You know what, a few minutes back I was standing in front of the refrigerator, door open wide and me with a spoon in my hand trying to narrow down my next food-prey to pounce on. Then a realization dawned on me, and I was like, what am I doing? Do I at all want to go out of the door when the quarantine lifts and we start moving back to normalcy or do I intend to get stuck at the door due to my growing waistline and or just burst out of my jeans!!
I am absolutely sure that so many of us are doing this to ourselves during these trying times. Understandably, this whole COVID upheaval has been upsetting and disrupting, to say the least, but please show yourself some love and stop damaging your system.
Please be assured that I am saying this to myself as well! I am no different and have been having 3 to 4 snacks a day and that’s apart from the 3 hearty meals. Whoa, that’s pretty too much. I am trying a few things to avoid and keep under leash my desire to just shove something down my throat just because I can’t visit my favorite salon or the gym or feeling detached or just have nothing to do and the quarantine has pushed my limits enough.
How about these teeny-tiny things.
Trying to gauge what is making me go on the food scavenger hunt
So as goes the saying, getting to action is the task half done! This can’t be more true about getting to know what fuels your intention to just binge on that tub of ice cream or maybe the tortilla chips with a bowl of salsa.
It might just be because you finished off another episode of ‘The Money Heist’ or you just read on CNN about the rising death toll of COVID or spoke to an anxious friend and comforted her that all would be well.
What is it that is compelling you to open that jar of Nutella? Once figured, you could move to the next step of being mindful. See, I told you we are getting there steadily!
Getting around to be mindful instead of mindlessly munching
Yes, being mindful could help you show the stop signal to binge eating and make you realize that you are not actually hungry, just bored, and not have enough to do at hand. Once you understand that your tummy is not growling, it’s just your empty mind and empty calories that are about to jump and condense around your belly, trust me you would close the fridge door yourself.
Next time when you are about to put the spoon into the jar of peanut butter just pause for a minute and ponder, do you really need this at this moment. Or at least think of the summer dress that you might not fit into if you continue binging mindlessly!
Having a meal chart and proper snacking menu is helping me get there
If you know at the back of your mind what to expect for dinner tonight, you would be subconsciously prepared for it. Basically, it helps to stick to an eating pattern. I could vouch for it, I meal prep {ok, I agree not all the time but occasionally} but it sets me up for the day and I know what I’m going to plate for lunch.
Another point here, if I know that lunch is already done, I would refrain from picking up a fried chicken. I would certainly not let my meal prepping effort go in vain. I’m sure you would be with me on this one!
Are you eating enough healthy proteins, just check
If you are not feeling satiated and feel like you could eat a hell lot more, try and add a few healthy protein and fats to your lunch tomorrow. What could they be? You would love the options, trust me. Eggs, lentils, yogurt, pumpkin seeds in your salad, tofu, beans, lean beef could act up as your daily high protein superstar.
Whereas, salmon, avocado, dark chocolate, nuts could stand up to be the healthy fat component of your next big meal or maybe a small little in-between cheat snack. I won’t mind such cheat snacks!!
Drinking it up, and I meant water!!
Ok, so this has happened to me many times before. I was just plain thirsty and I thought I was hungry. After reading up a bit about this, I tried drinking about half a bottle and it subsided my feeling of ’eat-this, eat- that.’
Do this when feeling hungry suddenly, drink it up and congratulations buddy, you just dodged a few empty calories! Want some stylish water bottle inspirations, check on Good Housekeeping.
A king’s breakfast may often be the answer
Well, again I would cite myself here. I have tried just eating an apple in the morning and have stayed perpetually hungry throughout the day. What I ended up doing on these fateful ‘breakfast-skipping’ days, I kept searching for ‘mood-lifting’ foods like a piece of muffin or a slice of walnut bread or a spoon of Nutella {ah, bliss}!
My piece of the word here, trying eating a wholesome breakfast, that would keep you satiated till lunch for sure!
Talk your heart out
Have you noticed this before, you just got off ’Netflixing’ and headed to the kitchen to grab a chip or two, your friend called and you got busy talking and totally forgot about your quickie snack. This is totally relatable to many of us and guess what we weren’t hungry, just bored, and wanted a ’break’ from the monotony and hence chose to go into the comfortable realm of food.
Next time, remember, you’re not hungry, just don’t have enough to do so pick up the phone and blabber your heart out or go out and pot a flower or see some old photographs or even better write a blog { it’s okay if it’s your first time, being amateurish is not bad at all}.
Catch up on some exercise or even better do yoga
Remember how we were talking about being mindful, well this is it. Grab your exercise mat, put on the video, and go! I follow the sculpt videos Obe. You can get 30% off after a free month trial here
Did you know that yoga could help us be mindful? I’m sure you do! It could greatly help us in controlling our monstrous zeal to binge eat. The downward-facing dog, the corpse pose, the warrior and the seated forward bend are a few examples of mindful yoga postures.
Make those brownies, chocolate chip muffins and chips pretty difficult to find
This is a no-brainer of sorts. Figure this, I’m petite and if I put the muffin boxes that I bought from Costo last weekend on the top of the fridge and always need a chair to get them down, on many occasions I would rather open the fridge and get an Activia yogurt instead! Makes sense, right?
The point I’m trying to drive home is keeping the calorie piling {but yummy, I agree} stuff a bit difficult to get your hands on. Or even better, when you are out of it try not to replenish them very soon. If you don’t have it in sight, you won’t want to eat it, simple as that!
Also, keep the pumpkin seed or walnut or almond just right in front of you instead of the pub mix! Ok, now say thank you, I just saved you from some cruel calories!!
In a time when we are experiencing being cut off from our friends, family, going to the theatre, dining out, it is not impossible to figure that we are relying on food as our source of comfort, feel-goodness, and fulfillment. And I totally get it, and squarely blame it on the dopamine and the endorphin.
But just the blame game won’t take us anywhere, you understand that right? So, we promise each other that we’ll at least make an effort to follow what we just finished discussing. Promise!! Cross my heart and hope to die!!
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