Growing levels of obesity around the world is a huge cause of concern in the present times.
Obesity has become more common among city dwellers over the people in rural areas.
Cities have what we can call as “obesogenic environment” which makes it very easy for us to reach for food whenever we feel the urge.
It is really easy for a person living in the city to reach for the food he loves whenever he has the craving than for a person living in a remote rural part of the country.
Food is available in abundance almost everywhere in the city that our mere will power cannot cope up with our urge to reach for it.
However, as an individual, you can take appropriate steps to control your craving and moderate the amount of food you consume on a regular basis. Here are some simple tips to get you started.
Become knowledgeable about your foods
Most of us do not have the remotest idea about what our favorite foods contain and how much calories it contributes to your daily diet.
This lack of knowledge can make you overeat the food you love just because it tastes great.
It is very important that you become aware of the nutrient and calorie content in the foods you consume on a regular basis.
Go for foods that are not just rich in calories but also rich in nutrient contents. Most processed foods supply your body with high levels of calories while hardly making you feel any fuller. Non-processed and nutrient-rich foods, on the other hand, will make you feel full and satisfy your hunger more quickly.
While reaching for your cookies or a bag of chips is not entirely prohibited, you need to know your limits when consuming them as well. Finishing off an entire bag of chips or a full pack of cookies in one go is definitely bad for your health.
Keep track of your calories
Whether you are using an iPhone or an Android device, both play store and App Store are loaded with apps that help you to keep track of your daily calorie intake.
Logging in the foods you consume for each meal session or during your snack time has been proven to be incredibly powerful in cutting down the excessive calorie intake.
Lack of awareness is one of the main reasons why we overeat every day. Keeping a journal or a record of the foods we consume every day helps a lot to cut down your food intake to healthy levels.
Properly manage your food environment
Having a pack of cookies or a bowl of chips lying over your dining table will naturally make you reach for it. So it is better to hide it away or not have them at all.
Keep a big bowl of fresh fruits over your dining table and keep healthy foods at your reach in refrigerator or cupboard which will encourage you to eat more of it.
Plan your foods and keep your healthy food choices more easily reachable. This helps you to eat healthy when hunger strikes.
Additionally, healthy foods will make you feel fuller for a longer time duration, making you eat lesser.
Get enough sleep
Getting the right levels of sleep at the right times will make you feel fresh and elevate your energy levels.
On the contrary, sleep deprivation can make you feel foggy, increase your fatigue levels, and decreases your awareness.
People who are sleep deprived feel the need to eat more due to lack of energy, which increases your chances of overeating.
Additionally, sleep deprivation can reduce your enthusiasm to cook your own food and you might greatly inclined towards eating out or ordering food you love which might be unhealthy to boost your mood.
Sleep experts recommend at least 6 to 8 hours of peaceful sleep every night at a similar time frame.
This will greatly improve your sleep quality and increase your motivation levels to eat healthily.
Be mindful of your eating
Often times we do not care about what we put in our mouth. You notice a couple of biscuits leftover after the evening tea on the table, you pick up those and finish it off.
This type of habit is one of the vital reasons for overeating. Half of the time we are not even aware that we are overeating.
Munching on a piece of cake while watching a movie or grabbing a bar of chocolate while chatting with a friend greatly increases your daily calorie intake without you even being aware of it.
Best way to cut down on this habit would be to become mindful of what you are eating and not lose track with casual food intake, thinking that it wouldn’t add up much when in reality it does to a great extent.
Pay attention to emotional triggers
Most people have the habit of reaching for foods when they feel sad or depressed. It is so imbibed in their subconscious that they could hardly help it.
While this type of habit is hard to alter, try to become more aware of your emotional triggers and replace it with a non-food related activity.
It takes around three weeks to reprogram your brain and alter your habit, so it is very crucial to keep going till becomes your natural response to your emotions.