Food can certainly be a passion, goodness knows we Americans can easily mindlessly eat just about anything, anytime. Dr. Brian Wansink has done extensive research on mindless eating, and he offers 5 strategies to transition your mindless eating into a healthy habit.
- Focus on One Goal: Trying to do too much at once leads to failure. Focus on one thing at a time like eating more vegetables, snacking less, or reducing your food intake after 8pm.
- Select Three Changes: All goals need baby steps and action plans to reach them. For instance, if you want to eat more vegetables, the strategies you will use to accomplish will be to purchase at least 4 different types of vegetables at the store, eat vegetables first at every meal, and eat at least one vegetable as a snack.
- Form a Simple Plan: Get ready by having a list of the things you will need, or a checklist to mark off what you have accomplished each day. Schedule in your changes whenever possible.
- Execute the Plan: Get support and accountability by making your goal public to those you trust. Track your progress and celebrate your milestones!
- Maintain the Plan: Brian says, "plans that don't change eventually don't fit." Even if your plan works brilliantly for months, life happens, and sometimes you have to make adjustments. Be ready for them and be flexible enough to learn and adjust as your body needs it.
From http://mindlesseating.org/what_can_i_do.php. The Mindless Eating site is full of awesome ideas to help you reduce your mindless eating and help replace it with health mindless eating. It's nice to think you can go on autopilot and still healthy!