Things to do to take your mind off food. How to take your mind off food when you're at home all day

In autumn, thoughts about food are increasingly overcome. A few tips on how to overcome the constant feeling of obsessive hunger were published by ЕattThis.

Note that these tips do not apply to cases where the need for food is well-founded. If you're hungry, don't limit yourself.

Switch thoughts

Consciously force yourself to switch the thought to something that has nothing to do with nutrition.

For such cases, it is better to prepare in advance the “next” thought, dream or fantasy. For example, start thinking about plans for the coming weekend or vacation. The more detailed you paint everything in your head, the faster you will stop thinking and feeling pseudo-hunger. May also help interesting thing that will require concentration.

Young woman. Photo: pixabay.com

drink some cocoa

This drink is very useful and gives a nice bonus - a surge of energy and a good mood.

You can prepare dietary cocoa - dissolve two tablespoons of cocoa powder in a glass hot water. Stir this mixture until smooth. For a milder flavor, you can add a large number of almond milk.

Cocoa. Photo: pixabay.com

call your friends

Most of the time we start thinking about food alone. Then we don’t notice how a cookie appears in our hands, and then something more solid. Instead, call one of your friends.

Perhaps you can take your mind off intrusive thoughts about food after hearing good news.

Telephone. Photo: pixabay.com

Read a book or magazine

One option to not think about food is to climb into a warm bath with a book in hand. You don't want to get out of the relaxing water and go to the kitchen for a snack.

Book. Photo: pixabay.com

Listen to yourself

When you are not in tune with your experiences, you reach for something delicious.

If we learn to understand own feelings and with their help to make decisions, we will not only begin to eat right, but in general we will become happier.

Sparkler. Photo: pixabay.com

Go out for a walk

Every time you feel like eating, just go out for a walk. Fresh air is great nervous tension. Research shows that a 15-minute walk takes away the urge to empty the refrigerator. In general, time away from home perfectly sets in a good mood. Go shopping or go to the park for a walk. When a person is really busy with something, there is simply no time to think about food.

Walk. Photo: pixabay.com

Recall that earlier LeMonade wrote that

Diets always involve various food restrictions. And since food systems are different (including rather hungry ones), sometimes the feeling of hunger torments you very much. Naturally, this leads to breakdowns. How not to think about food while dieting? What will help get rid of obsessive feeling hunger?

Secrets of satiety while dieting

Most importantly, you need to choose a diet that will be as comfortable as possible for you. For example, someone loves sweets and cannot feel full without them. In this case, you should choose a diet that allows you to eat fruits, dark chocolate, dried fruits or healthy pastries in small quantities (the American sweet diet involves eating sweets for breakfast). Or someone does not feel well without meat and fish, of course, it is worth choosing a diet that includes these particular products. Therefore, the secret to satiety is that you enjoy the diet.

Be sure to include in the diet foods that help dull the feeling of hunger. These include: various cereals, nuts in moderate amount, flax seeds, mint, lemon balm, green tea, water, parsley, cumin, bananas, legumes, dark chocolate, broccoli, salmon, bran, cinnamon, ginger. These products reduce sugar levels (cinnamon), give a long feeling of satiety (fish, broccoli) or soothe (mint, lemon balm). Each product acts in its own way, but the result is the same - the feeling of hunger becomes weak or disappears altogether.

You can add bran, cinnamon or flax seeds to dishes, cook cereals or bean dishes every day. Or just drink various herbal teas. It will be very useful to drink a cup of mint tea with a spoon of honey or a slice of dark chocolate before going to bed.

And one more little secret. During the diet, it is necessary to remove foods that stimulate appetite from the menu. These are various spices, hot sauces, alcohol, chips, sweet carbonated drinks and packaged juices, crackers. Instead of various seasonings, you should use any fresh herbs. As for the rest of the products, they are absolutely not healthy, so they should be excluded from the diet altogether. Juices should be prepared on their own, crackers can also be dried in the oven.

Don't want to feel hungry? Then it is worth developing good habits. The main thing is to stick to them regularly.

