Just a short and hopefully helpful message with regards to eating habits.

Snacking is one of the main reasons why many people’s good eating habits fail and they struggle to get to the weight that they are aiming for.

The question is, when you feel the urge to eat, are you actually hungry?

There are two types of hunger physical hunger and emotional hunger. Before you eat you should use something called the STOP technique:

Step back

Think about what’s going on

Options: What choices do you have, what can you plan to do?

Proceed with your plan and notice how helpful it was.

Then ask yourself a few questions; have you eaten anything in the last three of four hours? Have you noticed a sudden change in your mood? If the answer to these questions is yes then it is more than likely that the hunger you feel is emotional hunger, this type of hunger leads to comfort eating which leads to lack of progress in your diet. Emotional hunger can be caused by boredom, depression and lack of attention. Something simple like going for a walk, having a glass of water or a hot drink or talking to a friend can distract you from this hunger. Just using these simple techniques which will take a minute to run over in your head can prevent you from overeating and jeopardising all your good work.

It is a natural reaction when feelings of hunger arise to act on impulse and head straight to the fridge, try slowing things down a fraction to make a note of what is going on in your head when these feelings of hunger occur and just stop to think if food is actually needed.

A quick tip on preventing overeating is to ensure that your fluid levels are always up: sometimes when you think you are hungry you are actually just in need of a drink. So staying hydrated is key.

Another bit of advice which I think could be helpful is chewing your food. This may sound stupid, but pausing between each mouthful and savouring the flavours of the meal will make it a lot more satisfying than simply shovelling it into your mouth.

So lets just think about what we are trying to achieve and act upon that.

Good Luck,

Jamie