I am a nutrition coach, competitive runner, competitive fighter, and most importantly… I try to be a generally healthy person. Now one might learn that someone is a competitive athlete and immediately think that person is a pillar of health and wellness. While most athletes work hard to excel at their sport, many are far from being their healthiest versions of themselves, and sometimes, I am no exception to that assumption.
Why you ask? While the reasons are plentiful enough to fill a book, in this article, I’m only going to give you one very specific reason why many folks (athletes included) are not the healthiest version of themselves.
Ready for it? It may blow your mind, but most likely it won’t. Here’s the reason:
Mindless Eating
This weekend I ate a party sized bag of M&M’s. Do I regret it? No, they were delicious. Did I learn from it? Of course, I did. I’m a data driven health and wellness blogger and I used it as a reflective opportunity to research my own habits and the damage that mindless eating can do to your body composition goals.
Here’s the thing, I didn’t eat these intentionally. I happen to really like M&M’s and they happened to be readily available in the kitchen. I’d walk by, grab a handful, eat them and go about my business… no thought, no decision, just mindless food going in the mouth. Perhaps your vice isn’t M&M’s, but whatever it is I can promise you this much: if you don’t focus on eating mindfully and structuring your portions, you will always battle with body composition.
Let’s break down what that family sized bag looks like from a nutritional value perspective. Before I dive in, I know you didn’t come here for a lesson on the nutrition label of a bag of M&M’s, so please bear with me as I’ll tie this into my main point briefly.
A family sized bag is approximately 38 servings of M&M’s at 140 calories each (roughly 5320 calories). A serving also contains 30g of processed sugars (at 38 servings that’s roughly 1140g of sugar). 5000+ Calories and 1100+ grams of sugar from M&M’s in a week, for a lot of folks that is two to three days’ worth of recommended caloric consumption at maintenance. Think about that, I ate 2 days’ worth of calories in a week, just in M&M’s, and I didn’t even realize I was doing it! To be clear, believe it or not, eating a family sized bag of pure processed sugary candy is not in my list of action items I’d give most people seeking my advice on weight loss.
I’m aware that many readers probably don’t eat an entire family sized bag of M&M’s each week. However, I’d guess that if you dig deep and answer honestly that you could identify some circumstances in your day to day in which you are eating something in abundance, without much consideration for portion sizing. And the truth is, these calories add up… fast.
Is there a solution or at least some simple steps you can take to avoid mindless eating? Of course. Just be more mindful. Just kidding… the phrase ‘be mindful’ is one of the single biggest scapegoats and overutilized phrases in the health and wellness world today. Mindfulness is a skill which takes years of practice to develop. More on skills and habit development here: Mastering New Habits. Rather than use a buzzword, I’d like to offer a few simple tricks you can implement today to help reduce mindless eating and get closer to your health and wellness goals:
1. Read the label and place the food you’re going to eat on a serving dish.
This simple action removes mindlessness from the process, you no longer will be grabbing from a seemingly bottomless bag of goodness. You will have a pre-defined portion that you can eat and then be done.
2. Eat Slowly.
Just give this one a go. Try to take 10 minutes to eat your snack. Set a timer, chew more slowly, chew more times per bite, if it’s a fork and knife snack then set the utensils down between bites. Whatever it takes, slow down. Let yourself enjoy the snack and you’ll be surprised at how much less it takes to satisfy that craving.
3. Close all of the bags securely and place them in an inaccessible spot.
Remember the M&M’s? I had them sitting, open, on the kitchen counter. How easy is it to grab something you don’t need to eat when it is in plain site? Answer: too easy. So, shape your path around your goals. Often times if the sugary treat is out of site, it can fall out of mind.
4. Drink a big glass of water instead.
I know this one sounds silly, but it works. Every time you feel like having a snack that you probably don’t need, start with a big glass of water. Then wait ten minutes. If ten minutes later, you’re still hungry then by all means follow steps 1 and 2 above and have a snack. But there’s a good chance, the water will reduce or satisfy the craving.
Final Thoughts
You can eat 3 flawless meals per day, get all of your fruits and veggies in, and eat protein until you have muscles like a body builder. However, if you are stuck in a cycle of mindlessly eating in between meals, then there will always be body composition struggles to overcome, simply because you’ll be taking in more calories than you should. The simple tricks I listed above can make a huge difference in helping you achieve the physique and energy levels you are looking for.
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Previously published on medium
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Photo credit: Unsplash
