How To Beat Your Food Temptations

27 January 2010

I like chocolate biscuits, but they don't leave me quivering at the knees - I can eat one quite happily, without any desire to eat the whole packet.  Potato chips, on the other hand, beckon with their pretty little packets, encouraging me to "just try one" of their salty, crispy, delectable little chips... and I know if I eat one potato chip I probably won't stop, like a kid in a candy shop it'll take a responsible adult (and no I'm not referring to myself) to stop me gorging myself silly on chips, either that or a seriously large dose of willpower!

Potato chips in a bowl in front of me, or indeed potato chips in my house is a 'high risk situation' for me, a dietary accident waiting to happen, it is this nutritionist's nightmare and love affair all wrapped into one.

What's Your Dietary Downfall?

All of us have certain high risk situations that put our healthy eating goals in jeopardy. And everyone's is different, my Mum says she can't have a packet of chocolate biscuits in her house or she'll eat the lot, yet she can happily stash a few packets of potato chips in the back of her pantry and forget they're there. I could not possibly forget that I have potato chips in the pantry, they seem to have some sort of imperceptible high-frequency voice that calls to me, reminding me all day that they're there.

Maybe you can answer that question straight away - obviously mine is potato chips. But, what about you? Do you have a food or situation that always seems to tip you over the edge? And afterwards you regret having eaten so much or any of it at all?  If you already know the answer/s you're ready to get started on the next phase - learning how to control the situation and therefore improve your diet.

If you don't know where you're going wrong, or what foods/situations are your biggest issue, then it's time to find out. Use our FREE food diary to track your eating habits for a few days. In Thinking Nutrition's food diary you'll record what food you eat and when, and also where you were, how you were feeling and who you were with. This will provide you with piles of information to work out where your dietary problems lie. For example, you might notice that when you meet a friend for coffee you always eat a big piece of cake, a habit you'd rather ditch.

Get started on identifying your main dietary downfalls, read the following blog and download your free food diary, then return to this blog to continue your good work:

• Read Blog: Your FREE Food Diary - Track And Improve Your Diet

Improve Your Diet - Avoid Your High-Risk Dietary Situations

Certain situations or environments can increase the risk of bad eating habits, we can help to prevent this from happening by preventing the situation and helping to limit our exposure to the high risk situation. Research shows that prevention is always better than struggling with willpower when we're ravenous! So create little strategies to limit your exposure to troublesome situations and foods. Following are some examples of how you can do this and links to any blog postings that elaborate on these points:

1. Make your home a junk-food free zone - if junk food isn't in the cupboards, you can't gorge on it in a moment of weakness, do a quick stock-take of your cupboards, pantry and fridge and get rid of any troublesome unhealthy foods that you struggle with. Keeping high-fat/sugar foods out of the house will limit your exposure to these foods and therefore your consumption. A recent US study found that people who maintained a healthy weight had less junk food and more healthy fruit, veges and low-fat dairy products in their homes than people who struggled with weight problems.

• Read more: Shape up for summer - Tip 2 - Healthy homes

2. See no evil, eat no evil - if you do decide to keep some junk food (e.g. high-fat/sugar snack foods) in the house then hide it out of the way to reduce your consumption. Put it in a non-transparent container at the top of the pantry out of eyesight, or better still out in the garage. And put healthy snacks like fruit, low-fat crackers and muesli bars at eye level in the pantry, so you'll choose these healthier snack options first. Try the same approach in your fridge.

• Read more: Reduce mindless eating by concealing food
• Read more: Foolproof your fridge for healthy eating

3. Avoid situations where overeating occurs - it sounds so simple its ridiculous, but the simple fact is we often put ourselves back in the same situation only to overeat again and again and end up disappointed. In the example about coffee with a friend above, when you always end up eating a piece of cake too, you could easily prevent this situation from occurring - and not by avoiding your friend, but simply ask your friend to grab a takeaway coffee to enjoy while you stroll around, that way you'll get exercise, enjoy a coffee and a chat and you'll be hard pressed to eat a piece of cake while you're walking; you'll avoid the situation that normally leads to overeating.

Have a good think about your specific situation, maybe you always stop at the dairy on the way to work and buy a chocolate bar - so change your route to work so you don't go past the dairy. Or maybe you make bad choices for work lunches (e.g. McDonalds supersized combo with burger, fries and softdrink) when you visit the food hall at your local shopping mall - so don't go to the shopping mall for lunch, instead visit a cafe that has healthier options to choose. The aim is to remove yourself from the situation to prevent the problem from occurring. 

Improve Your Eating Habits Now

About The Author

Jennifer Bowden Nutritionist, MSc (Dist), BSc (Hons) - Human Nutrition

FREE Nutrition Advice

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