Summer Holidays is a time for a well deserved and relaxing break! While we love the summer holidays, it can be a troubled time where we eat out of boredom – “just because”.
At some point in our lives we have all mistaken that feeling of boredom for hunger. Whether it’s been absent-mindedly reaching for food every time you walk past the kitchen, or mindless eating while binging on a Netflix television season. Boredom eating can be a difficult habit to break!
Boredom eating can be unpredictable and it’s not until you have demolished a block of Cadbury chocolate (which you told yourself you were only going to have two squares of) that you realise ‘what’s just happened’! Because boredom eating is not a physiological need for food, we are often left feeling ‘guilty’ or ‘blah’ after mindlessly eating ‘just because’.
But it doesn’t always have to be that way!
Here are my 4 top tips to help prevent eating out of boredom:
1. Awareness of your eating patterns
The first step towards curbing boredom eating is being mindful of your eating patterns. It can be a difficult behaviour to stop if you are not aware of when it is happening! Grab a spare piece of paper or notebook and start a food journal. Writing down what you eat and drink during the day and the reason why you ate it is a great way to start to identify eating patterns. Try our free downloadable Awareness Eating Journal to get you started.
2. Be in tune with your hunger
Being in tune with your hunger is a really valuable tool in targeting boredom eating. Making a habit of stopping to think why you are eating and asking yourself: ‘Am I really hungry? Do I need this now?’ – is a great way to be in tune with your hunger. If you answer ‘yes’ to this question, great! Go for it! But if you don’t, this is a great way of re-directing your energy away from ‘just eating because’, to doing something else.
3. Have snacks ready to go
Most of the time when we are bored we tend not to think about what we are eating. We usually grab something that is quick and convenient! Before we know it, we are half a packet deep into Oreo’s. Keeping healthy snacks ready to go in places that are easily accessible, can help offer healthier alternatives. You can create a fruit bowl and place it on the kitchen bench, or pre-chop vegetable sticks and place them at eye reach in the fridge!
4. Be active
Often when we are at home lounging around waiting for a friend to pick us up or to visit, we can very easily turn to food as a time killer. Being active is a great way to fill in those gaps. Instead of looking in the fridge or pantry, why not go for a walk and get some sun? Distracting yourself with a simple activity is a great way of preventing boredom eating, and as an added bonus, will benefit your overall health!
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