I didn’t always eat healthy. As a matter of fact, I ate burgers, fries, chicken nuggets, donuts, and all types of other unhealthy foods on a consistent basis. And when it came to breakfast, it was far from avocado toast with greens. My favorite was Fruity Pebbles! I tell you this because there can be a misconception that since someone has an overall healthy eating lifestyle, that they can’t relate to food temptations. In my case, that misconception is definitely what it is—a misconception. Because I know how tasty the foods are that I used to regularly eat, I get tempted just like the next gal! Luckily, there are ways to fight food cravings!
As we rip and run throughout our workweek, I know there can be those moments or even habits of temptation to indulge at the sight of finger-licking unhealthy foods. Well these are some best practices and principles that’ll help prevent the biting at the bait every time, when the goal is to stay on a healthy track. Try them out this week and let me know which one worked best for you.
Also enjoy my Rise & Shine Bright Loaded Chia Seed Pudding! Chia seeds are a great source of protein and fiber. It also helps you feel fuller longer, helping you with appetite control and cravings! This is something you’ll want to incorporate in your regimen if you’re looking to battle and win against cravings!
Have An Idea of What You’re Going to Eat
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail—so plan your meals! When you have at least an idea of what you’re going to eat for your meals, it’ll be easier to bypass the pizza your co-worker wants you to have with them or the fast food spot just steps away from the office. It’s ideal to have a plan of what you’ll eat at every meal, but if you haven’t gotten around to it, at least think about what the meal will consist of in advance, so you’re prepared and not caught out there vulnerable to the choices that will randomly present themselves to you.
Have Your Meals Made
Similar to having a plan but taking it a step further—have your meal prepared ahead of time at home. If you didn’t catch it, here’s a guide to how to Meal Prep for the workweek. Meal prepping will be like your ammunition that helps you defeat your cravings and indulgences.
Don’t Bring Tempting Foods Into Your Home
Are you normally at home when you’re feeling the temptation to eat something counterproductive to your health? If yes, I’m going to make a wild guess and say that there are foods in your home that are actually tempting you. If that’s the case, the solution is to not allow those foods to make their way into your home. If you can help it (I say that since you may be married to someone who likes to eat this way), just don’t buy these items on your trip to the supermarket. Take them off of your staple shopping list. If you want something similar to it, make it at home from scratch and be selective about the quality of ingredients you choose. When you make it from scratch, you will likely make it seldomly. The ingredients will also be of higher quality since you’ll be the one selecting what goes in.
Have Your Healthier Foods More Accessable and Visible
Reorganize your kitchen putting your whole healthy foods front and center of your refrigerator and cupboards. The more you see your good foods, the less you’ll see the other foods, and the less you’ll be tempted to eat them.
Don’t Be So Strict
Now this one I find especially important for me. The goal is to eat well consistently. But at the same time, it can be easy to get obsessed about it, creating a food prison that’s unhealthy. Trust me, I know this first hand. For many years, I was very strict with myself about eating healthy—overly strict, actually. That was just not good for me mentally. For example, I felt guilty having cake at a party, on top of that, being concerned about what others thought of me eating the cake. It’s a celebration for goodness sake! What we’re striving for here is a healthy eating lifestyle, which means the great majority of what we eat on a daily basis makes our body and mind happy. This does not involve self-condemnation at all. Now, the bi-product of an anti-condemnation approach to food is, the temptation will not be as severe. For example, when you tell a child they can’t have something, what happens? They want it even more. What happens when an adult tells themselves they can’t have something? Same thing—they want it even more! The practical is, don’t tell yourself that “you can’t have it.” Remind yourself that you have the choice, then go ahead and choose what’s best for your body. The seldom times you choose otherwise, get back on your game and strive to #eatbetterthanyesterday, which has become my motto.
Get Sleep
UC Berkley conducted research published in Nature Communications on how sleep affects eating behaviors. This is what was found. “What we have discovered is that high-level brain regions required for complex judgments and decisions become blunted by a lack of sleep, while more primal brain structures that control motivation and desire are amplified…” and “high-calorie foods also became significantly more desirable when participants were sleep-deprived. This combination of altered brain activity and decision-making may help explain why people who sleep less also tend to be overweight or obese.” -Matthew Walker, UC Berkeley professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
The bottom line here is, get the sleep you need to make better decisions and to have a stronger handle of cravings and excel at self-control.
Examine It
In that moment, when you’re considering devouring a not-so-healthy food option, examine what you’re about to eat. Look at the packaging to see what it actually consists of. If it happens to not have a package, consider what ingredients it took to make that said food. The more you know about the product, the more conscious you’ll be about whether or not it’s what you should have in that moment. This is a “mindful” approach to eating.
Find Alternatives
There’s got to be something else available to eat. Look at all of your options and consider something less harmful to your health. You could actually have fun with this when you’re meal prepping. You can choose items that you love and make them yourself, putting a healthy twist on it. So instead of regular pizza, you would make chickpea or cauliflower crust pizza, or instead of standard wheat noodles, you’d go with zucchini noodles, better known as Zoodles! Some markets already have zoodles and cauliflower cut up for you in the shapes you want!
Brush Your Teeth
Who wants to eat anything after they’ve brushed their teeth? No one! That’s right, so use that as one of your weapons to win against food cravings. Bring a toothbrush and toothpaste with you to work and around that time after lunch when folks want to bring in afternoon sweet treats, make a b-line to the b-room and brush your teeth. Your breath will not only be nice and fresh, the desire to eat something will likely have gone away.
Eat, Pray, Love
You may be familiar with the movie, Eat, Pray, Love. It was all about self-discovery, understanding what’s important to you, and living well. Although it’s a movie, I think it’s also the perfect theme and approach to take on food, which will help us manage a healthy eating lifestyle. So I leave you with these concepts related to the Eat, Pray, Love theme. Let’s Eat delicious food and always enjoy it! Let’s Pray in gratitude for food that sustains our healthy and ask for more of a connection to the self-control that’s inside of us. Let’s love the body God gave us by regularly eating foods that will make the body feel and look good. And at the same time, let’s not get obsessed about the whole thing and be kind to ourselves.
RISE & SHINE BRIGHT LOADED CHIA PUDDING
Ingredients
1 cup Chia Seeds
3 cups Purified Water
1/2 – 1 cup Almond Milk
¼ cup Nuts of your choice – I chose Walnuts
2 Tbsp. Seeds of your choice – I chose Pumpkin Seeds
2 Tbsp. Other fixings of your choice – I chose shredded Coconuts
¼ cup Fruit of your choice – I chose Blueberries and Cherries
2 dashes Cinnamon
1 dash Nutmeg
1 dash Ground Ginger
Pinch Ground Clove
Pinch of Salt
Instructions
Soak your Chia Seeds for at least 2 hours by adding the seeds and water to a jar, and closing its lid tightly, and shake the jar thoroughly. I like to soak mine overnight.
Once your Chia Seeds have swollen into a gel-like matter, doctor it up with the spices, and mix them in with a spoon
Pour some into a bowl, add your non-dairy milk, and now you get to load it up with the other ingredients—nuts, seeds, fruit and other fixings as you wish.
Enjoy!
To powerful workweeks and good eats!
Love,
Yardley
