After reading this article on 7 Ordinary Ways to Be Healthier, I remembered something I had forgotten within a few months of my wedding – my mother had stopped keeping things like Nutella and Chocopie and Cheeselings around the house because I would gobble them up at God-speed since I was a teenager and of course, that’s extremely unhealthy! As the first point in the article states, just don’t keep junk food around the house and you’ll automatically find yourself reaching for that banana instead of a chocolate bar. However, since I’ve gotten married – there’s been an abundance of these foods around the house. And of course, my first instinct was to say “take it all away! don’t keep this in the house otherwise I will become seriously obese and have clogged arteries!” (my mother always threatened me with clogged arteries every time I asked her for another round of oranges and fresh cream) But that is a senseless kind of demand. Just because I completely and utterly lack self-control when it comes to my favourite “bad foods” doesn’t mean the whole house needs to suffer – it should be around the house for whenever someone wants to munch on something yummy, and also for any guests that arrive unannounced.
But the problem I’m facing is – how do I learn some self-control? I’m honestly terrible with it – nobody was in the house the last 2 days (they’d gone on a short trip) and I managed to clean up an entire bottle of Nutella, and all the fruits and yoghurt and cucumber/tomatoes/eggs were left untouched. There is no lack of healthy food around the house, and I do pull up my socks sometimes and think “Ok, I am going off junk food forever!” I manage well for about 4 days, and by the 5th day – I’m back to gorging on anything junk-y lying around. If this were an occasional occurrence, I wouldn’t bother. But every single day I’ve been eating a chocolate (or two) AND a packet of chips (or two) and I feel it’s time I do something about it. It’s just not the right way to eat, and I need to make a change.
I’ve even considered getting all the junk food locked in a cupboard and giving my mother-in-law the keys. I will need to ask her to open it every time I want to eat something unhealthy. This way, she’ll be able to tell me when it’s getting out of hand, or she could also just flat out refuse to give me the key 🙂
Any suggestions on how to ensure I eat healthier? I need some major help!
Shinjini Amitabh Chawla 
more you try to stay away, your urge to eat them will grow… Start with making a routine like you will surely eat one-two fruits a day without a miss. follow this for a month then it will become a habit.. then follow with other similar healthy food gradually. At-last we can eat limited and once we have good food in our stomach there will be little/no space for unhealthy food..
I am slim and had similar bad food habit thankfully my genes are they doesn’t make me gain much weight but it does leave a bad impact on my health and stomach. I used to munch chips/cookies in office around 12:00PM now I carry a fruit with me and ensure that I eat it and keep on telling myself that i will have something yummy once I finish this. once I finish eating fruit, I dn’t feel like munching anymore… 🙂
May be this will help you too. I dnt stop myself I just tell myself I will have junk once I finish something healthy. It helped me…
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Thanks, 1 fruit a day is a good habit to start with.
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talk about cravings and self control!! i am as guilty as u 😉 as a bride to be i am trying to lose weight (and believe me its a lot of kgs to go!), but always find myself reaching out for that one “small” piece of chocolate, just another bite of the tiramisu… the list goes on! moms make such a good “diet police”!! mine does the same! i wish it was easy!!
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*sigh* i wish there was a magic wand that kept us healthy without having to bother with the kind of food we eat
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I usually find myself thinking of food when i am office! particularly on my back home as i cross all the big chills and the open ovens! so now i try to keep very minimum handy cash with me so i know i cant spend on such guilty cravings!! 😉 ah!
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ah! another great idea! limited cash in hand to limit spending on junk food on the way back from office!
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Ahh..the biggest dilemma in all our lives. I’m a bride to be and trying to lose weight.. on a crazy ass strict diet. And I love food.. I mean like seriously love everything edible ever made. But now I’m going to a dietician and that’s actually helping. But for me the incentive is to be thin for the wedding but if you’re actually thin then I can empathise with your problem. I would suggest keep limits.. easy to say. Difficult to do. Just limit yourself to one junk item a day.. one day chips, one day cookies, one day a nutella sandwich etc.. that way you’ll curb your cravings also and not go overboard also
And whenever you do eat.. just make sure to go for a walk that day.. to keep your poor arteries healthy 😛
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I always wanted to go to Rujuta Diwekar, but she is too expensive + I’m afraid of what people will say when they see a person of my size going to a dietician.
Anyway, limiting junk food to one a day is another great starting point…thanks Tanvi!
