Strategies for Eating at Home

While eating at home has become less common, as we all run about in our fast-paced lives, home is still the place where you begin to keep your resolution. That’s true no matter how many meals a day you eat there.

Overall Strategies for Eating at Home

It starts in the kitchen, where you store the supplies that permit you to binge on the wrong foods.

-Identify the problem foods. Let’s look at a typical high-risk sit¬uation at home. You are about to sit down to watch a football game or your favorite situation comedy. You go to the kitchen to get your favorite snack. You eat rapidly without tasting the snack, and go back to the kitchen. Now you pick up some left¬overs from the refrigerator. By the time the TV show or game is over, you feel both full and guilty.

If it’s not in your pantry, you can’t eat it. So let’s start by cleaning out the junk from your favorite kitchen cabinet. You know the one! It’s where you look when the commercial comes on, or when you get bored or antsy at night. Go ahead. Get rid of the chocolate chip cookies and the potato chips. Replace them with popcorn kernels, so that you can make some air-popped popcorn. Take a good look at the refrigerator. Take your leftovers and toss or freeze them, so that they won’t be available for evening gorging. Toss that fat-free ice cream. You will be having a frozen meal replacement instead. Open the butter compartment. Throw out the fat-free margarine. Can’t believe it’s not butter? I can’t either—throw it out! Mayonnaise has to go. Can’t bear to throw food away? Give unopened food to a food bank, or give your goodies to a neighbor or relative.

- Create a safe zone. Once you clean out the kitchen, it’s time to restock with fresh, nonfattening foods. I strongly urge you to find a good source of fruits and vegetables, especially if your local supermarket’s produce section isn’t all it should be. Find another supermarket, or look for a store that specializes in pro¬duce. See if your neighborhood has a farmer’s market, where you can buy fresh, locally grown produce.

Once the pantry and refrigerator are in shape, don’t forget the spice rack. A rack full of dusty, grimy bottles is not going to make you want to substitute spiciness for fattiness or sweet¬ness in your cooking. If you can’t remember the last time you used a spice, throw it out. Buy only the spices you like and will use often, so that they remain fresh and flavorful.