10 Steps to Habit Change
Alot of clients do a great job of staying on track with their nutrition plans for meals, but get derailed when it comes to snacking. Snacking can lead to tons of extra calories without even noticing. Since you’ve probably heard a lot of good tricks to limit snacking already tried most of them (drink more water, take a walk, think about something else, snack on ice chips –that’s a shout out to Mariah Carey pre-Jenny) I’d like to run a new one by you that you may not have heard.
Snack with your opposite hand. If you are usually a righty, use your left hand and vice-versa. Just this small change can actually make a difference of how much you eat by up to 30%. By using your non-dominant hand, your brain has to think harder about what it’s doing, making you more aware of what you’re eating. When you use your usual hand to eat you are less likely to notice how much you are putting in your mouth since that hand is more able to move without you realizing it. You may have had all good intentions of just having a few handfuls of Pirate’s Booty, but before you know it you are left with an empty bag, cheesy finger tips and most likely a belly ache. To help aid you from not ending up in this situation, Switch It Up (or pre-portion the Booty into a bowl and step away from the bag asap). Now, I’m not sure what the most effective way to execute the switch is, but here are some suggestions:
- Have a friend or loved one tie your dominant hand behind your back. This will also make it more difficult to open cabinets, the fridge, or use any utensils, which will ultimately result in a similar outcome – eating less.
- Sit or lay on your dominant arm. This will make sure that you don’t get tempted to unswitch (re-switch?) and start scarfing down snacks without realizing it.
- Have a friend or loved on sit on your hand or arm. This may be uncomfortable, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
- Stare at your dominant hand the whole time you eat so that you know it will not move. After a minute or two you should be so bored of doing this that your desire to eat the rest of snack will have passed and you can go about your business.
Ok, so in reality these may seem a little crazy, but mindless eating is a problem that many of us face. Instead of listening to your body and waiting until you’re actually hungry you get used to eating at certain times or in specific environments and you end up consuming calories when you are not hungry. So, next time it’s 3 O’clock and you walk by the vending machine imagine what you’re boss will think when he passes by your desk and you’re eating a bag of chips with your left hand as your co-worker stacks heavy objects on top of your right one. Hopefully, this image will deter you from mindlessly eating vending machine garbage or it will just make you laugh but either way it will make you think harder about whether or not you need that snack at all. The key is to always be conscious of what you’re putting in your mouth and make every bite count.
-Be Healthy. Be Balanced.
A Healthy Balance
14B Alleyne St
Quincy, MA
www.AHealthyBalanceInc.com
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