So very good habit- drink a lot pure water. Water helps to dull the feeling of hunger, it is not for nothing that it is advised to drink it before meals. Drinking a glass of water half an hour before the start of a meal, you can significantly reduce the portion size and remove excessive appetite.

Another good habit is to eat often. If you eat fractionally every 2-2.5 hours, then it is simply impossible to get hungry. Of course, portions should be small, but even one spoonful of porridge will not help to remove hunger. It is best if there are three main meals and three snacks during the day (morning, afternoon and before bedtime). Main meals are larger than snacks.

If it is difficult not to eat in the evening, it is worth making a habit of drinking a cup of green or herbal tea. This must be done slowly. You can diversify the drink with a slice of lemon and a little honey. A kind of ritual will help reduce the feeling of hunger.

You can follow this menu:

• breakfast: a glass of water, after 30 minutes - porridge with berries, green tea;
• snack: fruit salad;
• lunch: a glass of water, later - vegetable soup, chop, salad, tea with lemon balm;
• afternoon snack: cottage cheese with fruit;
• dinner: scrambled eggs with vegetables, kefir;
• before bedtime: Mint tea with a spoonful of honey.

What other habits will help you forget about food? Normal sleep at least 7-8 hours a day. Lack of sleep leads to overeating and slow metabolism. If you sleep little, then you are more awake, which means you want to eat more often. Naturally, this leads to the fact that the feeling of hunger will torment more and more often. And I don't want to eat in my sleep. Therefore, it is worth going to bed no later than 23.00 and waking up no earlier than 6.00. In addition, sleep affects the hormones that control satiety and hunger. Therefore, it is worth accustoming yourself to sleep not for 5 hours a day, but for 8 or at least 7 hours.

What else will help not think about food while dieting? Of course, interesting activities! If you have a hobby, then it's time to pay more attention to it. It doesn't matter what it is. Knitting, drawing, reading, photography, horseback riding, mountaineering, crossword puzzles - whatever you like will help you forget about food. After all, you will be passionate about your hobby, which means that other thoughts will gradually fade into the background.

Of course, if favourite hobby- sports, then it will be easier to lose weight. Naturally, any active hobby will help you clean up faster. overweight and not just forget about the feeling of hunger. But other activities will help take your mind off food.

No hobby? Not scary. Think about what interests you. Maybe go shopping or meet friends? Or do houseplants? Or maybe you are attracted to the study of foreign culture and languages? So, if you want to eat, it's time to do it. Any interesting activity will distract from other thoughts, including about food. Even watching movies can help, the main thing is not to take a plate with different delicacies to the TV. Just enjoy the movies.

What else will help you forget about food? Walking on fresh air and any exercise stress. Both of these activities help the body get more oxygen, improve metabolism and at the same time stop suffering from hunger. During the diet, it is very desirable to do light exercises every morning, and go for a walk in the evening. You can walk during the day, for example, at lunchtime. But in the evening it is much more useful to walk, because it is at this time of day that hunger often wakes up. And an evening walk helps dull it. After it, you no longer want to eat a harmful sandwich or fried potatoes, a cup of tea is enough. Fall in love with walking, make it your favorite activity, and this will help you not only forget about hunger, but also become slimmer.

If you use all the means that help reduce hunger and forget about food during a diet, you can lose weight without any problems. Frequent and fractional nutrition, sufficient physical activity, plenty of water and interesting activities - all this is easy and very useful.

In previous articles, we examined in detail the causes of and, as well as by establishing nutrition and creating an interesting, multifaceted life. Today we will talk about how to overcome food addiction by working on your own with psychological problems.

How to beat food addiction

How to solve psychological problems

You need to work on self-esteem. Stop being insecure about your uniqueness. Do what you do best. Improve yourself, develop yourself. For example, create an album on social networks with photos of your achievements - your friends will appreciate them, increasing your self-esteem.

Stop reproaching yourself for weaknesses, stop self-flagellation. Constant digging in yourself brings only negative emotions that you want to quickly seize. The circle closes...

Don't hold back your emotions, let them find a way out. If you're upset about something, let yourself be with it for a while. Cry, grieve, and then smoothly switch to something that requires your attention and direct participation - this is the main part of the secret of how to solve a psychological problem on your own.

