Admit it:  you’ve got at least one bad eating habit that you’d love to change. Most of life is habitual. You do the same things you did yesterday, the day before and every day for the last month. Habits, good or bad, make you who you are. Once acquired, they are repeated during your life time and there comes a point when you cannot get out of this addiction.

Habits first begin as a single-thought, then they become a multitude of thoughts, which evolve into actions, then habits; our habits make up our character, and our character dictates our life. When it comes to bad eating habits, sometimes it’s what we eat and how we eat it. Bad eating habits are formed when we choose to eat things or quantities of food on a regular basis that we know will damage our health.

Breaking bad habits and developing good habits is often easier said then done. There are many ways to break bad habits, different techniques work well with various bad habits. Here are some bad eating habits and the tips that will help overcome them to live a great life!

Habit 1: Compulsive Snacking

Eating a healthy snack or two between the meals is fine. But, when you snack in place of eating a real meal or snack on unhealthy food like chips, namkeens or cookies, it can cause myriad of problems like unhealthy hair, dull skin with acne and blemishes, constipation, gas, bloating, obesity and cholesterol problems. Craving carbs and sweets can become an addiction as strong as alcoholism or drug addiction. You can become addicted to food mentally, physically and emotionally.

Tips

• Eliminate junk foods from your house. If it is not there, it is much easier not to eat it.
• If you need to take snacks, set limits on what you have to eat.
• Eat fruits instead of cookies and chocolates.
• Avoid finger foods, sweet and fatty dips.

Habit 2: Emotional Eating

Many of us learn that food can bring comfort, at least in the short-term. Many people start to binge on junk food because these common comfort foods discharge chemicals or hormones that improve your mood, but only temporarily. As a result, we often turn to food to heal emotional problems. Depression, boredom, loneliness, chronic anger, anxiety, frustration, stress etc lead to emotional eating.

Tips

• Idenfity triggers or emotions which lead to emotional eating and develop alternatives to junk food like whole-grain biscuits.
• Read a good book or magazine or listen to music or take a short nap.
• Go for a walk or jog.
• Use breathing exercises to reduce stress and avoid binge eating.

Habit 3: Speed Eating

A busy lifestyle makes enjoying a leisurely meal an impracticality for some people. Biologically, there are sensors in your stomach that tell the brain when it’s filled. If you eat too fast those sensors don’t have time to tell your mind that you are full and you end up overeating. Also, it is important to understand that an important part of the digestion occurs in the mouth. So when you are eating fast, you are not chewing your food properly and leaving more work for the rest of the digestive tract. This may lead to digestion problems like indigestion.

Tips

• Eat slowly and pause for brief moments after every 2 - 3 bites of your meal. Put the fork and knife down between each bite.
• Instead of choosing finger foods that can be eaten quickly, always eat food from a plate with utensils.
• Take small bites and chew well. Aim to chew each mouthful at least 5 times before you swallow.
• Drink water throughout your meal.

Habit 4: Breakfast Skipping

In this fast paced life, many people choose to skip breakfast. Remember, going without food for several hours could lead to low blood sugar. People who eat breakfast daily are the ones who are more successful at losing weight and keeping off extra weight. This is because eating breakfast helps them eat normally the rest of the day instead of going after unhealthy and high-calorie snacks before lunch. Additionally, eating breakfast can speed up your metabolism early in the day.

Tips

• First thing in the morning, drink a large glass of water.
• Remember to eat breakfast about an hour or two after you get up in the morning because this will start your metabolism.
• If you are short on time, stock the kitchen with easy-to-make breakfast foods like cereals with milk or make a toast and eat it on your way to work. Making time for breakfast is making time to be healthy.
• Go for a combo of protein and whole grains as that will keep you full throughout the day.

Habit 5: Multitasking

If you watch TV or do any other things while eating, your concentration is focused on what you are watching and not on the food you are eating. You lose track of how much you eat. The result is you ending up overeating.

Tips

• Do not eat while you are busy doing something else.
• Turn off the TV. It’s distracting and kills the conversation.
• Take time to eat. Do not just put your food in your mouth.
• Entice your family to sit down to dinner together.

Remember that ditching your old bad habits is all about implementing easy, doable good habits that you can continue for at least 30 days. After that your body and mind adjust to the new habits.

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