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Sometimes I feel fortunate that I don’t like junk food. To be honest, it’s not that I don’t like junk but I have trained my mind that any amount of junk will ruin the system ( I actually imagine getting holes in my stomach like a rusted hole in a pipe). Pl don’t laugh on it. This was many many many years ago when I was very young. It still works. Now, even if somebody is eating my fav pack of chips on my face, I don’t have a single chip! (most importantly w/o taking any extra effort). On Gudi Padwa (my first big festival post marriage) we had mom-made basoondi, gulab Jamuns, rabdi and Kaju katli. I had to Tk a lot of efforts here but I was determined coz I hv to lose before my brothers wedding! 😉
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When is ur brother’s wedding?
I had completely gone off chips before my wedding, and I no longer crave to eat them (at least no more Lays’ chips) but sometimes i feel so lazy – how come all healthy things require effort? Like washing and cutting a fruit, peeling and cutting a cucumber, cooking something…! So I just eat chips instead #guiltyoflaziness
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Haha! Use positive reinforcement to your advantage. 😛
Think about how gorgeous your skin would look if you went off the horrible chips. And how, if you gain weight, all those lovely clothes won’t fit you.
But the best thing to do is ease yourself into a healthy way of living. Everytime we make a declaration, we not only end up embarrassing ourselves (to great measure, I might add. Sigh), we also never ever successfully stay on the wagon.
See I believe there are specific times when the urge to eat unhealthy food strikes. Start your day with a fruit. Any fruit. Oranges? Watermelons? Whatever takes your fancy. Make sure you get a good, filling breakfast in. And mid-morning (say, 12) eat a fruit/drink milk. This will totally eliminate the mid-morning craving. Another time I find particularly horrible is in the evening, just back from work and working out and there is nothing to eat! Again, get a snack/fruit/paneer/chicken whatever you fancy. With time, you will find you don’t even want to buy that big bag of chips. I actually fear it now!
Sorry for the super long post. 😐
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Wow, thanks a lot for such a detailed response! It’s great! And yes, I usually do the right things once I’ve considered the cons of how I may end up looking :p
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I don’t know if this will work for you.. but I take a mannat everytime I feel the need to lose weight (which is perennial!) and give up something I love. Like I’ve not touched chocolate (white/dark/any form of cocoa) since 2005..and I’m the kind who can have a jar of nutella a day.
Right now I’m off rice.
Only during my wedding I didnt do any of this.. but just the necessity of fitting into my lehenga was enough to make me stop from reaching out to anything remotely unhealthy.
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YOU HAVE NOT HAD CHOCOLATE SINCE 2005!!!!!!!! OMG!!!
thats 8 years!!!!
Maximum I can go 2 weeks without chocolate!!
@thedelhibride… I have the same problem 😦 I can resist dal-roti but not junk… plus my new family loves feeding me so dieting is not an option, I try exercising as much as I can. Doing Zumba these days.
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@crazy indian bride…what’s with the new bahu being overfed :p I’ve totally let go of exercise recently – first I had a painful wart on one foot, and then a sprain on the other! Much better now…I’m hoping to getting back to working out sooner than soon.
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ermm LOL! Yes..this is the reaction I get all the time! I’ve just resorted to saying I’m allergic!
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You’ve got some self-control! I can’t let go of chocolate for more than 2-3 days!!! But reading this is truly inspirational. You’ve totally motivated me to do better for my health! thank you!
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I don’t know about inspirational..but happy to help 🙂
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control the temptations for 10 minutes and they say the cravings go away!! i am not that into junk food but yes i can’t stay without golgappas which are a huge mouthwaterer for me!
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Im so glad it’s not just me in this position. Ever since the wedding, hubby and I do whatever the hell we want in terms of food. Its pasta every second day, or eating out very often. It’s like a no adults around party, and we’re teenagers all over again. I havent had any decent ‘sabzi’ because I hate it. I really think we need to curb this or we’ll both end up fat! (But it’s just soooo much fun!!!)
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😀 I try to incorporate veggies in my every meal . If I am having a salad, I add fruits in it .. It makes it really tasty. And I used to love junk food.. But I have trained myself to go for healthier alternatives like multi grain crackers.
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not that I qualify to comment here – I have the self control of a 2 year old. I am someone who did not even TRY losing weight before Marriage. But lately I have been doing a few healthy things (started about 2 weeks ago :P) – Cardio training for an hour, Green Tea everyday (and yes it tastes horrible but it works! – I have seen the difference in just 2 weeks). As for trying to stop bing-ing – I try to do it in moderate amount. So instead of eating 1 full pizza I take just 2 slices. Instead of .5l coke (and I am a coke addict) – I take one small glass (though I still need to work on my coke addiction) and so on.
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hahahahah! Poor you! just eat whatever you want..but keep exercising! :p
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Oh man! i shouldn’t be reading a blog for women! :p Stupid tinkie with her post on facebook!
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