Stop Lying to Yourself

If you’re one of the many people who love to feast on a bowl of popcorn while watching a midnight movie you need to seriously consider how that late-night snack is ruining your diet. Sure, popcorn has a high amount of fiber, something that is good when you’re on a diet. It’s not the actual food that is the problem, but the time of day. You should stop taking in calories no later than 7:00 PM and just continue to drink water to fill you up. By that time, most people have had their dinner and are beginning to wind down from their day. That means that any calories you consume will not be burned off.

They’ll be stored in your body as excess nutrition for your body to use later. Stored calories are held in fat cells. Break this bad habit by replacing your sedentary lifestyle with exercise in the late afternoon or early evening. When you exercise, your body will continue to burn calories and fat for a few hours. Another reason why exercising later in the day is good is because not everyone has the time during the morning before work or the day gets underway to do justice to a solid workout. Many times, when you miss a workout because of scheduling conflicts, you won’t make up the time later on if you haven’t planned for it.

Take this scenario. If you are a busy mom of two and need to get your kids off to school or to daycare before you head off to work, where is their time to get to the gym to workout? There isn’t. More times than not the workout gets bumped from the daily schedule and all the efforts at eating right and trying to lose weight are reduced significantly. Get around this by scheduling your exercise at a time you know you won’t have any conflicts that will interrupt you. If your spouse is home in the evening, schedule your workout time then. If you have little ones, wait for the kids to go to bed and then workout. One word of caution though. Don’t exercise too late in the evening or it will prevent you from leeping.

Sleep deprivation can inhibit weight loss as the body sheds it’s weight while you sleep. This might seem like common sense. But if you take the time to write down everything you put in your mouth you’ll realize that you’re actually taking a bite of food, whether it’s a few M&Ms from a coworkers candy dish or a few bites of food while you’re cutting a plate of food for your kids. Everything you put in your mouth has calories. Most people make the mistake of only writing down the foods they eat during a planned meal. They may also write down a small snack. But they forget about the cream they put in their coffee, a spoonful of ice cream they snuck when doling out dessert, a few crackers they popped in her mouth because they suddenly had a sugar craving.

Some people will find themselves disciplined enough to resist mindless eating. But if you’re just starting out in your diet, or not sure how your willpower will hold out, the best thing you can do to kick this habit is to keep a small notebook tucked away in your pocket or in your purse. Every time you get the urge to bring food to your mouth pull out that notebook and write down what you are about to eat. That one small move will snap you into the realization that you might be consuming calories that will negatively affect your diet.

There are a whole lot of reasons why people eat mindlessly. Sometimes it because of depression. That depression can range from life changes or even frustration over your current health and happiness. For women, it could come at the time of the month when you’re menstruating. Some women have strong cravings during that time and eat without even realizing it. Again, using the small notebook to break that habit will significantly improve your chances of staying on track and not consuming more calories than you want to in any given day.

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