Take your brain - solve logic puzzles, crossword puzzles, read an interesting book. You will immediately notice how much you feel better, and you will understand that with negative emotions can be handled without overeating. The main thing is to get the first experience. Each time, experiences will take less and less time, and you will learn how to solve your problems. psychological problems without the help of food.

Ways to solve psychological problems

• Love yourself. To do this, of course, is not easy ... But know that it is love for yourself that will help you overcome any difficulties. Loving yourself, fighting food addiction is much easier.
• Set short-term goals, they are achieved faster and easier.
• Start praising yourself. Think of some kind of reward for achieving your goals. Of course, the prize cannot be food. Treat yourself to a trip to the spa or sauna. Buy a cute bauble to remind you of your accomplishments.
• Find motivation and. Start, he not only disciplines, but also helps to find mistakes, and correcting them.

If you feel the desire to eat something and quickly, drink water first. Then try to occupy yourself interesting business, which will distract you from experiences and thoughts about food. If this trick turned out, then you are on the right way, and you, it turns out, to defeat food addiction.

And what are we eating?

If you have the urge to quickly take your mouth and stuff your belly, you should analyze what exactly caused you such a reaction. It can be some minor problem that does not even require attention, or a real nuisance that requires a systematic approach. One thing can be said unequivocally - knowing the enemy in person, it is easier to deal with him. From everyday experiences and chronic stress, sedatives and meditation techniques are great help.

To permission big problems should be approached more carefully. To get started, you need to create step by step plan actions, seek help and support from loved ones. A clear plan of upcoming events will give you some self-confidence and relieve unnecessary anxiety and nervousness, thereby alleviating your condition. Well, in this case, sedatives will help you perfectly.

Breaking the vicious circle

Remember, it's best not to push yourself to the point where the symptoms of the disorder appear. eating behavior. This is where food addiction prevention comes in handy.

Going on a diet, limiting yourself to sweet, starchy foods - no doubt, each of us decided on these actions. Here, only someone really took himself into a tight rein, but for someone this attitude remained in his thoughts.

If you want to lose a couple of extra pounds without much effort, believing that tough ones are not for you, but reducing the amount of food consumed per day is the very thing, then let's figure out together how to do it most "painlessly".

So, do you consider yourself to be in that group of people who tirelessly chew something? At your desk, while cooking, watching TV? Are you just bored and feel uncomfortable if you can't catch and chew on something? Well, it happens. And along with smoking is considered bad habit. It goes without saying that if thoughts about food do not give you rest, then you need to be distracted by something. I won't tell you much helpful advice, but, nevertheless, so do many women. The method, in principle, is effective, but does not bring you health. This is smoking. If you smoke, then in moments of wild desire to eat something, go for a smoke break. Scientists have come to the conclusion that one cigarette symbolically replaces one cutlet, killing the feeling of hunger. If you do not smoke, but in order to lose weight, you are even capable of taking this step, try it. Buy ultra-light cigarettes with some flavor, and as soon as you want to enjoy the cake, replace it with nicotine.

If this method is absolutely unacceptable for you, I apologize, let's move on to another. It is quite possible that constant desire something to eat suggests that your body lacks some vitamins. You constantly want something, you strive to “quench this thirst”, you eat everything: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, but everything is not right. Yes, when your body lacks something for full functioning, it tries to give you signals, which, unfortunately, are not always correctly interpreted. Love yourself, dear women. And do not pretend that you do not hear this almost hopeless, inner voice. Don't be lazy, do it full examination, the result of which will show what you really need. And, subsequently, reinforcing your body useful substances, you will no longer want to eat so often and so much. You will be saturated with everything you need, and no impulses to your brain about food will bother you.

