5 Tips to Quit the Junk Food Addiction

Just can’t quit the JUNK FOOD? 

You’re tired, you’re stressed, you’re busy – I get it!

I feel it too! But it’s no excuse to constantly reach for the junk food and use sugar and unhealthy snacks as way to cope or ‘feel better’.   Do you really even feel that much better after eating them?  Maybe you’re addicted to that 5-second dopamine rush + blood sugar hit but then? 

Really, all they do is make you feel worse…

• • • Worse digestion
  • • Worse skin
  • • Low energy
  • • Sugar coma
  • • Headache
  • • Bad mood
  • • Fuzzy head
  • Bad sleep

You know the drill! ?

Then you reach for more cause you’re addicted and want that dopamine hit again. Am I right?

But instead you feel even worse and then comes the G word. G U I L T !

And so begins the vicious cycle that you just can’t get out of.  You know that old hamster wheel?

Instead of the nourishment your body needs from antioxidant-rich, nutrient-dense wholefoods, you replace it with junk food, sugar, and processed foods that wreak havoc throughout your body.

It changes your gut microbiome so you’re not properly digesting your food, which can then lead to fermentation.  Then to top it off, the times you are trying to nourish your body and eat healthy food, you aren’t even able to digest it properly because your gut bacteria is all out of whack and there’s serious inflammation going on down there so you don’t even absorb all the nutrients the good food has to offer.

This leads to massive nutrient deficiencies, imbalances + illness. Eventually chronic.

I mean who actually wants that?

Most don’t but still are eating in a way that promotes this.

Wouldn’t you rather pave a new healthy path to finish 2019 and start the new year – new decade even in 2020? 

Wouldn’t you like to be able to quit your junk food addiction today?

Those unhealthy habits & all that junk food are sooo last decade. ?

QUIT THE JUNK FOOD WITH THESE 5 TIPS:

1. The Desire to Change

The 1st and most important step!

Do you even what to change? This is a question you need to start by asking yourself.  Change takes effort, energy and it can be down right scary. 

Do you ever think, “I really want to start eating less sugar, more broccoli & greens, less junk food, drink less, exercise more, live a healthier lifestyle”? Or whatever your ‘desires’ may be, but are they really your desires?  Maybe you want to make these changes because you think or feel you should but when it comes down to it – do you really want to change your habits?

Think about this for a minute.

To change habits, behaviour patterns & accomplish big goals then stick to new ones, you must have a WHY. Like everything in life, if we don’t know why we are doing it, then we either won’t do it or will try but it won’t last very long.

Your ‘WHY’ has to outweigh the benefits of your old habit or behaviour. Otherwise there’s not enough incentive for you to put the energy into changing this habit.

I mean if you get nothing but joy out of eating that whole bag of Doritos then why would you stop eating them? Even if you know they’re not good for your body.  

Maybe you would rather eat to promote wellness rather than disease. That’s a really good reason NOT to eat Doritos – to prevent chronic illness & disease. But even then it’s easy to trick your mind into believing that ‘1 more bag won’t hurt you’ because you can’t see any visible effects from it just yet.

So maybe something like ‘I want to lose that last 5kg’s’ as you know these Doritos haven’t been helping lose those last few. Or I want to have enough energy to workout 5 days a week and you know the junk food is making you feel lethargic.

What is your ‘WHY’ to stop eating junk food?

2. Mindful Eating

How often to you actually eat your lunch without staring at your phone, working on your computer, or watching TV? Do you even know what you’re putting in your mouth half the time?

In these busy times, we eat so unconsciously.  We’ve forgotten why we eat and how to chew!

It’s so important to bring more consciousness + mindfulness to your eating patterns. When choosing foods to put in your mouth, think about how it will nourish your body or not.  Many foods are only making your body more toxic and many processed foods + junk foods have zero nutrition at all.

Sloooowww dowwwwnnnn when you eat!

Take notice of what your food looks like, smells like, feels in your mouth + take time to really chew to help your digestion!

Bring awareness to when + why you reach for the junk food or have certain cravings.

Do you eat:

• • • for emotional reasons? (bored, unhappy, angry, depressed, happy)
  • • to procrastinate from things you should really be doing? (So guilty!)
  • • cause you’re feeling tired or lethargic and want more energy?
  • • because it just tastes so frickin good and you’re slightly addicted?
  • or maybe because you’re actually really just hungry – very good reason!

Try keeping a food journal or keep track on your phone. This helps to bring more conscious + mindful behaviour to your eating patterns which is the next important step to being able to change your patterns & habits.  There are plenty of super delicious healthy foods + meals out there that can give you the same benefit! You don’t have to fill those voids with junk food all the time!

If you don’t know what the real reasons behind why you keep going for these foods and sticking to your bad habits, then how will you change them?

 

3. Preparation is Key!

Set yourself up for success!!

