"I can't stop snacking!"

Yesterday I found myself taking crisps from the large family pack of kettle chips I bought and portioning them in to a small bowl. Very sensible right.

Now if you’d have told me last week to portion out my crisps in to a bowl instead of eating from the family size bag I would have kindly told you to F off.

This week however I am finding this small change quite helpful. Last week I was in the middle of moving house and was desperately searching for comfort. This week I am calm, happy and ready to make some adjustments to improve my eating habits.

I understand not everyone is in the fortunate position to be able to moderate their eating successfully.

However should you want to, there are little things you can do to manipulate portion sizes at home and stop so much snacking. Do understand we are largely living in a stressful time (a pandemic) so accepting that a little bit of emotional eating may occur and that's in no way a crime.

Here is a list of tips to help you if you feel like you can't stop snacking:
 

1) Firstly asses why you are snacking more than usual. I highly recommend using the ‘HALT’ acronym. Ask yourself: Am I…

Hungry - Sometimes we snack too much because we are genuinely hungry and haven’t been eating proper meals. You can usually tell if you’re genuinely hungry by your stomach rumbling and heightened cravings. Try to eat a balanced snack including protein, complex carbs and a little fat.

Angry - If we are feeling a strong emotion like anger it may be better to address this emotion with another form other than food. Perhaps going on a walk or calling a friend to chat about it.

Lonely - Feeling lonely sucks. I know right now more than ever we are craving hugs with our loved ones. Again perhaps try reaching out on a video call to someone. Talk to someone as we are mostly feeling the same way.

Tired - There are numerous studies showing that increased fatigue can affect our appetite. It may be tricky but making sure your sleep hygiene is in check can greatly help this.


2) If you do find you are hungry and genuinely want some food then by all means eat what you’ve been craving but be mindful with the portion sizing. Very calorie dense food tastes great and is usually in large packaging. Try to take a portion on to a plate and put the big packet back. Some people work better with 'out of sight out of mind' and not having the food in the house. While this method helps some I'm still not sure how much that helps our relationship with food. Do what works best for you with this one.

3) Don’t white knuckle ride your way through cravings. If you reeeeally want chocolate then let yourself have a bit and enjoy it! It’s much better than using willpower for ages until you finally give in and go in to ‘f it’ mode and eat the whole large bar.


4)  Use mindful eating techniques to eat slowly and enjoy the food. Try to sit down without distraction. 


5) If you are hungry and not craving something specific then eat a balanced snack that includes protein, carbs and fat with a good amount of fibre. For example a piece of brown toast with smoked salmon or another protein source on top. Some other examples could be high protein yogurt and fruit, rice cakes and a protein topping like tuna or a boiled egg.

I hope these help. It is stressful at the moment so the number one point is to not be so hard on yourself. If you do have a slip up then let it go, you can always make the rest of the day or tomorrow better :)