Raiders of the Pantry
I’m going to share a small secret about weight loss: it totally sucks.
You start off like a champ; waking up early and crushing your workouts, eating a healthy breakfast and lunch, and drinking enough water throughout the day to put Aquaman to shame.
Yet, when you get home, you can’t control yourself. You begin eating everything in sight, leaving behind a wake of crumbs, and wrappers, only to start building a fire pit to slow-roast a small pig before that hunger strike subsides. (No one else? Just me? Yeah, I didn’t think so :) )
While the last example may be a touch extreme, I have found a lot of my clients (including myself) endure uncontrollable hunger urges and cravings. We spend the day carefully monitoring our diet, and once home we “fall off” the diet by eating anything, and everything in sight.
To prevent this, allow me to introduce the “Red Light, Green Light” pantry makeover.
This pantry makeover is abiding by one of the most simple yet overlooked kitchen rules:
“If a food is in your house or possession, you will eventfully eat it.”
Have you checked to see what’s in your cabinets lately?!
If you haven’t … it’s time for a little “spring cleaning” in your kitchen! Some people are reluctant to swap out their pantry staples in place of some new ones…
But I promise it’s not going to be hard, and your body will thank you for it!
If unhealthy food and beverage choices aren’t there, you won’t eat them. Simple as that.
I’m going to walk you through the whole thing. Let’s get started.
Raiding Your Pantry:
On the surface, it may seem like a waste of money to discard foods you haven’t eaten.
You can either donate the food to a local homeless charity (if unopened), or you can toss it. But whatever you decide- get it OUT of the house.
Discard:
Pretzels & chips
Commercial salad dressings
Cakes and baked goods
High fat cheese
White rice
Soda (regular and sugar-free)
Vegetable oil
Croutons
Flour
Sugar
Chocolate chips
Bread crumbs
Table salt
Processed peanut butter
Replace with:
Air-popped popcorn without butter
Salsa, guacamole, mustard
Fresh vegetables, fruit and dried fruit
Greek yogurt and hummus
Quinoa
Green tea, filtered water
Coconut oil
Almonds
Coconut flour
Stevia
Cacao nibs
Chia seeds
Himalayan Pink Salt or Sea Salt
Almond butter or all natural peanut butter
Raiding Your Refrigerator:
Now, apply the same approach to the contents of your refrigerator and freezer.
Discard:
Mayonnaise
Sour cream
Iceberg lettuce
Ranch dressing
Sports drinks
Juices
Milk
Replace with:
Mustard
Greek yogurt
Romaine lettuce
Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar
Coconut water
Water
Almond or other nut milks
You can also add some new food choices and learn recipes that are healthier for your family. Some great choices include:
Raw, unsalted nuts
Goji berries
Grape seed oil
Sodium-free spices
Raw honey
Lemon juice
Variety of fresh herbs
Herbal coffee, chamomile tea & green tea
Put healthy foods and items you often consume in easy-to-see places.
If you happen to have problems determining which foods are good or not by reading the labels, you can use smartphone apps, such as Fooducate to help you.
Are you up for a pantry raid this week…. and continuing it going forward?
At least once a week, quickly scan your pantry to help keep yourself on track.