In the current climate of physical distancing, many of us are either not working or  working from home. During this time, you may find it challenging to stick to a healthy diet and avoid frequent snacking.

Modified from my book, Below the Surface…Weight Loss Transformation by kj, chapters 3 & 5, are suggestions for using the 4 P’s for achieving your goals. The first step is to define your overarching goal, for example: “Maintain my current weight” or “Maintain a healthy immune-boosting diet during this crisis.” Examine your motivation for this and determine if you can make this goal a priority at this time. If its realistic and really important to you, then proceed.

Once you Prioritize your overarching goal, choose one to three behaviors that may facilitate achieving that goal. For example, if your overarching goal is to prevent weight gain, and you determine excess snacking or snacking on junk food may be an issue, then choose a sub-goal about snacking.

A sub-goal may read something like this:

“I will plan to eat 3 meals and choose healthy snacks twice per day at mid-morning and mid-afternoon”

Then set steps to achieve this goal:

1. Pre-plan: Survey your pantry, cabinets, refrigerator and freezer and identify healthy snacks already on-hand. If we weren’t social distancing at the moment, I would also suggest a kitchen clean-out in which you identify and remove (throw-out or donate) food items that are not in alignment with your overarching goal.

2. Prepare: Make a list of healthy snacks to buy on line or to get at the store. A list is important to help you stay on track, not forget items and to limit trips to the store. A well thought out list helps to reduce impulse buying and emotionally-laden choices.

3. Keep in mind that no one is perfect, just do your best and allow self-forgiveness. The key to developing healthier behaviors is to Practice. In other words, the more you do the desired behavior, the more likely it becomes easier and eventually more automatic.

Here are some other ideas gaining some control over mindless snacking:

  • Limit snacking to one predetermined location in you house, for example, only while sitting at the dining room table
  • Prepackage your 2 snacks first thing in the morning when you may be less likely to start nibbling, you may even want to label them as mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack.
  • Prepare healthy snacks such as roasting chick peas or nuts and then store in individual portion control containers.
  • Pick a couple times per week to prepare veggies by washing, slicing and portioning & packaging for snacks during the week.

Please share other ideas, if you like. If you would like a copy of my book please fill out a contact form, It’s currently on sale for $15 plus postage! Here’s the link to my contact page https://bodybykj.com/contact/

Be safe and be well!