Convenient and delicious not to mention addictive but with little to no nutritional value—that’s what junk foods are. Now, if all you eat it is that, don’t be surprised if you’re sick or feel tired all the time, gaining weight, or your hair is getting thinner or looks dull. This is why you have to make your diet 70% fruits and veggies, 25% meat and dairy, and 5% of anything you like.
But it’s no secret that it’s very challenging to do that, if it’s up to you, you’d probably just eat what you like all the time, may it be fast food, chips or sweets. But the thing is, if you don’t want your body to give out before your appetite does, you’d want to feed it with nutritious foods majority of the time. So for you to do that and avoid cheating on the healthy diet you’re trying to maintain, here are some tips for you to train your brain into rejecting junk foods.
Drink Water First
A lot of times, you’re not really craving food but just thirsty. Every time you feel an urge to snack, drink water first. After a few minutes the craving will usually fade if your body is actually just thirsty.
Drinking water has a lot of health benefits for our body. It doesn’t just keep you hydrated but it also helps improve your digestion, clear the skin a bit, as well as keeps you from drinking sodas. But aside from that, if you make it a habit to drink a glass of water before every meal, it will fill you up you that you don’t overeat.
Don’t Make Them Easily Accessible For You
You’re more likely to munch on junk foods if they’re lying around your house and can easily grab them. You can solve this by not including them in your grocery shopping. This way, you’ll have to go out and buy it in the nearest convenience store whenever you crave them. However, you may not even bother buying them because most of the time it feels bothersome to go out just to buy snack.
Distance Yourself From Junk Food
You can do this either physically distancing yourself from the food item or mentally. If you crave for something all of a sudden, you can try taking a walk outside especially if that food is just in your fridge or pantry. You can also avoid routes where the store you usually grab your junk food is located. Another way to distance yourself from the craving is to think of something else. You can plan your day tomorrow or watch those cat or dog videos that you like so much. You’ll find that once you get distracted from the thought of the food, the craving fades too.
Don’t Wait Until You’re Extremely Hungry Before Eating
If you’re the type who doesn’t really follow the typical meal intervals and only eats when really hungry or when you feel like it, there’s a good chance you end up eating midnight snacks all the time. Eating meals at regular intervals is healthy for the body and its metabolism. It can maintain the blood sugar levels throughout the day and can also put a halt to those midnight hunger pangs.
Fight Stress
Deadlines, bills, relationship troubles, and other family issues have a way to mess with your appetite. You either have no appetite at all or find yourself stress eating all the time which is bad because when this happens junk foods are usually what people go for. This then can spike the level of cortisol in the body and make you gain weight in your midsection. Not only that, there are people who resort to food or vices like alcohol drinking when they’re stressed which contributes to weight gain as well.
People under a lot of stress or feel down tend to avoid eye-contact and their shoulders are rounded and stoop. People say that stress is all in the mindset, but you should know that your body condition play a big role in it too. Receiving adjustments from a chiropractor here in Singapore can make a significant difference in your stress level by relieving pain or discomfort caused by misalignment, helping you sleep better at night, have better control with your appetite and even treat other health condition like constant headache and digestive problems which are without a doubt stressful.
Practice Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is about practicing mindfulness, a type of meditation, in relation to foods and eating. It teaches you to develop awareness of your eating habits, emotions, hunger, cravings and physical sensations. Mindful eating teaches you to distinguish between cravings and actual physical hunger. It helps you choose your response, instead of acting thoughtlessly or impulsively. Eating mindfully involves being present while you eat, slowing down and chewing thoroughly. It is also important to avoid distractions, like the TV or your smartphone.
Get Enough Sleep
Notice how cranky you get when you lack sleep? Coffee can’t compensate for that. Try to sleep at least 7 hours daily and you’ll surely gain more energy, maintain sharper mind, and lower risk of getting sick as well as prevent cravings from showing up.
Eat Proper Meals
Our body thrives not from the quantity of your meal but from the quality. So even if you ate a lot of food, you’ll find yourself wanting to eat something after a while because your body didn’t get the nutrients that it needs from your previous meal. Consumption of essential fibers can provide sugar stability which can keep you full for a longer period of time.
Remember that snacking a lot, even if you’re consuming healthy snacks, can still lead to weight gain which causes a lot of other health problems, especially if you do not do it in moderation. While being healthy doesn’t mean you have to be thin, weight gain should still be monitored. So instead of constantly trying to depriving your body of foods, try focusing on providing necessary nutrients for your body. Aside from that, you also have to adapt a healthy and regular eating pattern to avoid messing up with your metabolism. This is why chiropractic care aims to treat the body on a holistic level, meaning its goal is to not only provide immediate relief from issues such as back pain, but to help the body heal and manage itself from the inside out, so it's less likely to face other health issues such as weight gain.
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