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Health & Fitness

4 Easy Ways to Reduce Bad Eating Habits

Dr. Ashley Dickerson, Dr. Jenna Cook, SportCo, Oswego Chiropractor, Naperville Chiropractor, Chiropractic, bad eating habits, eating, habits, weight loss

4 Easy Ways to Reduce Bad Eating Habits 

Bad eating habits can be a major deterrent when trying to improve your health. No matter what you do: workout incessantly, run miles per week or even take yoga, if you cannot control your unhealthy dietary urges, any progress you see will be fleeting. Below are a number of suggested ways you can apply to changing unwanted food intake.

1. Late Is Not Great

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Snacking after eight o’clock at night is one of the major causes of weight gain, indigestion and interrupted sleep. Some nutritionists theorize that at around this time the body goes into assimilation mode, processing the vitamins and minerals you ate that day. It begins rebuilding, rejuvenating and repairing damaged cells to get ready for the onslaught of the next day. When you eat hard-to-digest foods like carbohydrates your body’s assimilation and reparation processes slow down. As you sleep your body is still digesting. Often, you will wake up in a haze wondering why you feel so exhausted after you supposedly slept through the night. Your brain may have dozed but your body was hard at work, depleting essential energy and absorbing not nearly enough of the nutrients needed. If you must snack after eight, try easily digestible foods like fruit or vegetables. If a late dinner is unavoidable, eat as light as possible and take an enzyme capsule to help improve digestion.

2. Boredom

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It is easy to go on a snack binge when home alone or lacking any stimulating activities. Reaching for sweets or salty chips when you are not even hungry is a recipe for disaster. Keep yourself occupied if you are home bound. If you know you have a tendency for unhealthy snacking, empty your home of all the culprits and replace them with fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains.

3. Portions

Sitting down to a meal and piling food onto your plate is a bad eating habit. Go for small portions. Sometimes using dishes that are smaller than a normal sized dinner plate helps create the illusion of having more food than you would on a larger plate.

Give your brain time to register what your body has eaten. This usually takes about 20 minutes so eat slowly and chew well.

4. Consciously Combine

Proper food combining is an interesting science. It works by mixing certain foods according to the energy it takes to break them down. For example, a hamburger on a bun is a carbohydrate and a protein. The body takes approximately six to eight hours to break this combination down as opposed to three to four hours if eaten separately. Also, eating fruit on top of improperly combined meals can cause bloating and gas. Try to eat proteins, carbohydrates and fruits separately. Stay away from simple carbohydrates and sugars like white bread or cake.

5. Don’t Starve

Trying to lose weight or being too busy may sometimes result in skipping meals. This ends up causing your body to store fat and retain water. Be sure and eat healthy low calorie food throughout the day to keep your metabolism burning and your body in balance.


For more information please call Dr. Ashley at (630)-554-9991

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