5 Food Habits That Sabotage Your Health And Fitness Goals

October 25, 2022

If you've ever set a goal to clean up your diet and stick to a healthy eating regime, you know how easy it can be to slip back into unhealthy eating patterns. Even though we set goals with the best of intentions, without the right information it can be very difficult to see lasting results.

Whether you've chosen an eating plan to lose weight, gain muscle or simply improve your wellbeing, it helps to be aware of the little things that can throw you off track.

Here are 5 common food habits that, when carried out repeatedly, can actually sabotage your health and fitness goals.

Not eating enough

Your body needs calories to perform the basic functions that keep you alive. If you’re exercising too, your body will need additional calories to keep you powered and fuel your recovery. Not eating enough food can jeopardize your body’s ability to function properly.

When it comes to weight loss, we generally tend to think that the less we eat, the faster we’ll lose weight.

A slight calorie deficit should cause sustainable weight loss – think 500 calories per day. However a larger deficit can cause your body to enter starvation mode where it tries to preserve body fat, and instead burns through muscle fibres for energy. It can also reduce thyroid hormones, sex hormone production and increase levels of the stress hormone - cortisol.

Getting adequate macro nutrients (protein, carbs and fats) and micro nutrients (vitamins and minerals) by eating a balanced, wholefoods diet should be your first priority. Once you know that your body is being well nourished, you can look to reduce your calorie intake gently so that you begin to lose body fat while preserving muscle mass and feeling a general sense of wellbeing.

Cutting out too many food groups

Experiencing the benefits of a healthy eating regime takes time. In the same way that one bad meal won’t make you gain weight, one good meal won’t suddenly give you a 6 pack. The key to seeing results is consistency.

Your diet should give you the opportunity to be consistent. Sometimes it can be tempting to start out by going bold – cutting out all sugars, processed foods, vowing to never eat chocolate again...which sounds great on the surface but can end up making you feel restricted and cause you to crave the foods that you’re cutting out.

A better approach is something called the 80/20 rule. If you ensure that across the week 80% of your meals are healthy, wholefood and well balanced then you can give yourself permission to satisfy your cravings 20% of the time and still enjoy life while achieving your goals.

Snacking

Snacking can be the downfall of even the healthiest of diets if left unchecked. We tend not to keep track of the foods that we snack on throughout the day as well as we should.

It may only seem like one or two sweets at the time, but grazing throughout the day quickly adds up, especially as snack foods tend to be processed and high in salt, unhealthy fat and sugar. Doing this day after day can result in unhealthy weight gain.

The best approach to reducing the temptation to snack is to not purchase any unhealthy snacks in the first place. As the saying goes “out of sight, out of mind”. Surround yourself with healthy food, and that’s what you’ll eat when you feel like snacking.

There are many more reasons as to why we might be snacking which we address in our dedicated snacking blog, which you can read here.

Poor Hydration

It can be tempting to reach for coffee, energy drinks or juice instead of water during the day. While these drinks give you a short energy boost, they also tend to contain a lot of sugar and can contribute to weight gain.

Water is the best way to stay hydrated and you should aim to drink at least two litres per day. Anything less can cause you to become dehydrated, which could slow your metabolism and accelerate unhealthy weight gain. It also can lead you to feel tired, dizzy, unable to focus and can even cause headaches.

Keep a bottle of water with you throughout the day so that every time you see it you’ll be reminded to take another sip.

Not prepping your meals

Having your meals prepared in advanced is a massive help when it comes to being consistent with your eating. If you get home from a hard days work and you’ve got nothing to eat, it will be all the more tempting to choose takeaways or unhealthy options as opposed to spending the time and effort to cook.

That is where we can help! Our pre made meals are designed to help you stay on track with the right ratios of protein, carbs and fats to help you see results. They only take 6 minutes to heat from frozen, taste delicious and best of all – no prepping, cooking or cleaning required!

Select the range that best fits with your goals and start seeing the results that you deserve today.