It’s so annoying.

How to enjoy your favorite food while trying to lose weight

Last night you stepped on the weighing machine and told yourself about how you need to go on a diet after getting a huge shock at your weight. In fact, your determination to start losing weight started after you saw your weight. And so, you muster ALL your strength and started hiding in your room to draw out your premium master plan to lose that 5kg in the next 2 months. Nobody was allowed to disturb you, and absolutely no form of edible was allowed to be near you. After all, you are dead set on this new plan you have, and your determination is off the charts.

And so, you muster ALL your strength and started hiding in your room to draw out your premium master plan to lose that 5kg in the next 2 months. Nobody was allowed to disturb you, and absolutely no form of edible was allowed to be near you. After all, you are dead set on this new plan you have, and your determination is off the charts.

The new day comes. You started breakfast really well with your nicely prepared home cooked meal. With all the required nutrients, you feel energetic and ready to conquer the world! You thought to yourself about how you can do it and left home. Four hours past and you started feeling hungry, so you headed out to get lunch, only to be greeted by that brown sugar bubble tea everyone is talking about.

It’s so annoying. Somehow, you muster all your strength and managed to not get that cup of bubble tea today. But give it another few days, and that desire to drink the bubble tea grew stronger. It didn’t take long before you gave up on your bikini body dream and started clearing the whole cup. Ugh. Another day, another failure, another missed opportunity to live the “All eyes on me” dream.

So I’m going to let you in a tiny little secret: It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s true to say that certain levels of restrain is required and more often than not you should not be hunting to for that craving, but if you are looking to cure a craving, a sample or two is usually enough to drastically reduce that eager feeling. Here are some ways to help you enjoy your favorite food mindfully without bursting the calorie bank.

Share food with your friends

It has been said that food taste best when you share it with your friends. Not only will a group of you be able to taste the food you really want to eat, you’ll also be able to split the cost and save your calories. Sounds like a combo attack if you ask me!

If you need the whole snack, consider substituting your meal for it

We definitely want to get our nutrition from whole unprocessed food, but sometimes (If you need an actual definition, I’d say 5% or so), what’s bad for the body can be good for the mind. If a tiny sample of your craving is not enough to satisfy you, perhaps you can consider having the ice cream at it’s whole amount and in return reduce your rice or have a meal lesser, whichever equivalence that meets. And if you’re going to have a dessert for your meal, remember to eat slowly – you might end up finishing lesser than you think you need while enjoying the flavor for a longer duration.

Buy the smallest size or request for a sample

Sometimes, our cravings begins with “I just want to try”, and you really don’t need to buy a whole serving just to try it. Places like yogurt and ice cream usually offer samples to try, or mini size snacks to purchase. Give them a go, and see if that helps!

Buy the whole thing, eat a bite, donate or throw the rest

Unfortunately, we don’t always have friends near us, and we can’t get mini-size bites. That doesn’t change the fact that we have a craving to satisfy. Buying the whole thing may be required, but finishing it definitely isn’t. If eating a bite is all you need to get your craving settled, the rest will just be empty calories, and mindlessly eating that is not helpful to your goals.

Some of you may not be comfortable with the idea of throwing food away, but donating the food can be nice. After all, if the food is good, people are usually open to take it! You can also see this as an opportunity cost: Do you want to spend $5 to buy a packet of snack to eat all the empty calories and exercise them later, or do you want to spend $5 to solve a problem (the craving)?

Whichever method you choose to use, choose it mindfully and eat slowly. While trying to lose weight, one important factor to consider is your relationship with food – a huge consequence to prolonging your craving for too long is binge eating, which usually leads to a sense of guilt, a warehouse full of chocolates, pastry and snacks, and a humongous hole in your pocket. Why not stop the problem where it is, enjoy a mindful munch and feel good about yourself at the same time?