Ways for High Performers to Transform Snacking Habits
Do you struggle with snacking while working? It's not just about finding the right snacks, but also about changing your mindset. Before diving in, check out my previous article "The Myths Promote Workday Snacking" for a foundation on this topic.
In this article, we'll tackle three common myths that may be holding you back from healthy snacking habits. By overcoming these myths, you can make positive changes and achieve your goals for a healthier lifestyle as an entrepreneur.
Myth 1: You should have sweet or baked goods for breakfast - Change Your Perspective and Start Your Day with Protein and Whole Foods.
As I mentioned earlier, the idea of having a sweet breakfast has been ingrained in our minds due to cereal companies wanting to sell more of their products and have customers repurchase from them. While it is true that cereals contain fiber and protein, the cereals we love often contain sugar or syrup that makes them tastier but also harms our metabolism, despite their fiber and protein content. Kellogg's, for instance, promotes a healthy lifestyle, but most of their products contain sugar. Thus, it's important to switch to cereals made from whole foods ingredients like just oats with seeds.
I am not suggesting that you should avoid cereals for breakfast altogether, but it's better to choose cereals with whole foods ingredients. When I realized the negative impact of sugary foods in the morning, I switched to having eggs and yogurt with chia seeds and peanut butter, and Greek yogurt without added sugar or flavor. This provides me with more clean protein and a gut-friendly combination of foods, unlike ready-to-eat cereals with sugar that make me want to snack later.
I would recommend having protein first for breakfast, followed by other macronutrients. This ensures that you easily fulfill your protein intake and have fewer macros like bread later. Having breakfast that contains at least 30g of protein slows the release of the hunger hormone. Consuming protein at breakfast also increases the release of satiety hormones, making you feel fuller for longer during your workdays. Most importantly, it prevents glucose spikes and reduces the likelihood of snacking or thinking about what to eat for lunch later in the day.
Myth 2: It is normal to reward yourself with sweets after hard work: Rethinking the concept of sugar in your body and having a balanced breakfast with whole foods.
Once again, it's important to rethink your perspective on what sugar does to your body. It's all about your mindset when it comes to snacking habits. If you believe that sugar will reward you, then you're essentially becoming a slave to it. Even worse, you're becoming a slave to the sugar food manufacturers who want you to keep buying their products regularly.
Always start your day with balanced meals, like the breakfast mentioned above. Personally, I need carbs to kickstart my day, so after having the egg and yogurt, I will have two slices of bread with hummus. But for some people, they only need protein as their morning fuel until lunchtime. You must know how you feel about what you had for breakfast. Try having a protein-rich breakfast with mostly whole foods. If you still want to have sugar for breakfast, opt for low-sugar fruits like blueberries. If you choose to have a banana, you could pair it with good fats like sugar and palm oil-free peanut butter. This way, your glucose won't spike as high as it would if you just ate a banana. Additionally, the bananas sold in supermarkets are not the same as the original version our ancestors had. Due to genetic modification and the desire for sweeter flavors, they're not as healthy an option when choosing what fruits to eat in the morning.
When you're first quitting your snacking habit, you need to be conscious of how you feel every time you want to snack. If you can eat junk food every now and then without binging and ruining your progress, then go for it. That means you're one of the lucky people who can enjoy these things in moderation. But if you just can't control yourself around these foods, try to avoid them as much as possible. Giving in to a craving will just feed the addiction. If you manage to resist, the cravings will get weaker over time and eventually disappear. Craving sweets is finite in time, so give yourself five or ten minutes to stop yourself from snacking. If you recognize that the craving is because you're hungry, help yourself to a glass of water. If you're still hungry, go for something that's not a bad snack, like a few almond nuts at your workplace. I believe you'll feel the craving is gone after that. If you go for something full of sugar, you're more likely to snack more afterward. That's addiction, and it's not rewarding at all.
Myth 3: You can eat whatever you want during the eating window of intermittent fasting: Reshaping the idea of intermittent fasting, what you eat is the key to enjoying the benefits of fasting.
You can eat whatever you want, but the foods you choose to eat are crucial to be whole foods, not ultra-processed, sugary, or full of chemical products. You may feel bored when you start switching to eating whole foods for most meals, but that's what you should have been doing since childhood. Your taste buds are already accustomed to high-flavor or high-taste foods, which food product manufacturers successfully target in their attempts to differentiate their products from competitors. When it comes to gut health, you should eat foods that are less processed and sugar-free, something that you are not addicted to but joyful to eat. You will enjoy eating whole foods once you switch to balanced macronutrient meals made from whole foods. This is what you should do when you are doing intermittent fasting, so your body gets enough nutrients, and you would not feel starving after the eating window. Eating junk food or whatever you want, thinking that the longer you fast, the more benefits you will get, to be frank, you are just starving yourself and not making a long-lasting impact on your body and metabolism. It may even be worse than not doing intermittent fasting as you will easily stress out at work and fall into the bad habit of binge eating. What you eat during the eating window is primitive to give you the benefits of intermittent fasting. Also, intermittent fasting functions in weight loss only if combined with a low-carb diet, so it really depends on what you eat with this fasting diet.
Bottom Line
Overall, it is all about your mindset about foods, you should be conscious and be honest with yourself about how the foods do to your body in terms of feeling after eating them. We are being deceived by the food companies that try to make a profit from us and do not care about our health. Changing the sweet breakfast perspective, rethinking the sugar concept in your body, and reshaping the idea of intermittent fasting are the initial ways of coping with bad snacking behavior, then only you are happier to accept the concept of eating whole foods in your daily life.
