It’s a simple fact of everyday life, but each day we all make a decision on what we are going to eat, and want to eat, but many others have no idea about how we should choose how much we should actually eat.
To some extent, everyone has at some stage been guilty of unhealthy eating, whether that’s junk food or a bar of chocolate. These urges may simply be caused by hidden cues persuading us to eat too much of the wrong food.
If you can increase your awareness of what they seem like innocent triggers, becoming a healthy eater and stopping unnecessary consumption of calories can stop you piling on the pounds. Taking a few healthy snacks for weight loss a week, can make the world of difference. Listed below are the top five weight gain habits, and some tips on how you can break the cycle.
1. Using Artificial Sweeteners
Did you know that your average American citizen will consume a whole twenty four pounds of artificial sweeteners every year, and research has shown that these substances can even cause confusion in the body’s regulatory systems which control hunger.
Your body has actually been trained in expecting to receive calories. However, its not getting them from eating artificial sweeteners which have no calorie. In the end, you crave more food because you don’t feel full up. More disturbingly, sweeteners may desensitise your taste buds, as they are as much as 7000 times as sweet as natural sugars.
As well as being served in regular packaging, sweetness can often be in in many everyday foodstuffs which are not open the advertised, like vitamins, cereals, sauces, baby food. Some of mains words to look out for on food labels of items which may have hidden artificial sweetener substitutes include: Aspartame, Saccharin, Neotame, Acesulfame and Sucralose.
How To Break Your Habit
Use natural alternatives like agave, honey, coconut sap syrup (easily available from all major health food outlets). As these may all be quite sweet tasting, you will not need to use too much of them.
Consider combining one teaspoon raw sugar with half a tea spoon of your preferred sweetener. By reducing the ratio of artificial junk, you can gradually wean yourself to come off the sweetener.
Your daily consumption of sweeteners should not exceed 2 servings (i.e. 1 diet soda or 2 packets).
2. You Eat Out of the Packet
Eating food straight out from the bag is bound to result in ultimate failure, as its impossible for you to gauge the actual servings by doing it in this way. If you are grabbing food from a hole that seems bottomless, you’re more likely to underestimate how much food you have actually eaten.
How To Break Your Habit
Packaged food snacks can offer some visual cues which indicate when you are finished. One hundred calorie snack packs may be a good idea, but there are much more affordable ways that you can control your eating.
Bulk buy your favorite snack, then measure out an appropriate serving. Pack this into plastic bags so you can save both calories and money. Use a plate. Then eat from it.
Better still, only buy healthy snacks for weight loss.
3. Meal Multi tasking
This means that you have to do other activities whilst eating, like: reading, watching TV, driving (dangerous as it sounds), browsing the Internet. All these distractions will take the focus from your food and ensure you will overeat more without even realising it.
How To Break Your Habit
Many folks today can’t find spare thirty minutes to sit down and eat a meal. But 15 min is definitely achievable and maybe better if you want to eat without being distracted.
One of the first things you should do is to relax and move yourself well away from any distractions. It’s better to find a location that is away from anything likely to remove your focus from your meal, like TV, desk or book.
4. Eating With Others
Recent studies have shown that if you eat with others, you can lose track of exactly how much you are eating. For example, eating with only one other person, you can eat as much as a third more than normally. Eating with at least four people, the rate of consumption will increase to 75% more. having a meal in a group of at least seven others, you will eat 96% more than if eating alone.
The average person will eat out in a group around three times each week. If you’re not careful, this may result in you eating an extra 72,000 calories during a whole year, which can translate into around 20 pounds of extra weight.
How To Break Your Habit
Giving up your social life is not advisable. As eating with other people is not just a part of your everyday life, it may have positive effects On your well-being as well. However, it’s important to remember that the ‘company’ is the healthy part and not the food. Think about buying healthy snacks for weight loss. And don’t see it as a race. It’s much better to keep in pace with the slowest eater, and not the fastest one. If you are planning a meal with friends, arrange it around some physical activity, like a walk, bike ride or other sport.
5. You’ve Become A Lover Of Low-Fat Labeled Foods
Did you know that ever since the “cut down on fat” craze started around 30 years ago, obesity rates in the USA have doubled? Yes, whilst there are other factors at play here, what many do not understand is ‘fat-free’ doesn’t mean low calorie. To make up for the lack of taste, the food manufacturer often add artificial flavourings as well as more sugar, flour and other thickening agents to products labeled fat-free, and this in turn boosts the amount of calories. Fats in these foods are replaced by white carbohydrates which are quickly digested and then rapidly absorbed into your bloodstream. This then causes a sugar rush, then crash and a hunger rebound effect. Research has shown people will often see low-fat labels as green lights to eat more than they would usually, unaware low-fat packaged foods are not really that much lower in calories than regular brands.
How To Break Your Habit
Keep well away from low-fat labeled foods, e.g. chips, cookies etc. Choose only lower fat foods which are not too processed, like low-fat dairy products e.g. cheese, milk, yogurt. Stick to healthy snacks for weight loss.
