How to not binge eat while working from home
By: Manoj Surya
Tags: Healthy Living, Healthy Food Options, Healthy Lifestyle, Binge Eating, Weight Loss

The 5 step process to stop binge eating high-calorie food but still keep yourself full and satisfied.

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

Binge eating is a thing when you are at home most of the day. That is what we are doing in this Covid-19 situation.

It is extremely important to keep your physical and mental health in check. While mental health is a topic for another time. I want to help you with one thing in this article. That is to avoid binge eating high-calorie food.

The way to stop binge eating high-calorie food is to have — unprocessed food as much as possible, have less calorie Dense foods, avoiding to eat food while you are actually thirsty.

Disclaimer: I am not a nutrionist and if you have health issues or food allergies, I suggest you check with a professional.

Here is a 5 step guide to help you keep satisfied with food while avoiding bindge eating bad foods.

1) Have low-calorie food in more quantity:

My two go-to low-calorie foods are Cabbage and Water Melon(and veggies)

Cabbage:

I boil 500 grams of Green cabbage or Red Cabbage and add a little salt and pepper to it. I kind of stumbled upon this by accident and I was shocked to see how much I like the taste of pepper and salt with boiled Cabbage.

If you eat 250 grams of cabbage, it would only have 63 calories. That is roughly equal to one slice of bread. But 250 grams consumes a lot of space in your stomach. Given, it’s fibre food, it will be very satiating for you.

It also helps you get good digestion because the fibre in the cabbage doesn’t get digested in your gut. So it adds to your bulk in your stomach.

Boil a small cabbage or a half big cabbage in the morning with salt and pepper. And while you work or watch a movie, have this on your side. You can still keep eating food but then it is healthy this time.

I read Red cabbage has 30% more anti-oxidants than green cabbage. So I am trying to find Red cabbage whenever possible for me. The broth of both red cabbage and green cabbage tastes great (If you put the right amount of salt and pepper).

WaterMelon:

For many days, I did not bring watermelon thinking I need to cut it and it would take time. But I later figured, if you have a large knife, it takes only a few minutes to cut the watermelon.

This tastes good too. Few people add salt to get a better taste. Recently I saw someone posting about adding Mint leaves and lemon to watermelon and having it(which I am yet to try). 250 grams of watermelon gives you roughly 75 calories again, again almost similar to having a bread loaf or so.

I run or cycle in the morning most days, for me Watermelon helps in recovery too. Even otherwise, given the low-calorie count with watermelon. You should have a watermelon most of your days to keep yourself not hungry but still have more food quantity to satisfy your mind.

Other low-calorie foods: Most vegetables are low calorie in nature. I tried boiled Ivy Guard. It was awesome. I tried carrots to boil but I figured it takes a lot of time to boil. The broth of any vegetable tastes good and you should definitely try having it(add the right amount of salt and pepper to them).

2) Eat Clean Food:

Avoid processed foods as much as possible. If more than 90% of your foods are clean(unprocessed), I think you are good.

I am listing a few of the things I take daily.

Wheat Chapathi

Almonds (5–10)

Dairy (Milk/Curd)

Eggs

Dal / Sambar ( I put few veggies in this too)

Bread (half my days in the month)

Whey (Since I don’t eat meat, Whey is a good source of protein for me)

When you eat most of the food as unprocessed. They take more time to digest in your stomach. Meaning, you will not be hungry immediately. If you are having a biscuit, it would have 25–60 calories. Before you know, you will end up eating 250- 600 calories while binge eating and you would still not feel satisfied. And then you open a bag of chips to eat(read it as a lot of calories).

Focus on clean foods. When you go to the supermarket, start reading the calorie label at least. The more you focus on reading these labels, the better you will get at avoiding them by choice. For my body type (age, height and weight) I would need 2000 calories for maintaining the same weight. So If I see a chips packet that has 400–500 calories, I definitely know it is going to get me to overshoot my calories. And calorie surplus will make you put on weight).

3) Clean the kitchen:

In this context, I mean clean your kitchen from having processed foods. In my kitchen. I have pickle and gun power that are high-calorie foods and I don’t have them often. I very rarely bring deep-fries or processed foods that would get me into binge eating.

When I go to a super marker or order anything online.I have this habit of reading the label for checking the calorie at least, I avoid buying them in the first place if it is a high-calorie food.

This lockdown definitely affected my daily habits and sleep cycles which I am working to get back on track. There are many days where I did not sleep on time. I would open the fridge and then go to the kitchen and check all the shelves to see if there is anything to eat.

Most days I end up eating a fruit or a handful of chocolate-flavoured muesli I have at home. I do feel that(at that time) I need to have some foods to binge eat. But then, I know not having them is doing a favour to myself.

So clean your kitchen. Maybe, have a handful of good muesli or fruit if you really want to eat something in the night. My flatmate buys and keeps Maggie, so I end up having them once in a while(not frequently).

4) How to have your Water:

A lot of times our brain tricks us confusing us with thirst and hunger. If you had food a while ago but you start feeling hungry. Try having a glass of water first. If you still feel hungry, either you dint eat enough foods or you screwed up your timing.

Also, keeping having enough water throughout the day. I would say 3 litres at least. the best way to do it is to have a 500ml or 1-litre bottles, a couple of them on your desk or near your bed all the time. Because now you just need to pick the bottle and drink. Otherwise, you will end up drinking less water as its an effort to get up and drink many times.

But you may ask me, keeping water away will make you get up more times? I would say, you will still get up many times to pee if you are drinking more water.

5) Plan your Fillers:

Being at home all the time makes us want to have a snack break throughout the day. These I am talking about where you open the lid of something or open a packet, having something handful and get back to your chair to work or watch some video.

So better to have some foods that are kind of fillers. What works for me is almonds. One time of the day, I get up from my chair, go and have 5 almonds and get back to work. I said 5 because it’s a calorie-dense food. But 5–10 almonds every day is fine with me.

Another go-to food, which I mentioned already is chocolate muesli. I have a handful of them. I calculated. Every time I take a few into my hand, they weight 5 grams. So even if I am having 3–4 times a day, It was coming around 70–80 calories. Given muesli have good grains. It’s still a win for me.

I experimented with one brand which sells millet muesli. I cut capsicum, onions, tomatoes (lemon and mint when available), little chilli powder and salt. It gives a texture of a mixture(junk) to me but it’s whole grain, healthy and very filling.

Experiment with foods you like. I take muesli every day since I can avoid cooking breakfast. I tried to experiment with multiple brands and now I stick with 2–3 of brands most of the time. I always have 2 brands in the kitchen.

Few snack bars are low calorie but with high protein and fibre. Check for them and try them. The idea here is to find low-calorie foods that you can have once in a while but still find them tasty. Protein and Fibre content will not make you hungry quickly because they take more time to digest. Experimenting to find your fillers is a habit you will need to develop so the more you experiment for low-calorie go-to fillers. You will have more options to eat.