5 Unhealthy Eating Habits to Avoid

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Unhealthy eating is largely caused by bad eating habits. Eating a bag of potato chips while watching TV once in awhile or binging on food during a party will probably not cause you any harm. However, when these actions become repetitive, they develop into habits. If you wish to break your unhealthy eating habits, you need to determine what they are first. Here are some common bad eating habits that you should learn to avoid.  Skipping Breakfast Breakfast is believed to be the most important meal of the day, but many people still seem to make a habit out of skipping it. When you have to rush for work in the mornings or get your kids ready for school, it's easy to neglect breakfast. Doing so not only drains you of energy, but also makes it more likely that you will snack throughout the day. Skipping breakfast also disrupts your metabolism, causing you to burn fewer calories. So, if you are trying to lose weight, skipping breakfast is not a good idea. A bowl of oatmeal, fruit or a healthy cereal can get your day off to a good start. Emotional Eating  Emotional eating, or stress eating, is another common unhealthy habit that you should avoid. This occurs when you are driven by certain emotions to eat even though you're not hungry. Perhaps you munch on candy bars when you're stressed about a deadline at work, or perhaps you indulge in a tub of ice cream when you are feeling depressed. If you're like most people who are emotional eaters, then you probably reach for unhealthy junk food in order to cope with your emotions. To solve this, try to find another channel for your stress and negative emotions. Take up a hobby or spend quality time with a friend. Eating during Other Activities If you eat while watching TV, while working, while reading or even while cooking then you are also developing an unhealthy eating behavior. When you eat while doing other activities, you become unable to measure how much you eat. As a result, you tend to overeat without knowing it. Try to have a specific schedule for eating. In the house, have a designated place exclusively for eating. For instance, you can make sure that you only eat in the kitchen and not in the other parts of the house. Food Binging  Binging or eating large amounts of food in one sitting is another unhealthy eating habit that you should avoid. Do you tend to skip meals then eat a lot in the next meal to compensate? Do you gorge yourself with junk food during the weekend after a week of eating restrictively? Do you often eat beyond the point that you've reached fullness? These are signs that you are a habitual binger. You might want to train yourself to eat several small meals in a day so you can avoid binging. Eating Late at Night Having an occasional late night snack is fine, but if you can't go to bed without having a plate of cookies or a slice of pie first, then you could be setting yourself up for weight gain. Eating too close to bedtime will also give you sleeping difficulty since your body will be busy digesting food.

Unhealthy eating is largely caused by bad eating habits. Eating a bag of potato chips while watching TV once in awhile or binging on food during a party will probably not cause you any harm. However, when these actions become repetitive, they develop into habits. If you wish to break your unhealthy eating habits, you need to determine what they are first. Here are some common bad eating habits that you should learn to avoid. 

Skipping Breakfast

Breakfast is believed to be the most important meal of the day, but many people still seem to make a habit out of skipping it. When you have to rush for work in the mornings or get your kids ready for school, it's easy to neglect breakfast. Doing so not only drains you of energy, but also makes it more likely that you will snack throughout the day. Skipping breakfast also disrupts your metabolism, causing you to burn fewer calories. So, if you are trying to lose weight, skipping breakfast is not a good idea. A bowl of oatmeal, fruit or a healthy cereal can get your day off to a good start.

Emotional Eating 

Emotional eating, or stress eating, is another common unhealthy habit that you should avoid. This occurs when you are driven by certain emotions to eat even though you're not hungry. Perhaps you munch on candy bars when you're stressed about a deadline at work, or perhaps you indulge in a tub of ice cream when you are feeling depressed. If you're like most people who are emotional eaters, then you probably reach for unhealthy junk food in order to cope with your emotions. To solve this, try to find another channel for your stress and negative emotions. Take up a hobby or spend quality time with a friend.

Eating during Other Activities

If you eat while watching TV, while working, while reading or even while cooking then you are also developing an unhealthy eating behavior. When you eat while doing other activities, you become unable to measure how much you eat. As a result, you tend to overeat without knowing it. Try to have a specific schedule for eating. In the house, have a designated place exclusively for eating. For instance, you can make sure that you only eat in the kitchen and not in the other parts of the house.

Food Binging 

Binging or eating large amounts of food in one sitting is another unhealthy eating habit that you should avoid. Do you tend to skip meals then eat a lot in the next meal to compensate? Do you gorge yourself with junk food during the weekend after a week of eating restrictively? Do you often eat beyond the point that you've reached fullness? These are signs that you are a habitual binger. You might want to train yourself to eat several small meals in a day so you can avoid binging.

Eating Late at Night

Having an occasional late night snack is fine, but if you can't go to bed without having a plate of cookies or a slice of pie first, then you could be setting yourself up for weight gain. Eating too close to bedtime will also give you sleeping difficulty since your body will be busy digesting food.

Posted in: Wellness