Imagine you have gone through your current family eating and cooking routine and found it lacking. Changing the current unhealthy eating habits for healthier ones is the right decision and you are determined to pull this off.
Breaking current unhealthy eating habits
Find below some tips on how to break the bad eating habits.
- they say it takes up to 21 to successfully break any bad habit and start a new good habit in it's place
- step back and evaluate the kitchen, fridge, pantry, and cupboards
- decide what needs to stay and what needs to go
- make a shopping list of healthy selections and stick to it, the easy part is making the list stitcking to it might be a bit more difficult but you will benefit greatly if you do
- take it one step at a time and don't try to fix everything all at once, change and replace one habit at a time
- identify with the problem behaviors, is there a certain time of day overindulging seems to happen, stop and think about what's going on during that time
- try changing the environment, sit at the table instead of in the living room, make the table, change the lighting, etc... mood and the meal have a direct effect on each other
- don't make excuses for the behavior or habit, strive to change it and make a plan to do so
- reward good choices with stickers and praise, not with food
- set a goal and talk about what it will take to reach the goal, for example no junk food for a week, by the end of the week it will seem like such an easy thing to do for them that it won't be a habit anymore
- keep a daily food journal together with your child marking what they ate, when they ate it, did they like it, how did they feel before and after they ate it. Encourage them to participate in this activity with you.
Persevere. Habits are not easy to change. This means the task is difficult, not impossible.