The next category of people who cannot distract themselves from the thought of food are people who are depressed and do not find joy in their lives. They are dissatisfied with something, every day is similar to the previous one, close people are annoying, friends are traitors, bosses are nerves, etc. The only thing that can serve in this case is a ray in dark kingdom, it is, of course, something sweet and tasty. From which the stomach smiles, the figure blurs. Then another reason to be sad follows - external shortcomings: unhealthy skin, diseased hair and nails, excess weight, cellulite. Everything, it would seem, life is a nonentity. But wait. After all, you yourself bring yourself to this state! Spare yourself this. Nobody says it will be easy. But, is it worth being afraid of difficulties? Buy yourself interesting books in psychology, which will teach you to see only the positive, get rid of dreary thoughts, make you meet the day with a smile. Listen to positive music, watch comedies and funny shows. Rebuild on a wave of luck. And, over time, you will want to live! Do something, create, invent! Surprise and be surprised, delight and rejoice! You will forget to think about “eating” your grief, because you will not have time for these thoughts!

Learn to make the most of your time! Engage in needlework: knitting or crocheting, embroidery, origamy, etc. Eating these activities is completely inconvenient - this is the time. And two - you will not even have time to think about it, so your work will captivate you. Can you imagine what benefit you will get from all this? You will not only get good figure, but also learn to do something useful for yourself, get the opportunity to enjoy the result. And it is such happiness to see the fruit of your deeds! Benefit yourself and people! Can you imagine the happy smile of a loved one wearing a sweater you knitted? That's it! Is it possible to exchange it for thoughts about ...? Come on. Perhaps you are already so carried away by building a plan for the near future that there are simply no other thoughts in your head! :-)

Polina Vikovskaya

Three minutes of playing Tetris reduces cravings for food, alcohol, and cigarettes.

J. Skorka-Brown, J. Andrade, J. May "Playing "Tetris" reduces the strength, frequency and vividness of naturally occurring cravings", Appetite, February, 2014.

2. Turn on the imagination

Try to imagine, for example, a rainbow. Or remember some exotic smell. Or just look at the image as a random collection of dots, like what appears on a TV screen that is disconnected from the antenna. You will immediately feel better.

E. Kemps, M. Tiggemann "A Cognitive Experimental Approach to Understanding and Reducing Food Cravings". Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2010.

Unexpected, however effective way. The study shows that after eating, oddly enough, you will want less. The only caveat: there should be a lot of pictures, a couple of images will only whet your appetite.

J. Larson et al. "Satiation from Sensory Simulation: Evaluating Foods Decreases Enjoyment of Similar Foods". Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2013.

4. Go for a walk

Studies show that even a 15-minute walk can drown out the urge to empty the refrigerator.

L. Ledochowski et al. "Acute Effects of Brisk Walking on Sugary Snack Cravings in Overweight People, Affect and Responses to a Manipulated Stress Situation and to a Sugary Snack Cue A Crossover Study". Plosone , 2015.

5. More protein for breakfast

A protein-rich breakfast increases dopamine levels in the brain, which in turn reduces the need for sugary and fatty foods throughout the day. If you skip breakfast or it is not nutritious enough, these cravings, on the contrary, will increase.

H. Hoertel, M. Will, H. Leidy “A randomized crossover, pilot study examining the effects of a normal protein vs. high protein breakfast on food cravings and reward signals in overweight/obese "breakfast skipping", late-adolescent girls". NutrJ, 2014.

6. Be sure to get enough sleep

If a person wants to sleep, it is more difficult for him to resist temptations. The fact is that in a half-asleep state, the activity of the parts of the brain responsible for complex judgments and decisions decreases. The activity of the more ancient and primitive areas associated with motivation and desires is increasing.

S. Greer, A. Goldstein, M. Walker "The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain » . Nature Communications, 2013 .

7. Listen to yourself

To resist the obsessive desire to snack, it is important to be in tune with your feelings. If we learn to understand our own feelings and use them to make decisions, we will not only begin to eat right, but in general we will become happier, because we will improve relationships with others and begin to pay more attention to healthy lifestyle life.

B. Kidwell, J. Hasford, D. Hardesty "Emotional Ability Training and Mindful Eating" » . Journal of Marketing Research, 2014.

And three more hints

• Tap on your forehead. This will help take your mind off the food.

• Think about the future. Try to think well long term consequences malnutrition. An MRI study has shown that such thoughts increase the activity of the brain area responsible for restraint and self-control.

• Chew chewing gum. It helps to refrain from unscheduled snacking.