At Matthews Internal Medicine, we always tell our patients just how important a healthy diet is. We also understand that changing your diet can’t happen overnight. If you’re trying to lose weight, there are actually some smart ways that you can “trick” yourself into making healthy eating a habit. If you’re having trouble keeping veggies and other healthy snacks in your diet, here are some approaches that you can take.
Keep a Food Diary
Before you go about dramatically changing your diet, it’s important to learn more about what you’re eating right now. Write down what you’re eating and drinking, and even more importantly, note the time. This can help you spot bad habits, like eating too fast, skipping meals, or eating right after a meal when you were probably just distracted or bored instead of actually hungry. You might notice that you’ve been eating a lot more than you thought during your favorite shows or during a weekend movie night. Perhaps you’ve been consuming more alcohol than you thought. Figuring out when you’re engaging in bad habits can help you establish new, healthier ones.
Establish Healthier Habits
Now it’s time to replace some of those bad behaviors. If you find that you’re eating too fast at lunch, maybe make an effort to grab lunch with a friend or colleague a few times a week to slow yourself down. If you keep eating while the TV is on, keep the snacks in the cabinet while you’re binging Netflix. If you’re drinking too much, skip that work happy hour or don’t make alcohol a part of your weekly meetup with your friends. Replacing just a few of your bad habits with good ones can make a big difference in any weight management plan.
Avoid Getting Too Hungry or Too Full
This sounds difficult, but it’s less complicated than it seems. Basically, getting too full means that you’ve overeaten. If you feel tired after a meal you may have eaten more than your fill, meaning that you should really slow down and be more mindful about what you eat in the future. At the same time, starving yourself is a bad idea too. Being too hungry can cause you to overeat, or pick the wrong foods and overeat! Grocery shopping when hungry can also be a terrible idea, leading to you leaving the store with impulsively purchased snacks that are low on nutritional value.
Always Opt for More Vegetables
Adding more vegetables to your diet is the best way to make it healthier, and there are many ways to sneak more of them into your diet. Many types of veggies make for great snacks that can replace less healthy alternatives, like chips, over time. You can sub in veggie noodles for pasta, try out cauliflower rice, or just find more recipes that use vegetables. There are so many ways to incorporate more vegetables into your diet, and taking every opportunity to eat more of them will make a big difference.
Your Medical Weight Management Experts in Matthews, NC
Losing weight can make you feel great and helps you avoid many different types of ailments later in life. At Matthews Internal Medicine, our internists are experts in medical weight management and will help you craft a safe and effective plan for weight loss. Schedule an appointment and get started today!