Are you eating emotionally?

Is your first reaction at feeling anxiety to reach for the fridge? Does sadness make you want to eat just a bit of that cake? If this is the case then you are eating emotionally which can ruin your diet chart. Whether it is sadness, grief, happiness, joy, anger, frustration… each and every emotion has its starting point, peak and then end. We associate emotional eating with inability to control our emotions. But, you can! Let the emotion run its course and you will soon notice relief.

To start overcoming emotional eating, focus on making small and gradual changes. Setting a goal that is small enough to achieve yet big enough to keep you motivated can make a whole lot of difference. If your objective is to start breaking free from emotional eating, you might set yourself up for a failure. If you rephrase the goal and state it so that "Today, I will eat all 3 meals at the table," you will notice that the goal is realistic as well as measurable, the latter giving you a sense of accomplishment. Also stop mindless eating. Mindless eating is the menace of modern day society. There is not enough time in the day to sit down and eat. Or are we fooling ourselves? The most important question you can ask yourself is: "Am I hungry?" If the answer is yes, take time to sit down at the table and eat the meal making sure you slow down and take time with each bite. If the answer is "no," there is no much of a dilemma there.  

 So what say ready to break free from emotional eating?

Eating right this monsoon...

Monsoons are here with green lushes around making you more romantic, but don't forget monsoon season comes with many diseases and infections. Thus it becomes all the more necessary for you to keep yourself healthy and fit during monsoon season. Here are explained some useful eating tips for this rainy season that will prevent you from various viruses that can cause different diseases.

No matter how tempting the roadside food may appear to you, avoid it otherwise you might have to suffer from gastro-intestinal problems. Also it’s advisable to avoid leafy vegetables, yoghurt and pre-cut fruits. During monsoon, our digestive power becomes sluggish that finds it hard to fight against various infections.  Leafy vegetables are rich in cellulose, making them difficult to get digested in monsoon. At the sametime, insects and bacteria thrive on these leafy vegetable, making you prone to infections. On the other hand including food items like turmeric, honey and garlic into your daily diet can just double your monsoon mania but in a healthy way...

So what say all set to welcome the first rain of the monsoon season :-)

Are you eating chemical-free?

Don’t you think shopping was easy and healthy when most food came from farms? Now, factory-made foods have made chemical additives a significant part of your diet. The longer manufacturers use these additives, the more you tend to learn about their impacts. While some additives are harmless, others cause everything from hives and asthma to nausea and headaches.

Well, its not too late, you may not be able to control everything, but you can control what you eat. There are many ways in which you can follow a chemical-free diet. Why not start with avoiding packaged foods as convenience foods are treated with chemicals and preservatives to prolong shelf life. You can also choose to eat only organic foods. Organic food refers to food grown the way nature intended, free from chemical pesticides, fertilizers and growth hormones. The result is nutritious food... 

However, if you can't afford to buy enough organic food to get your five portions of fruit and veg a day, you can consider growing some of your own. It's so convenient to walk out of your kitchen door to pick a few veg for dinner, and really satisfying to think that they are 'all your own work'. :-)

Enjoy weekends the healthy way & have a guilt-free Monday

 
A week of healthy eating can be wrecked just before Monday morning! Wondering how? Well, this is something that happens to the best of us, we try to eat healthy Monday through Friday, but then blow it on the weekend.

We start with cocktails and greasy appetizers Friday night with friends. On Saturday, we go grazing through the food court while shopping at the mall, then go out for a big dinner that night. And on Sunday, we feel kind of lazy, so lounge around on the couch watching television and snacking on chips and dip. Isn’t that true? Well, this is a pretty common scenario. But don't despair. With a little thought and preparation, we can continue to eat healthy and still enjoy our weekends.

All that we need to do is follow these small tips like wake up at the same time on the weekends as we do during the week, don't skip breakfast and weigh in before and after (Friday & Monday). Use a food diary every day, give oneself a small treat or two during the week, eat a healthy lunch before going to the mall so that we don’t give in to the temptation of unhealthy foods. Lastly, we must go for a walk during weekends also as this not only burns calories, but also improves our mood and may distract us from our cravings. So what say ready to check your weight, its Friday :-)