A Few Easy Tips

Oh dear, it's been more than a month since I've blogged on here! I had all kinds of good intentions, of course, but you know how those go. I do have a few tricks I'd like to share, though, that I'm trying to incorporate into my healthy weight journey.

Drink lots of water. It helps with not snacking if you keep hydrated. Often, when I find myself cranky or hungry, I know it's because I've skipped drinking some of my water for the day and I find myself reaching for the carbs or the grease when I know that water is all I need to make me happy again. I like to drink on a schedule. 16 oz before breakfast, 16 oz before lunch, 16 oz in the afternoon, and 16 oz in the early evening. You can also switch the early evening water to mid-morning if you prefer. 16 oz sounds like a lot, but if you buy one of those tall glasses at Walmart, you'll find it's quite easy to down the water in one go.

Find a favourite low-calorie snack and stock up on it. I know that sounds like it would defeat the purpose if you stock up on a snack, but I'm finding that it actually works the opposite. For the emotional eaters, like me, we tend to go into starvation mode anytime we're not eating. We have an unhealthy connection with food and we feel like if we have only one bar of chocolate, we have to eat it all at once. Don't ask me to explain why, because I have no clue. If, however, we have 10 bars of chocolate in the fridge, we feel more at ease and it is easier to eat just a half bar of chocolate, or even a couple of pieces. There's more chocolate for later so we can relax. This isn't a joke, I've actually experienced it with the 14 tubs of Purely Decadent icecream I brought home from Grocery Outlet. That was several months ago and we're still eating that icecream! For me, my low calorie snack is the baked Snapea Crisps I can buy for $1.49 at Trader Joe's. They are super tasty and if I feel the need to binge on a bag, it's only 450 calories. A bag of any other snack would be 1,000 calories minimum.

Don't buy things you know you shouldn't eat. I know, it sounds redundant, but you seriously have to get serious about it. Food is like any other addiction, if you have access to your addiction of choice you will not be able to keep strong boundaries. If I have a box of croissants in my kitchen, I'm not going to eat a half a croissant every morning for the next two weeks. I'm going to eat those croissants in three or four days. Chocolate? Gone. Baked goods? Gone. Potato Chips? Gone. I'll be the first to admit, this is a battle I am constantly battling against. Every time I step into a store, my eyes and stomach reach immediately for the grease-sugar laden goodies. Unfortunately, we need food to survive so I am working on that happy medium where I can enjoy what I eat but not have to put on 20 pounds while I'm enjoying it or feel like my meals consist of sawdust and boiled carrots!