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Staying in Control of Your Diet

Pharmacy2U Team | minute read
Woman holding a healthy salad

One of the hardest parts of changing up your diet for a healthier alternative is sticking with it. Food can be addictive so shaking off bad habits of overconsumption of things such as fatty, salty and sugary foods as well as highly processed foods can feel like an uphill battle. 

For this reason, big switches to fad diets often fall short of actually helping dieters to lose weight and get back in control of their health. While a diet plan can be a great way to cut down your body weight, there are other strategies you can implement with your eating that help cultivate dietary changes that are easy to commit to and end up lasting longer - and longer-lasting diets will have better results. 

In this guide, we’ll look at some of the ways you can stay in control of your diet day to day, covering important considerations such as portion control, snacking, and even how your choice of crockery can support a higher level of control over your eating habits. 

Plate portioning

The amount of each food group you put on your plate can significantly sway your intake of various nutrients. It's easy to lose track of the suitable amounts of, for example, fats you should have on your plate when you’re serving yourself up with avocado, or when you add a few extra chips to your plate. 

A handy guide to remember when you serve yourself food is that vegetables should take up one-half of your plate, followed by a quarter for complex carbohydrates and a quarter for your protein of choice. This is an easier visual guide to use when plating up and can help to explain where extra calories can accidentally come from. Adding an extra 8th of a plate's worth of carbohydrates adds an extra third of the calorific content, which over time adds up to a lot of additional calories your body needs to burn off to lose weight.

Size down your plate

When taking control of your diet, an easy way to ensure you don’t overeat is to size down the plate you eat from. When we put our food on a large plate we are often inclined to add more than we need in order to fill the space in front of us. By using a smaller plate we can ‘trick’ our brains into believing we have a more substantial and well-filled plate. 

Combining this tactic with a reduction in the pace at which you eat, you will find that you are less likely to eat past the feeling of fullness and can be more intuitive with your consumption of meals. 

Stay hydrated

It's easy to take for granted how valuable water is for our health and habits. Staying hydrated helps us to stay in better control of our energy levels, influencing how in tune we feel with our sense of hunger. 

Fatigue can often be attributed to a lack of hydration while it can be mistaken for being low on energy from a need to eat. When you find yourself feeling tired, before turning to snacks to give you an energetic boost, have a big glass of water. We need around 2.5 liters of water a day, more when we exercise and the weather is hot. Checking in with your hydration levels before choosing to eat can help you stay in control of your eating habits. 

It is also recommended that you drink a full glass of water shortly before sitting down for a meal. The intention of this is to fill up your stomach, acting as an appetite suppressant and helping to avoid the temptation of overeating to fill you up. Make sure you don’t replace eating with drinking water.

Making snacking adjustments

Overly restricting your food intake during the day is a shortcut to binge eating in the evening, undoing all the hard work done before. While it is widely thought that snacking is not conducive to a good weight loss diet, there are ways you can integrate snacking into your day in a way that supports your diet rather than act against it. 

If you have the urge to eat a snack between meals, consider what you can have that will satiate your craving whilst also giving you lasting energy or a boost in vitamins and minerals. Making clever swaps can help with this. For example, if you are craving a crunch snack like crisps, popcorn is a healthier alternative that offers the same sense-based experience without the high volume of salt and saturated fat. 

If you want to eat chocolate, an apple on its own won’t likely hit the spot. Pairing the apple with a little bit of chocolate spread can tackle the craving whilst also giving you the added benefits of fibre, vitamins and antioxidants from the apple.

Eat at the same time each day

Sitting down for your meals at the same time each day could have a positive impact on your weight and diet management. This is because your metabolism is on a 24-hour cycle, so by keeping your food consumption to a routine, you are helping to avoid subjecting your body to unexpected blood sugar spikes and can help your body process fats and cholesterol more effectively. 

It's also important that you stop eating for the day well in advance of going to sleep. Eating your last meal three hours before going to bed gives you time to digest your food properly so you can benefit from better sleep. Because sleep is vital for lots of regenerative processes as well as keeping your metabolism high, better sleep will also support your weight loss goals.

Support your diet with a weight loss medication from Pharmacy2U

Sticking to a healthy diet is the best way to get started on a weight loss journey but getting down to a healthy weight when you are overweight or obese can be a very long and challenging process. If you have a BMI of 30 or more, you could meet the criteria for a prescription to a weight loss medication. This is however not guaranteed as there are other conditions that must be met.This will support your diet and exercise regime to help get you to a healthier weight faster. 

You can start an online consultation form with Pharmacy2U and our experts will assess your individual case, recommending a suitable course of action. Please be aware that completing the consultation form does not guarantee that you will be prescribed a weight loss medication.