Junk food rehab!

How many of you have been there, or maybe need to go there?

This is where you go after over indulging on all sorts of treats and you want to get back on track.

I know I’ve been there a few times.

Post holiday is normally when the junk food rehab ward is most full. After Christmas and New Year is the busiest time of year but it does pick up after Easter/ a holiday or Birthday.

How does junk food rehab work?

Well it usually takes about 7 days of rehab for most people to get over those addictive processed foods like sweets, chocolates, burgers, ice cream etc. But you can start to feel better in just a day or two.

So I shall give you 1 tip for each of the 7 days of rehabilitation to help you feel better and get over your pigging out phase.

In just 7 days you’ll be checking out an energetic and healthy person raring to go with their diet and exercise.

Tip 1

Cut Out The Bad Stuff

No surprise here really. Often the things we crave are the bad stuff due to the ingredients in them. Sadly these ingredients are mostly terrible for your health. The things you need to look out for and limit are:

• Sugars
• High fructose corn syrup
• Salt
• MSG
• Transfats
• Caffeine
• Alcohol

If you can’t cut these out completely just try and halve your intakes for the next 7 days, I guarantee after the initial withdrawal symptoms over the first few days you will feel better.

Tip 2

Replace the bad stuff

If you don’t replace all the bad stuff you’ve been eating with something you are going to be pretty hungry! Try swapping your chocolate bars for fruit and nuts, your ice cream for some healthy pancakes, coffee for green tea and fill up your plate with loads of veggies (especially the green ones) to fill you up and halt your sugary cravings, try some organic 80% dark chocolate if you find you’re still getting loads of cravings after food, just a couple of squares every few days.

Tip 3

Sweat it Out

There’s nothing quite like getting a major sweat on to make you feel better after a few too many pieces of cake (well not immediately after)! Burn off some excess calories during exercise. Things which get a real sweat going are exercise classes (circuits, spin, kettlebells are all great) or some high intensity interval training, you can do this on the bike or by running. Failing that just a bodyweight workout at home is a lot better than nothing. Plus when you exercise you will release a tonne of feel good hormones to make you feel better and is also a good way of suppressing appetite.

Tip 4

Sleep It Off

If you get your 8 hours sleep a night in then you will have much less bad food cravings. Do you ever notice that you are much more likely to crave bad foods when you are tired? Get you zzzs in and you’ll have a much better chance of fighting off the cravings.

Tip 5

Want It

If you are to succeed with your healthy eating and exercise attempts you need to really want to, there’s no point going into it with a half commitment. If you aren’t 100% committed then you will find excuse after excuse to not do it. Think about why exactly you want to change and why you don’t want to constantly be eating bad foods and let that reason drive you forward towards success. Whether it is look good for a holiday, drop weight for a sporting event or even fit into your wedding dress find a good reason and constantly remind yourself of it.

Tip 6

Chill & Enjoy

Similar to how tiredness can make you crave bad foods stress can do the same. Dedicate a little time slot each day to just chilling out, go for a walk/read a book/listen to some music/yoga, anything which is going to destress you from hectic goings on of your day. Another thing is to be happy (I know easier said than done) but just try and be as upbeat as possible, a happy person will be much more likely to want to cook and exercise than an unhappy person. I can’t say I’ve ever heard of an unhappy person craving a salad! Unhappy people like to feed their emotions with chocolate, pizza, chips and everything else to go with it.

Tip 7

Keep the Fire Burning

By fire I mean your metabolism. In order to keep it burning you need to keep on feeding it, doing this will burn the most calories. So rather than 1-2 big meals a day have 3-5 smaller meals and keep that fire burning. Obviously these need to be healthy meals, doing this will stop you snacking on bad stuff and tell your body that it isn’t being starved so it won’t store fat as much.

So there you have the 7 steps you need to do to successfully check out of Junk Food Rehab.

I guarantee if you were feeling bloated and negative then after spending a week making those changes will have made you feel loads better.

Just remember why you want to get fitter and healthier and let that motivate you.

Jamie ‘No More Junk Food’ Stedman