HOW TO STOP THE FOOD BINGE AND EAT HEALTHIER

Nutritionist Lyndi Cohen is an advocate for mindful and balanced eating but let’s take a deep breath and figure out what “healthy” actually means.

We’ve been told the health food aisle is a myth and the BMI rating has been completely debunked.

And speaking on Body+Soul’s daily podcast Healthy-ish, Cohen says that every single day there’s a new diet, but there’s one factor alone you should pay attention to – how your food makes you feel.

“Really, the metric of whether or not you’re eating healthily is whether you wake up with energy … and you can just hit the pillow and fall asleep easily. Do you have the energy to run around and do all the things you want to do during the day?

“Now, if you don’t have enough energy, if you’re noticing stuff like your bowels aren’t working as well as they should, then these could be clues that it’s time to get a little bit healthier with your diet.”

Here are Cohen’s top three hacks to make healthy eating easier:

1 Try a bigger lunch

“By afternoon, willpower goes down. We’re getting tired, getting depleted and probably a little bit hungry, and that’s when we fall into issues. Most of the time, a big thing people don’t do is they don’t eat enough for lunch or they don’t eat a satisfying enough lunch. You’re trying to be too healthy, too clean and, as a result, you end up getting ravenous. So you walk through that door when you get home and suddenly demolish the kitchen.

“So one way around this is eating a more satisfying lunch.”

2 Have a pre-commute snack “What you might find you need to do is have something called a precommute snack. If you’re finding that you come home and the pantry gets raided, then before you leave the office, before you do the school run – have a snack.

“If 10 almonds doesn’t cut it (because it definitely doesn’t cut it for me), make sure you’re eating more and eat something that’s actually satisfying. Something like a piece of whole grain toast with avocado, or yoghurt with some cereal – make it substantial and really satisfying.”

“If we’re going to be avoiding the afternoon almost binge-like pattern, then even eating a little bit more to avoid doing that is going to be a big win.”

3 Don’t cut any particular food group

“When we cut out foods, we are going to end up craving them more. So you don’t have to cut out carbohydrates, you don’t have to cut out sugar. All we want to do is start crowding in those healthier options so your brain can think of all the foods it is allowed to eat instead of obsessing about the foods that are now forbidden.”