Three simple tips to make dieting easier

There are so many different things I could list when talking on the topic of diet success but in this article I’m going to discuss three simple strategies that you can implement today to help you stick to your diet. The reason I have chosen these is that they are not often talked about but I’m sure they could help a lot of people out.

Tip 1 – Do not eat food in front of a screen

Now this is something I am definitely guilty of but I try to avoid when I go through periods of hard dieting. When I talk about not eating in front of a screen I mean do not eat if you are on your phone, on your computer or watching TV. Doing this promotes “mindless” eating where I try to promote “mindful” eating. The idea is quite easy to explain if I use the cinema as an example. Some people can consume upwards of 1000 calories during the course of the film because you are not thinking about what and how much you are eating and some people could quite easily finish a large popcorn and a sharing size packet of sweets. Instead, make an effort to take your time eating your food and concentrate on what you are doing and you will likely find that you will feel fuller quicker and therefore consume fewer calories.

Tip 2 – Eat less palatable foods

Palatable foods are foods that you find enjoyable to eat and easy to consume. For most people these are things like chocolate bars, crisps, ice cream, etc. These foods taste really good and it is therefore easy to overeat them. If you choose food sources that you don’t find so easy to eat then you are far less likely to over consume foods and will likely feel more full. I’ll give an example to make this point easier to understand. Let’s say for breakfast that you wanted a high protein, medium carb and medium fat meal. A high palatable version would be having coco pops with whole milk and a chocolate protein shake on the side. A less palatable alternative might be plain porridge, cottage cheese and almonds. There’s only so much plain cottage cheese and porridge you can eat before you want to roll into a ball and cry. Coco pops, however, you could have by the bowlful quite comfortably. It may not seem like it at the time, but choosing a less tasty alternative is often a good idea when dieting. You’ll thank yourself later when you are no longer constantly thinking about your next meal because you know it’s just going to be something bland.

Tip 3 – Don’t keep readily available snacks in your house

It may seem convenient to have lots of snack bars and packets of nuts to have ready when you are on the go but they can cause unwanted binges. There are a whole range of healthy snacks available at supermarkets these days which is great because sometimes you can’t be bothered to cook a whole meal and just want something you can put in your pocket and eat on the go but even keeping the healthiest of snack bars at home can be dangerous. Because these bars are designed to taste good, you keep wanting to have more of them. If you get a little hungry before bed and decide to have a belvita bar, it’s not long before you’ve finished 6 packets and now feel like the biggest pig on the planet. If instead, your only option was to cook some porridge then you would probably cook a small bowl and then leave it at that because to make another bowl would be too much effort. Convenience is great but it can also make binging a lot easier.

Hopefully you guys have found some of these tips useful. Try them out if you would like and let me know how you get on!