How To Reduce Your Junk Food Consumption.

1. Recognise you have a problem – this is the first step to creating a change in habit. Understand when you reach for unhealthy food choices. This can help you to address to the root cause of why your food choices are not optimal for your health. For instance you don’t have time/energy to cook healthy food during the week due to busy work/family schedules., so you reach for quick and easy convenience foods. It’s easier to throw a pizza in the oven than prepare something healthy. So, perhaps think about preparing some healthier food on the weekend that you can easily heat up quickly during the week. For example, you can prepare some roasted vegetables that will last you a few days, or you could make a healthy stew in a large batch that can be frozen and easily warmed up during the week. 
2. Try to reduce you consumption of your favorite junk/fast food. Maybe try to limit yourself to having  your ‘junk’ food once a week . Whatever goal you set ,try and keep to it, then re-evaluate the goal as you reduce your consumption. 
3. Try to remove as much temptation as possible. Don’t keep many unhealthy snacks and foods at home, the harder you make it to access these foods the less you will consume of them. If you have to drive to the shops to get something then it’s much less likely to be consumed than if it’s kept in your kitchen cupboards. This doesn’t mean binge eating all your treats that you have at home though….Also a good trick for not buying junk is making sure you don’t got to the supermarket when your hungry. eat something before you go, or better still shop online and get your items delivered. This creates less temptation to buy the unhealthy items. 
4. Reduce sugar consumption where you can – for instance if you put sugar in your tea/coffee try gradually reducing the amount. After a while you will get used to the lees sweet version and it will become habit. 
5. Try to keep the unhealthy items out of eyesight. Don’t put cakes, biscuits on your counter spaces where you can see them, same with alcohol, keep it hidden and you will most likely consume less. 
6. Track your food/snacks/drinks. Writing down what you consume may make you realise how much you are actually consuming! Just being more aware can create change. There are plenty of Apps to help you with this. 
7. Make healthier swaps – unsalted nuts instead of reaching for the chips or biscuits, or non-alcoholic beer instead of the alcoholic version. You can read more about my recommended healthy snacks in a blog post I wrote HERE.
8. Seek professional help if you think you need it! I am always happy to help you create some sustainable changes in you lifestyle habits. Just contact me HERE and we can discuss further!

Tiffany.