No matter how dedicated and committed you are to your weight loss goals, eating healthy, and portioning your meals, it’s fairly easy to get yourself in tricky situations where your willpower will be greatly tested. Below are some of these situations that you need to be on the lookout for when you are watching your weight and maintain your healthy eating habits. It’s vital that you’re aware of your overeating triggers so that you could plan and know how you can manage the situation as gracefully as possible, suggests a weight loss management expert from MD Diet Center, a renowned weight loss center in Orem.
Temptation at The Buffet
Put simply, fill up your plate with small helpings. Practice portion control and fill up your plate with more healthy choices and less unhealthy options. You can make several trips to the buffet table but eat your veggies and fruits first, get your protein fix next, then carbs—dessert optional.
Binge Eating while Binge-Watching
The main problem with eating while binge watching Netflix or your favorite TV show is that you are not exactly giving your food your undivided attention. So if you’re eating and binge watching at the same time, prepare your food in advance and after eating everything, stop. It’s also crucial that you give yourself a time frame. For instance, eat your food during the first or last half of the movie or show you’re watching instead of eating the whole time you’re watching.
Weekend Cheats
People always indulge themselves during Friday nights out but know that the following days could be just as hard. They usually try to rationalize the situation by telling themselves that they’ll eat healthy again on Monday since they’ve already overeaten on Friday. It’s perfectly fine to indulge yourself for one evening, but know that you’ll make it harder on yourself if you continue to overindulge.
Eating Out
Avoid overeating when dining out by eating a healthy snack before you head out to meet your family or friends. If you are planning on imbibing, stick to two to three drinks max and drink slowly to control your calorie intake and keep yourself from getting drunk and consequently losing control.
Eating to Control Your Emotions
If you are feeling especially emotional, try to find out exactly how your emotions affect your eating habits. Consider keeping a food diary to see what you eat on a daily basis and when you’re feeling emotional. You can likewise do something else to distract yourself instead of eating your emotions away.
Eating on Vacation
A great trick to avoid overindulging while you’re on holiday is to decide beforehand which will be your special meal of the day. Having a special daily meal is perfectly fine as long as you are not overindulging at every meal time. When eating dessert, consider sharing it with people you’re vacationing with.
See? You can still eat right and have fun in these tricky situations without sabotaging your weight loss goals. Just keep these strategies in mind to keep yourself on the right path.
