It’s possible that despite filling your kitchen with healthy food and planning your meals carefully, your weight loss journey isn’t progressing as you’d like it to. Does this sound familiar? If so, it might be time to take a closer look at your eating habits and eliminate any unhealthy practices that might be sabotaging your progress.
To begin, it’s essential to identify the habits that are causing the most harm. Review the following list of common eating habits that add empty calories, unhealthy fats, or added sugars to your diet. Recognize any of these detrimental behaviors? It’s entirely possible that you’re unaware of the negative impact these habits have on your waistline.
By pinpointing and targeting problematic habits, you can more easily find solutions and witness tangible results on the scale. Once you’ve identified a behavior to eliminate, consider swapping it for a healthier practice. In most cases, it’s best to replace a bad eating habit with a more beneficial practice that’s easy and enjoyable, making it more likely that you’ll stick to it.
While the suggestions listed below each bad habit can serve as a starting point for change, remember to tailor these solutions to your lifestyle. You can even get creative and develop personalized alternatives that work better for you.
1. You Call Your Habits “Bad”
The first habit you may want to address is the language you use to describe your eating routines. Just eliminating the word “bad” can be a small step in the right direction.
Elisabetta Politi, MPH, RD, LDN, CDE, is the Nutrition Director at Duke Diet and Fitness Center, a world-renowned weight loss program affiliated with the Duke University Medical Center. She says that attaching judgment to behaviors can impede weight loss.
“Shame is not helpful,” she says, adding that diet professionals are trained to address eating behaviors without judgment.
“There is no right way to eat, and I am not a guru of bad habits. I simply help clients to eat in a way that is healthy and feels good. That way my clients are more likely to sustain their program.”
She goes on to say that whether you are working with a professional or changing unhealthy habits on your own, a slow and gentle approach is best. Target one habit at a time and set a goal to find a simple replacement behavior to boost healthy eating and wellness.
2. You Keep a Snack-Happy Kitchen
Once you’ve set aside judgment, it’s time to bolster your healthy eating routine by creating an environment for success. The best place to start is in the kitchen.
Do you keep high-calorie foods on your kitchen counter? Do you store empty calorie snack foods in eye-level cabinets? Are leftovers, sugary drinks, or fatty sweet treats taking over the center shelves of the refrigerator? These food storage habits may encourage unhealthy, mindless eating, according to studies performed at Cornell University.
3. You Ignore Food Prep Calories
If you love to cook, you’re one step ahead of the pack when it comes to healthy eating or weight loss. When you plan and cook healthy meals at home, it becomes easier to focus on nutritious ingredients and portion control.
But have you ever wondered how many calories you add to your daily diet when you lick the spoon from the peanut butter jar, grab an extra dollop or two of cookie dough, or taste your homemade pesto recipe again…and again…and again? It can add up to hundreds of calories per day that aren’t accounted for in your smart calorie-counting. As a result, you might get frustrated and may even give up on a healthy diet or weight loss plan.
4. You Eat With Distractions
The best way to eat more than you need (and add unwanted pounds to your waistline) is to practice distracted eating. If you usually eat in front of a television or laptop, you are probably a distracted eater. Even eating with books or magazines can take the focus away from your meal.
If you increase enjoyment of your meal, you are more likely to eat slowly, enjoy your food, and recognize signs of hunger and fullness so that you eat the right amount of food. To do so, create a satisfying experience at mealtime.
5. You Sneak Food
According to Politi, sneaking food is an unhealthy habit that many of her clients would like to change. She explains that many times we practice good eating habits when others are around. For example, you might eat well during the day when your spouse is nearby. But when your husband or wife goes to bed, you find yourself nibbling on foods that you typically would avoid. In fact, one study found a link between eating alone and your risk for metabolic syndrome.
You may want to investigate why you feel the need to break away from healthy habits when you are alone. Politi says that some of her clients feel “free to do what they want” when no one is looking. If that sounds familiar, your food plan may be too restrictive, and you may need to make some adjustments.
6. You Fall for Health Halo Foods
Advertising claims on the front of food packages can make foods seem more healthy than they are. For example, a box of cookies might advertise that they are made from all-natural, non-GMO, organic ingredients—but they are still cookies. And those cookies may be very high in unhealthy fat, added sugar, and empty calories.
Some research has shown that we tend to overeat foods that we perceive to be healthy.
7. You Eat Past the Point of Fullness
Our “clean plate” culture teaches us that it is polite to finish all of the food on our plates—even if we are already full. But this practice of good manners is a bad eating habit that may cause us to overeat. And to make matters worse, if you are a fast eater or a distracted eater, you may also find that you eat past the point of fullness.
The best way to avoid overeating is to slow down your eating practice so that you can feel the body sensations as you get full.
Each of these practices gives you more time to recognize the sensation of a full belly so that you stop eating when you’ve had enough.
8. You Underestimate Food Share Calories
If you are a mom who cooks for her kids, it’s likely that you nibble on your kid’s meals from time to time. As a busy parent, this may seem like the most convenient way to feed yourself. But if you make this a regular practice it can become an unhealthy habit. Maintaining a healthy weight can be difficult if you are not mindful of the amount or the quality of food that you consume.
9. You Eat Straight From the Box
How many times have you grabbed a box of cereal and eaten it dry right from the box? When you consume snack crackers or chips, do you scan the serving size then place a single serving in a bowl or on a plate? Or do you plunge your hand into the bag and begin nibbling?
Eating straight from the box or the bag is convenient and it can certainly cut down on your dirty dish count, but this bad habit does nothing good for your waistline. In fact, it can add hundreds of excess calories to your daily total.
10. You Order In Too Often
If you live in a city where food delivery is easy, then you might take advantage of the service on busy nights when you don’t have time to cook. But if you order in too often, it can become a bad habit.
It’s easy to order too much food and overeat as a result. In addition, many of the foods that are available for delivery (think pizza, subs, fast food) are oversized and full of fat and calories.
Your wallet and your waistline will thank you if you can plan ahead and have nutritious meals ready to go when you are too busy to cook.
11. You Drink Your Calories
A flavored latte or frothy cappuccino can be a delicious way to start your day. Unfortunately, a coffee habit may boost your sugar and fat intake more than you realize.
Many of the drinks at Starbucks and other coffee shops provide an entire meal’s worth of calories, fat, and sugar. If you add a super-sized soda at lunchtime and a glass of wine or two at dinner, you may be consuming more calories from drinks than you do from healthy and nutritious food.