Having trouble controlling those unnecessary and unhealthy snacking urges?
Can’t seem to stop, even though you ‘promise’ yourself every day that you will?
Need some ideas, hints, tips and tricks that will help you stop snacking on junk food?
You’re in luck, read on!
Top 10 ways to avoid snacking
- Make sure your nutrition is up to scratch – you’re less likely to feel the need to snack on junk if you’re not being caught out by hunger pangs or dips in blood sugar.
- Lead yourself NOT into temptation – DO NOT go shopping when you’re hungry and STAY AWAY from the chocolate, crisps and biscuit aisles. NO, you can’t just wander down them and have a look; DO. NOT. GO DOWN THEM.
- Drink water – or something hot like fruity-herbal tea. The brain, whilst being incredibly clever, is completely rubbish when it comes to telling you whether you’re hungry or thirsty – it sends you exactly the same message for both! Have a drink, the chances are you’re not drinking enough and are straying into mild dehydration territory.
- Clean your teeth – there’s something about newly cleaned and shiny teeth that psychologically puts us off eating – perhaps it’s because you don’t want to ruin that squeaky clean feeling, or because you know few things taste good with toothpaste; either way, this one is a particular favourite of mine.
- Chew gum – there have been studies on this; study participants all agreed that chewing gum helped reduce snack cravings and eating late after dinner. Remember to make sure your gum is of the sugar free variety!
- Become your own nutritional Sergeant Major – go and stand in front of the mirror and have a strong conversation with yourself…
- What are you? A SLAVE to your cravings for things which will undermine your progress?!
- What do you want more? To eat that bar of chocolate and/or bowl of ice cream, or have the body you’ve always wanted?!
- Stop letting yourself off the hook! YOU’RE the one in control here – get a GRIP!
- Do something active – go for a walk, do the housework (hey, desperate snack urges call for desperate measures. Look on the bright side, what’s the worst that can happen here? You won’t snack AND your house will be spotless too!), do ANYTHING that gets you moving. Not only is exercise a great appetite suppressant it will also lift your mood
- Try on your clothes – you have clothes that are too small and you’re aiming to fit into, I know you do. Haul them out of your drawers and wardrobes and try them on, then decide what you want more: that packet of triple chocolate cookies or to rock your wardrobe and feel fantastic in your clothes?
- Visualise – create a vision board of what it is you’re trying to achieve. Find pictures of bodies you aspire to have, print them out and pin them up. Have those pictures on your fridge, on mirrors, set them as wallpaper on your phone and computers.If you’ve got the image know-how, put YOUR head on a picture of the body you want and VISUALISE yourself looking awesome NOW. Keep your goals close and those unhealthy/unnecessary snacks won’t be quite so appealing
- Keep yourself, and your hands, busy – do the things you’ve been putting off for ages or make something (as long as it’s not food!), draw or paint something if you’re creative.
One of my favourites is to actually treat my hands – I’ll file my nails, choose some nail polish, paint them and then rub in my favourite hand cream when my nails are dry; it’s impossible to snack with wet nails. Plus, finger snacks and hand cream really don’t go well together either.
I hope they help; remember, not all snacking is ‘bad’ – may the unnecessary/unhealthy snack force be with you!
PS – let us know if you’ve stumbled across, come up with your own, ways to avoid snacking that I’ve not mentioned 😀
