I was on the phone with one of my most recent health coaching clients and she was lamenting the fact that she cannot remember to eat healthy. She sees food that she knows is not good for her and she just goes for it. After she eats it, she suddenly remembers that she was supposed to be making better food choices. This remembering then leads to feelings of guilt and frustration.
Ultimately, our conversation was steered towards answering the question of: How do you remember to eat healthy?
Before we get into some tricks to help you remember to eat healthy, I want you to consider your current mindset around eating well for your body.
Is it a burden?
Is it just something you have to do because you know it is “good” for you?
Do you dread it?
Are you paralyzed in the kitchen and grocery store because you do not want to make the wrong food choices?
Take a deep breath. Changing your eating habits is not going to be an overnight thing. Sure, you could make it an overnight thing if you used a cleanse or specific diet fads, but the goal is to adjust your eating habits in a sustainable way. This means changing one habit every few weeks so you are not overwhelmed or deprived.
So, how do you remember to eat healthy on a consistent basis without crash diets?
To start, you have to do a little reflecting. After you eat something that is not nutritionally valuable to your body, how do you feel mentally, physically, and emotionally?
How do you feel after you eat something that IS nutritionally valuable to your body?
Before you grab the food that is the less positive of your two options, think through these post-eating feelings and ask yourself, how do I want to feel?
There are also a few tricks you can utilize to help you remember to eat healthy.
1. Put a background picture on your phone that includes you feeling amazing, or an image of your motivation for change (a picture of family, pets, hikes, etc.). Peek at your phone before you make a food choice.
2. Put yourself on a tight work food budget. This will encourage you to pack healthy meals and snacks and avoid the vending machines and lunches out.
3. Pop a mint or piece of gum before you head into the break room. If there are office snacks in there, you are less likely to grab one if you are minty fresh.
4. Drink a glass of water before you eat. This will take the edge off your hunger and give you time to think through your food choices. Plus, you will get the added benefits of having a hydrated body!
5. Do a taste bud analysis to see if the unhealthy snacks you are eating are really that tasty, or if they have just become a habit.
6. Consider your emotional state before, during, and after you eat. Are you feeling bored or upset in any way before you eat something or is it really hunger?
7. Enlist a co-worker as an accountability partner. This is someone who will warn you about what is in the break room, question you as you head to the vending machine, and can swap tasty lunch and snack ideas with.
8. Distract yourself. If you feel like you are itching to hit the vending machine or grab one of those break room snacks, go for a quick walk around the office (or outside if you can) instead with your Fitbit (affiliate link). Leave the room where the temptations are or focus on checking off another thing on your to do list.
Pick two items from this list to implement in the next week. Do your best to stick to them until they become more of a habit and not so conscious.
Keep in mind that remembering to eat healthy is a phase. You are going to have to be very conscious of it as you work to make it habit, but over time, you will not have to remember and you just will!
I’m Brooke Selb, a Personal Trainer and Health Coach specializing in helping busy moms and moms to be to easily juggle mom life with family friendly recipes, and easy exercise routines to help you achieve your fitness goals that fit in with your already busy life with sound nutritional advice.
Such good points! The gum in the mouth is probably my favorite go-to! I do it if we do go out to eat and I am already full. I tend to keep eating if the food is right there in front of me. Gum helps just cut me off at the source!
It’s a good trick! I am the same way with food, if I can see it, I will probably eat it.
These are great tips. A couple of other tricks I like to do are:
1) Get up and move. I find after getting up for a quick walk around my house or work I no longer feel that urge to munch on something when I’ve been sitting all day.
2) Prep healthy snacks. It’s the worst when you are hungry and all you have is vending machine food at work or your kid’s goldfish at home.
Love both of these tips! Movement is actually linked to increased brain activity and creativity. That’s why I’m usually standing in meetings (and so I don’t fall asleep).
These are such great tips!
For me, I like to meal plan at the beginning of the week, and I shop only for those items for the recipe. That way I don’t steer off the menu. Of course I do buy snacking items but they’re mostly trail mixes that have bits of chocolate and dried fruit to give us that sweet. We do also snack on ju jubs too but I find that those things aren’t as high in fat as things like chips….We aren’t perfect by any means but we do try!!
I have a lot of health problems so it’s imperative that I do my best to control what I can!
Thanks for all these great tips!
I just adore meal planning (if you didn’t know that about me already). It helps to save money and takes the guess work out of what you’ll be eating the rest of the week. I also don’t think anyone is perfect when it comes to eating! It is all about trying, like you said, and being aware of what is best for your body, mind, and soul.
These are some really great suggestions! I never thought of popping in some gum or a mint to ward off from snacking at work! I agree that water helps a lot, sometimes when we think we’re hungry we are actually just thirsty! I will have to try to do more of these things!
Confusing hunger with dehydration is such a common problem right now. It’s amazing how much water our bodies truly need!
Great tips. I sometimes get off track, but I feel like I do fairly well. I think that packing my own food for work helps a lot – and eating a mint or chewing gum after I eat lunch.
-Lauren
Yes, packing your own food is so key. Especially if you get really hungry later in the day, at least you are prepared.
I love these suggestions! I’ve been trying a few of them over the last few weeks and they really work!
So glad to hear that!
These are some really great tips! Love the idea of having an accountability partner. Thanks for sharing.
So glad you enjoyed them. Accountability partners can be a wonderful addition to your health regime!
Thank you for sharing, gosh I needed this!! What works for me normally is packing a lunch or keeping my work lunch budget to an absolute minimum. Then I will not overspend and eat junk.
The mint or piece of gum trick is good; I don’t want to eat anything while I have a minty taste in my mouth.
Mindfulness eating is good too. Don’t rush food, eat slowly and mindfully. You’ll end up becoming fuller more easily on your healthy meal.
Yes, eating slowly is a great tip. Though that is really hard for many of us since there is so much eating in front of screens now a days.
When considering eating healthy, you must try not to fall victim to modern day fad diet plans. Extreme diets are a danger for your health, especially ones that seriously limit your every day nutritional intake. Many of these fad diets work for a short period of time and then the benefits decrease after a while.
I completely agree. Fad diets do not work for a consistent weight loss.
Thanks for these amazing tips. Often I’ve set to commit to healthy eating habits only to backslide into an unbalanced snacky, beefy diet…. these steps will really come in handy. I’m already looking forward to packing smoothies and salads to work.