We’re all busy, running from place to place and as much as we would love that luxury of the old days being able to cook elaborate meals from home every day & night, that just isn’t most of our realities anymore.  If you’re like many you’re grabbing the quickest, easiest or most convenient foods. Unfortunately that tends to be the junk food or very aptly called ‘convenience food’.

FYI – THIS IS NOT FOOD!

It might fill you up for a short time and give you some energy but it’s not giving your body any or very little nutrition which is the whole point of why you eat in the first place. Our modern Western societies have almost completely forgotten why we even eat food at all. It’s not just to fuel your body with calories for energy and to taste good, the purpose of food is to nourish your body with all the nutrients your cells, tissues + organs require to thrive not just survive.  Choose foods that will nourish your body, will build it up, will give you natural energy and will help you thrive.

Ideally we should still be trying to eat at least 80% of our food home-cooked but instead we default to quick meals and easy-to-grab food we can eat on the run.  I’m not gonna lie – this is often my reality too. But, I still choose healthy options. And the days I have to go to the office, I always make sure I make a homemade lunch.  It doesn’t have to be processed, unhealthy crap all the time.

Having healthy options prepared or easy to grab is a total game changer when trying to improve your eating habits.

Ideas to be prepared:

• buy healthy snacks from your local health food store or ‘healthy aisle’ at the supermarket to have on hand (**Be Warned – not all foods at the health foods stores and in the ‘healthy’ aisle are healthy – make sure to read the ingredients & the labels!)

• check out new recipes online to find healthy alternatives to your usual go-to snacks + meals – choose a few and make up a shopping list

• meal prep + batch make for the week by making a few of those new healthy recipes you found online and make enough for leftovers or to freeze

• have veggies cut up that you can dip in homemade or store-bought healthy hummus, or fresh fruit & raw nuts on hand to snack on if you get cravings

• make some super easy-to-make superfood energy balls and keep them in the freezer to snack on when you feel like a naughty treat to give you energy and curb those cravings- kids love these and you can hide lots of healthy ingredients in them

4. Healthy Go-To’s & Alternatives

For almost every unhealthy snack there is a much healthier option! We’ve defaulted to what we know either based on how we grew up, bad habits we’ve created, being sucked in by the Food Industry brainwashing marketing or just not knowing what other options are out there. Take the time to do a little research and be adventurous! Try new things!

There are soooo many options out there these days.

This could a life-changer… opening you up to new exciting ingredients and ways of eating!

The meat & 3-veg days are gone – there’s so much more variety out there!

Search online for some healthy recipe alternatives to some of your faves. Even desserts have much healthier options these days that are easy-to-make and not loaded with processed sugars. Make a few and make them your staples.

For example, there’s no need to make unhealthy pancakes anymore out of a packet! All you need is oats, eggs and bananas and whatever other healthy ingredients you want to add in like chia seeds or blueberries!

As mentioned above, take a tour around your local health food shop and read labels. Choose some nice healthy snacks that you can try instead of that Mars Bar or bag of Doritos. But remember that not everything in the health food store is healthy! Deep fried vegetable or lentil chips are still not good for you.  Just because it’s not a potato doesn’t make it healthier if it’s deep fried.  Choose oven-baked chips over fried ones for example. Try 85% organic dark chocolate over the Mars Bar. I promise you it will last much longer and if it doesn’t vibe with you at first – give it a chance – your pallet will adapt over time and you might actually start to enjoy it! I used to be a chocolate addict growing up and I can’t even eat milk chocolate anymore because it’s too sweet!

FYI… That bitter flavour is actually really good for you and helps to stimulate your digestion! ?

If you live in a city then there’s plenty of healthy cafes & restaurants around these days.

Or many restaurants now have much healthier options on their menus.

Don’t default to the same old meal you might normally choose if it’s not healthy. Try something different on the menu that has clean wholefood ingredients and that isn’t deep fried. I dare you to try a new ‘healthy’ cafe or restaurant and choose something on the menu you would never have chosen before.

 

5. Go ‘Cold Turkey’!

IT’S ALL OR NOTHING BABY!

Allowing yourself a little here and there never works. It must be all or nothing to start with or your brain tricks you into defaulting back to old habits and the old “I’ll be better tomorrow’ cliché plays on repeat and tomorrow just never comes. Sort of like here in Spain – the classic response is o ‘mañana, mañana, mañana!’

Challenge yourself to a specific amount of time that you won’t eat those foods you’re trying to stop controlling you which is the only way you can break the habits. The only way to create new healthy habits going forward & to strengthen that willpower muscle is to stop the bad habits completely for a little while, while you start creating new habits to rewire your brain.

As in tip #2, if you can pinpoint why you eat those foods in the first place then you can find a healthy replacement that will give you the same benefit or result.  It’s all about having control over what goes into your mouth instead of the junk food having control over you!

 

Are you ready to show junk food who’s boss?

 

Click here to learn more about my 10 Day Junk Food Cleanse 1:1 Program

 

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