Mindless eating – we are all guilty of it. Whether it is the scoop of peanut butter you eat before closing the lid, the chocolate you eat in your office lunchroom, the French fries you steal off of your boyfriend’s plate while out for dinner or the handful of tortilla chips you munch on while making your family dinner, it is this mindless eating that will add pounds to your body and prevent you from reaching your weight loss goals.
I had a discussion this week with a client about mindless eating and she confessed to me that many times throughout the day she will consume foods that she knows she should not and then does not count it as part of her daily caloric intake. This mindless eating is adding a minimum of 400 calories a day to her diet. That’s 2800 extra calories a week!
I know this habit resonates with many of you reading this article so here are a few tips on how to eliminate these excess and unnecessary calories:
Create the habit of sitting while you eat. Doing this will make sure that you are only eating what you need and what you planned for the day and the decreased snacking in your day will help cut calories and get you closer to shedding those extra pounds.
If you are hungry while preparing your dinner, have high fibre vegetables washed, chopped and ready to be munched on while you cook dinner. This will prevent you from stealing a piece of cheese you are slicing and it may also curb your appetite, decreasing the amount of food you consume during your meal.
Write EVERYTHING down that you eat, including the rest of your kids’ macaroni that they did not finish at dinner. Writing things down will remind you of what you ate and you will be less likely to continue on your mindless eating path. One tool that I like is the app MyFitnessPal as it counts every single calorie you consume so the extra scoop of ice cream you eat before you put the carton away is accounted for. You learn quickly how fast your daily calories add up if you are not careful.
It all counts – everything you put into your mouth so take a moment and think before you eat.
Attached - Quentin Tarantino hiking earlier this week.
