Are you sure about that one?
Here’s a helpful list of hidden snacking reasons why you might not be losing the weight you desire. Have a look – do you spot anything that you do? Be honest: you’re only kidding yourself if not, no-one else is looking.
Do you…
1. Pick at food as you cook? This can REALLY add up calorie-wise. And, hate to say it…
2. SO does the alcohol you consume as you’re cooking! We often forget those glasses as we’re busy cheffing away.
3. Scrape the plate clean until every last bit has gone even though you were full ages ago? Answer: smaller plates and portion sizes.
4. Have sweets, chocolate and biscuits in your office/drawer? Far too easy to over-consume them especially in a semi-mindless way. Just don’t have them there, you’ll never be able to resist! Agree a strategy with your colleagues and, if you must have them, make sure they are stored as far away as possible from you!
5. Say you’ll eat one apple a day/more fruit etc but that’s in addition to your usual treats rather than instead of? One positive change doesn’t alter your overall diet, sadly.
6. Consume a smoothie/juice in a bid to get your five a day? IT’S STILL SUGAR, sorry! Go back to 5 and eat the apple with all the fibre instead as the fibre slows down the sugar hit and consequent insulin spike.
7. Eat for comfort to make yourself feel better? It’s a vicious, if totally understandable, cycle. Feel you look rubbish because you’re overweight (you probably don’t at all but we all have fat goggles on some days I know!), comfort eat, gain weight, feel more rubbish and on, and on, and on. Break that horrid cycle now. If you think you look rubbish now, how are you going to feel if you get fatter or more cellulite? Harsh but true for many of us and a really difficult one to break. So, how about comforting yourself in a different way (I know it won’t help the psychology but I’m not a miracle-worker!): Paint your nails. Buy shoes. Have your hair done. Get a tattoo! Whatever floats your boat. Just don’t eat for comfort as often.
8. Include snacks for the treat drawer/cupboard in your normal shop? STOP. You can’t eat it if it isn’t there, can you? If you want it badly enough, you can go to a shop. And NOT in the car! The exercise will help and, you never know, by the time you’ve got there, you may well have changed your mind.
9. Drink too much? Drink at all? It is, in essence, sugar whatever you drink. Sugar = calories. Simples. No-one is saying don’t have a drink, but do count drinks as part of your food intake otherwise you’re just kidding yourself.
10. Drink diet coke/fizzy drinks thinking that it doesn’t count? Sorry, it does. Your body doesn’t recognise sweeteners and will react in pretty much the same was as it would to sugar. Plus, why are you drinking bottles of chemical nonsense anyway?!
Bonus Tip
11. Eat a sweet straight after your meal or hungry for seconds? Give yourself 20 minutes after finishing your meal. It takes that long sadly for our brain to tell our stomach that we’re full. It’s called satiety. If you’re still genuinely hungry for more after half an hour, go ahead. Likelihood is you’ll have wandered off and started doing something else by then.
Recognise at least one you can work on? Thought so. Off you go then: knowledge of what we are doing brings the power to change it! Good luck.