Learning some tricks on how to stop boredom eating while on keto is very important. Boredom eating is one of the challenges that many keto dieters have to deal with. That’s because it’s pretty easy for people to forget about their diet when they are bored.
Eating food is naturally pleasurable. So this is often the first thing that a person would do when feeling bored.
Tracking macros and keeping track of your ketones can also be tiresome. You might get excited about meal planning at the start of your diet, but it can be taxing after some time.
So if you’re already at a point where you get bored with the ketogenic lifestyle, then here are some tips to help you get back on track.
What Is Boredom Eating?
One of the most difficult habits to overcome is boredom eating. When we’re bored, we could easily snack whatever food is within our reach. And it’s not because we are hungry. It’s just because we cannot find any better thing to do, or we can’t be bothered to do anything else.
Boredom eating has also been linked to emotional eating. Emotional hunger is an overwhelming feeling or craving for a certain type of food, usually unhealthy. It can be a response to stress.
Related reading: Emotional Eating: How To Put An End To It?
The biggest issue with boredom eating is that we often eat without really thinking. When we eat without thinking, we could easily forget how much we have eaten and if these foods would kick us out of ketosis.
Even if you’re not on keto or following any type of weight loss diet, boredom eating can wreak havoc on your health. Marjorie Nolan Cohn of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has said this:
“Boredom often leads to overeating, or unconscious eating especially when there is readily available food. Boredom eating is a major contributor to weight gain and obesity.”
Even if you’re not following the keto diet, being aware of the foods you eat is important. It helps us to develop and maintain good eating habits, which is good for our health.
How To Stop Boredom Eating
The keto diet is, no doubt, a great diet to follow if you’re trying to lose weight. But the problem comes when people start getting tired of it. You are not alone in this. In fact, a lot of keto dieters end up quitting because of boredom.
So if you find yourself about to quit, it’s time to do something about it. Here are some ways on how to stop boredom eating on keto.
1. Add Variety To Your Keto Meal Plans
As a low carb, high fat diet, the keto diet requires dieters to limit carb consumption to less than 50 grams each day. A typical keto meal should consist mostly of fats and less carbs. But you don’t have to eat the same meal every single day. Otherwise, you’ll get tired of the taste, and you’ll soon find yourself snacking in between.
Mix up your meal plan to avoid keto boredom and make dieting fun. For instance, if you’re having eggs and veggies for breakfast on Monday, you can have a keto smoothie on Tuesday, and low carb cereals on the following day. Dinner should not only consist of steaks. Vary the meat you eat and eat it with salad or a tasty vegetable dish.
Related reading: 14 Keto Salad Recipes
Preparing keto meals should be easy these days since you will find tons of low carb recipes online. If you’re too busy, consider preparing meals that you can freeze and reheat when you’re ready to eat.
2. Stock up on Keto-friendly Snacks
If you cannot stop yourself from eating when you’re bored, the best thing that you can do is to stock up on keto-friendly snacks. Throw away all those unhealthy sugary snacks that could kick you out of ketosis. Instead, stock up on healthy keto approved snacks.
If you cannot find keto-friendly snacks in your local supermarket, go check out some online stores that sell healthy snacks. Some of the most popular low carb snacks that you can buy online are seaweed snacks, kale chips, sugar-free dark chocolate, and more.
You can also make your own snacks, such as hard-boiled eggs, canned tuna, keto pizza, low carb bread such as this delish pumpkin bread, and salads like this low carb broccoli salad.
Here’s an excellent Keto Snacks Cookbook. You can get it as a digital version or a physical version. These snacks have been shown to increase fat loss too!
Most of the low carb snacks might not be that appealing to you, but that’s exactly the point. These foods are not your main meal and not something that you eat when you’re really hungry. The main idea of having these snacks is for you to have something to munch when boredom eating strikes.
3. Be Open To Try New Foods
One of the reasons why people get bored of their keto diet is they tend to eat pretty much the same food over and over again, for fear of ruining their diet. One way to make your keto diet fun is to try and experiment with new foods. Learn new recipes and incorporate new ingredients into your keto meals.
Do your research and look for a low-carb version of the favorite foods that you eat before following the keto lifestyle. For instance, if you are used to eating pasta in the past, why don’t you try using zucchini? If you are craving desserts, there are tons of low-carb desserts out there that are suitable for the keto diet.
Related reading: Low Carb Zucchini Pasta With Avocado Sauce Recipe
4. Experiment with Keto Carb Up
One thing that you can try when it comes to learning how to stop boredom eating in keto is to try keto carb up. Also known as carb cycling, keto carb up is intentionally eating more carbs on a certain day or in one meal. Some keto dieters who are experiencing plateaus would carb up their meal once a week or a few times in a month.
One of the biggest benefits of the keto carb up is that it prevents you from getting bored of the diet since you are allowing yourself to eat anything you want on a given day. You will not feel deprived at all, which is much easier to stick to your new lifestyle. Your carb-up meal could be anything, from pizza, burgers, fries, or pasta.
Here’s everything you need to know about Keto Carb Up.
Final thoughts
Hopefully, you now have an idea on how to stop boredom eating while on the keto diet. As humans, it’s normal for us to get bored sometimes. The keto diet requires a lot of effort, so it’s not surprising why some people would eventually get tired of it.
But, do not allow your boredom to ruin your diet, especially if you are already making progress. Follow the tips above and remind yourself of the many good reasons why you have decided to follow the keto lifestyle.
