Breaking your bad eating habits

Health Tip: Breaking your bad eating habits

Breaking your bad eating habits

Once you’ve identified your bad eating habits, and what triggers them, you are just one step away from healthier eating. Of course, in some cases, this might prove to be the hardest.

Anyone can change their route to avoid walking past the bakery, but what to do when it’s boredom and stress that lead us to binging on soft drinks and candy?

What you should do in these cases is to find a healthy substitute for that bad habit: learning how to manage stress can be difficult, but having some fruit instead of a glazed doughnut isn’t that hard, and much healthier.

If you’re eating too fast, try leaving the silverware on the table between bites, or have lunch with someone at work. If you’re eating because you’re bored, go out for a walk or call up a friend or a relative.

All of these constitute healthy alternatives to those bad eating habits we all indulge in. On the other hand, if we only choose the right option once, nothing will be achieved. Habits are called ‘habits’ for a reason: the key is to repeat that healthy choice you discovered over and over a clave.

Write down your bat eating habits and you won’t forget them

Write it down in your ‘food journal’ so you won’t forget it. Go over it every once in a while. At first the healthy option will be something you do from time to time, but keep at it, insist, repeat it over and over until it becomes a habit.

Be realistic and don’t go too hard on yourself if breaking the bad habit doesn’t come easy. Our brain needs to be reprogrammed in order to replace a routine, unconscious action for a conscious one.

Perseverance and understanding the health implications of our choices are essential. You won’t regret it.