‘Their dinner was just too good to waste, and the biscuits in the cupboard keep talking to me!’
A common problem that a lot of my clients struggle with…
You’ve prepared a nice meal for the kids, and they’ve left some of it.
Sometimes it’s a really high quality, healthy meal, and it seems such a waste to throw it away right?
A few mouthfuls won’t hurt…
Sometimes it’s not even something you really fancy, but you mindlessly have a few nibbles to help them out, or pop the bit of leftover sausage in your mouth rather than the bin.
So easily done.
And then there’s the chocolates, sweets and biscuits in the cupboard…
They’re not for you, they’re for the kids right!
But they’re just so tempting, sitting there waiting to be eaten…
All these extra calories easily add up and could easily be holding back your weight loss.
So what can you do?
Here’s some ideas –
Top tips for dealing with leftovers:
- If the kids have dinner at a different time to you, have a chewing gum or mint so you’re less likely to mindlessly eat some of their food
- Or, have an apple, yogurt or other low calorie healthy snack at the same time as they eat
- When there’s food left over, assess whether it can be saved for tomorrow, or even put in the freezer if there’s enough
- If you can’t really save it and don’t want to throw it away, keep it to put on your plate when you have dinner, and then serve yourself a little bit less of whatever else you were going to have
- If you don’t WANT to save it for later, are reluctant to throw it away, but don’t really need to eat right now, remember that it’s better off in the bin than stored on your body as extra fat. You are not a dustbin! Throw it away!
Top tips for junk food snacking:
- If you find you keep eating it when it’s in the house, stop buying it!
- I have to follow the above rule myself for chocolate and biscuits too – when they’re there and open, I become magnetically drawn to the cupboard and end up eating them
- If you really NEED to buy these foods for your kids or partner, see if you can find things that THEY like but YOU don’t. There are normally certain types of sweets or chocolate that we aren’t particularly fussed by, but others really enjoy. Kids are usually pleased with anything sweet or chocolatey. If you can find that’s the case, switch to buying those things instead
- If your partner wants to keep eating things that you like, get them to buy it themselves and/or keep it somewhere separate from places you normally go. They should want to make things easy for you so this shouldn’t be a problem!
- Always have fruit on hand somewhere visible so that you can reach for that instead
- Keep options hot chocolate powder in stock so that you can have a sweet, tasty, 39 calorie hot drink should the cravings monster attack
If one or more of these tips jump out at you, do something about it now!
You’ll forget otherwise – you’re busy and have a ton of other things to think about too.
Write it down somewhere you’ll see it – on your phone, your fridge, your shopping list or anywhere else.
And then take action and let me know if it helps!