5 Tips For Better Self-Control With Food

Do you tend to lose control when you’re around food that satiates your cravings?

It’s quite common to see people indulging in treats despite being on diets, as they struggle with self-control or discipline when it comes to eating.

For instance, if you’re cutting down on sugar and you’re surrounded by assorted desserts, having a single bite of a dessert, keeping your diet plan in mind could seem very difficult if you have no self-control and you could end up overeating sugary stuff and realize it too late.

Practicing discipline with eating habits is essential to achieve one’s health goals. More than following strict diet restrictions, developing a healthy relationship with food helps in having control over what you eat.

Here are some tips to improve your self-control with eating and not let food control you.

Finding comfort with food

Do you often resort to eating when you feel stressed, anxious or bored?

Grabbing a dessert or a cup of coffee often for comfort, or distraction from worries is a common eating habit that’s unavoidable for many of us.

Making a list of activities such as calling a friend, reading, or taking a hot bath could help you find comfort or joy, and keep you from resorting to stress-eating.

Practice moderation

Eating in right portion size helps you reap the benefits of a nutrient rich diet. Whereas overeating or eating a monotonous diet doesn’t benefit your health and could cause adverse health effects over a period of time.

Moderation involves adding nutritional variety to one’s plate and maintaining the right balance that keeps you from overindulging and losing self-control while eating.

Instead of depriving yourself of the food you love to eat, finding a balance and eating the right portion size helps you eat in moderation and maintain discipline around food.

Hunger signals

Connecting with the natural hunger cues of your body is imperative to develop disciplined eating habits.

Start listening to the nutritional needs of your body and nourish yourself when you recognize the signals of hunger. This helps you develop intuitive eating, and keeps you from unhealthy eating habits.

Respond to your hunger signals such as low energy levels, cravings, irritability and stomach growling, by nourishing yourself with healthy and energizing food.

Mindful eating

Practice mindful eating to get your eating habits on track.

It would be difficult for most of us to remember what we ate for the last meal, if we’ve not been mindful in our eating habits.

Eating for maintaining overall health by being fully aware of what you’re eating, how you eat and being attentive as you eat is the essence of mindful eating which helps you appreciate food and form a healthy relationship with it.

It also aids in digestion, and makes eating an enjoyable experience.

What’s in your kitchen?

If you feel out of control with certain snacks or treats, should you prefer keeping them in your kitchen/pantry?

Reintroducing them occasionally and mindfully instead of having them in the house everyday could help you stay in control and eat mindfully.

Avoid storing processed and non nutritious food in your kitchen, and replace them with natural and nutritious snacks helping you stay in control of what you eat.

Planning meals ahead, could help you keep from buying what you do not need and make informed decisions when it comes to your diet without getting indulged in improper eating habits that could do more harm than good.

As you rush through your busy life, how do you manage to control what and how you eat? Do share in the comments.