works, it doesn’t work for very long. The reason this fails is because just removing things creates this empty void which eventually leads to intense food cravings. To avoid this pitfall, try eating in order of priority.
Eat the most beneficial foods first and the least beneficial foods after. An example of this could be having a meal packed with fruit, veggies, raw nuts, seeds, high fiber grains, and legumes. Afterwards if you’re still having a craving for the not so beneficial food craving, indulge…a little.
Keep Good Choices On Deck
People tend to make bad food choices simply out of convenience. Stopping off at a fast food spot is way more convenient than cooking your ideal meal. Those of us with busy exhausting schedules are at the highest risk for this, but there is a simple solution to this. Keep good food choices handy wherever you go, this is even more important for people following a vegan plant based, or at least trying to.
Ideally you should be packing your food daily, but for the times that you might have dropped the ball on that, bring filling snack foods that you can just grab and go. These snacks can be simple foods like cashews, almond butter, a bag of apples, dried fruit like dates, some pre-packed carrots and celery with hummus on the side. These are just a few things that you can keep on hand to hold you over until you can get to your ideal meal.
Time Your Meals In Your Favor
One of the worse things you can do is wait until you’re starving to decide what to eat. Get into the habit of planning your meals at least a day in advance. This premeditated approach to diet is going to give you a new level of control over your eating habits that you’ve never had before. I’ve put together an article on meal prep. Check that out here!
Setup A Reward System
Developing all this discipline over your diet and can feel like a real chore at times, and can even be a bit discouraging. You need a way to keep your morale up and stay in the game, so you may want to start thinking about setting some sort of reward system for yourself. The most typical method to this is the “cheat meal”. Basically a cheat meal is that one weekly meal where you allow yourself to eat the things you’ve been cutting out. The problem with the cheat meal is that it can end up becoming a cheat weekend and even the cheat week!
I’ve found a better approach to be a daily reward at the end of the day after you’ve stuck to your meal plan. Have those 4-5 cookies, or that donut at the end of the day, but only after you’ve eaten all the good stuff first. Doing this will make the challenge of impulse control easier because you’ll have something exciting to look forward to.
Study What Is Motivating Your Eating Habits
Its all about self awareness here. What eating habits are you trying to overcome? Now study and identify the mindset that is driving those habits. What is happening in your life when you follow these habits? A lot of us are emotional eaters, but you don’t have to beat yourself up about it. You just need to first practice awareness deliberately and then make the lifestyle changes that are going to help you develop the emotional discipline you need.
If a certain environment is triggering bad eating habits, get out of that environment, or develop a way to protect yourself in it. If a certain person, or people are triggering bad habits, get some distance. At the end of the day you need to develop a solid mindset and protect it. I’ve saved this solution for last because it is the best, but the catch is that it can be the most challenging one.
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