I love how “It’s Raining!” is the top news story in Vancouver this week. I’m not even from here, and that doesn’t seem like its news to me.
To be fair, this week does feel a lot more like October than August. As I was fairly content exercising during the warmer temperatures, there were major adjustments that I had to make now that the temperature has dropped.
I’m a snacker at heart, and the heat wave took care of my after dinner sweet tooth. Now that it’s cooled off, my snacking tendencies have returned with a vengeance. So my challenge this week is to control my snacking. I’ve boiled it down to a 3 step strategy.
Step 1: Get Busy
I have noticed that when I have the urge to snack, it’s not really when I’m hungry, it’s more likely that I’m bored. I find that when I watch TV in the evenings, I’m so conditioned to snacking, regardless of whether or not I just ate dinner. To counteract this habit, I’ve tried to save all my emails to family and friends until evening when I’d normally just be sitting, watching TV. So now I am keeping my hands and brain busy so I hopefully forget about snacking altogether.
Step 2: Time’s up!
I’m a late night snacker. I usually want something sweet an hour or so after dinner. So, a few months ago I made a conscious effort to avoid eating after 8pm. Really, it was just an arbitrary time between when I finished dinner and when I went to bed. It worked really well for a few weeks, but I slipped up once and then stopped being so strict about it. I think I’ll try to implement that cut off time again starting this week.
Step 3: Out of Sight, Out of Mind
I’ve been pretty good at this one lately. I think that’s mostly because I hate grocery shopping, so I’m always in a hurry to get out! Simply put: if you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it. So I’ve avoided buying my favourite snack foods, like chips and cookies. Instead I fill my basket with fruits and vegetables and yogurt. Most of the time when I’m in a snacking mood and can’t find the food I want to snack on, I lose the urge to snack. That’s when I realize, I wasn’t actually hungry. Sometimes, however, I am legitimately hungry, and then I prepare myself a healthy snack.
I’ll try these 3 strategies this week and report back with my success (or lack thereof).
