Your eating habits can make or break your weight loss. Food habits can be healthy, such as eating breakfast and drinking half your body weight in water. But many times the not so healthy habits can out number the healthy ones. Take this quick quiz to find out if you’re a healthy eater:

1. Do you eat when you’re hungry?

2. Do you stop when you start to feel full?

3. Do you eat healthy 80% of the time?

4. Do you eat what you want to eat without over-eating?

5. Do you eat all of the food groups daily?

The more times you answered “yes”, the more likely you have a healthy relationship with food.

The reality is that most of us don’t have a healthy relationship with food. Check out this list to see if you can relate to any of these unhealthy habits:

_____ Cutting out certain food groups to lose weight.

_____ Emotional eating: Eating when you’re sad, happy, stressed, upset, etc.

_____ Binge eating or uncontrolled eating

_____ Seeing food as the enemy

_____ Yo-Yo dieting

_____ Feeling addicted to certain foods. Using food like a drug.

_____ Labeling food as “good” or “bad”

_____ Being too restrictive with food.

_____ Thinking about food constantly

_____ Reading book after book on weight loss, but not seeing results.

The more check marks, the more you’re likely to have an unhealthy relationship with food.

So how can you improve on your relationship with food? You’ve been eating the way you do probably since childhood, and you just can’t change things overnight! Changing everything at once is a hard thing to do, AND it’s even harder to stick with all the changes, so don’t do that.

To begin with, keep a food journal for about a week. Write down when you eat, what you eat, why you ate, and even where you’re eating. Also keep track of your feelings and emotions to see if you are eating due to a stressful situation, or because you’re tired. Writing in the journal will help you to see your habits more clearly so you know what you need to change. You can also use my Food and Mood Journal here to chart your food and emotions.

Look at the unhealthy habits that you want to change, and then think about changing 1-3 of them at a time. You might need to work on these changes for awhile before going on to something different, so don’t think you will be able to change one “bad” habit each week or all at once. You can try, but you might have trouble sticking to it.

You can also trade an unhealthy habit for a healthy one. Think of something you want to change, such as eating ice cream at night. There are better options such as fruit, yogurt, or even a frozen banana whipped in a blender to taste like ice cream. If you take away the unhealthy food and don’t replace it with something else, you will still have cravings, which will send you back to eating the unhealthy food after a few days. By replacing it with something healthy, you might still have some cravings for a short while, but at least you have something to grab when you usually have the sweet.

Do you plan your meals and snacks ahead of time? When you go grocery shopping, plan six or seven meals you will be eating during the week, plus healthy snacks. This takes away the stress and disorganization you might feel when you are wondering what you will make for dinner. By planning ahead, you will have all the items in your kitchen, and you won’t waste time running to the grocery store. And, the meals should be quick and easy meals that you can cycle through every week with just a few changes. At my house we usually make fish twice a week, chicken twice a week, pork once a week, and a vegetarian dish. When I go grocery shopping I always know what proteins I need to get, and then I just switch up the vegetables. As for healthy snacks (I like to call them mini meals), having them ready and waiting will help you when your belly starts to rumble. Always plan something with a protein and a healthy carb (like vegetables) so you will feel full and won’t need to reach for something else in an hour.

Working on your relationship with food is a long process, but it can be done. Being aware of why you eat the way you do, by keeping a journal and then switching out some of your food choices, will help you gradually get off your unhealthy habits. Be persistent and commit to this so you can be as healthy as you can.

How about you? Do you need to change a few of your habits? What would you like to change? Comment below and let me know what you’re working on.