3. Get in tune with your body and notice hunger. Many people don’t every actually feel hungry because they are constantly grazing on food. When you go for a snack, ask yourself if you are hungry and notice any sensations in your stomach. There are two types if hunger to be aware of – head hunger and physical hunger. Physical hunger is the message to the stomach from the brain that we need food and the digestive system will start to prepare for the food. We feel this in the stomach when our stomach ‘grumbles’. Head hunger is when we tell ourselves that we need or want something to eat. We are not actually hungry but using food to satisfy another part of us. For example, for comfort or enjoyment.

4. Write down your typical daily eating habits from the moment you wake up to when you go to bed at night. Include drinks too. Then make healthy changes to your eating or moving habits. You may decide to replace one unhealthy snack with one healthy snack, you may decide to be more active or even change the type of milk you drink. The changes must be small and manageable to begin with to avoid failure. You can increase them once you become more confident. See the workbook at the end of this blog for a food diary.

5. Use affirmations! Have you ever been on a diet or trying to cut down and suddenly something doesn’t go to plan, and you start to eat unhealthy again and then think ‘sod it’ and go back to the old ways of eating? Affirmations can stop this from happening. They are positive or reassuring statements that you repeat regularly to yourself or out loud and they help the brain to remain positive. They also cause the brain to believe that what you are doing is what you want, and the brain will then help to steer you in that direction. To find out more about affirmations you can read my affirmation blog here.