Red Light Foods: Why They Make Us Fat
May 13, 2010 No CommentsRed light foods are foods that you can’t resist when they’re around, and you rarely control how much of them you eat. Ultimately, they are counter-productive to weight loss, so you need to be able to recognize what they are.
Here are some examples: When you buy a bag of chips, do you eat just one or do you polish off the whole bag in on sitting? When Halloween rolls around, are you too busy eating the candy to answer the doorbell and pass it out? Are you a member of a “Chocolate of the Month” club, and find yourself asking them if they can deliver the whole year’s supply at once? If so, these are probably red light foods for you.
My biggest red light food is chocolate. If there is chocolate in the house, I WILL find it, especially if aunt flow is coming to visit (she enjoys chocolate too).
Red light foods don’t always have to be what people consider to be obviously unhealthy foods either. I don’t even want to think about how many pounds I gained when I was drinking apricot nectar by the quart. Even “healthy” red lights foods can make us fat, thus why they’re called “red light foods.”
The best way I’ve found to deal with this issue is to just not have them in the house. If I can see it or find it, I WILL eat it. I’ve warned members of my family that they MUST hide any such foods or they will become fast acquaintances with my stomach.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you can never have foods that are in that category. I mean, they’re red light foods because you love them, right? There’s a couple ways to handle this.
1. Have someone else purchase them and ration them to you. They should also make sure that they are hidden from you in a place where you will not have access to them.
2. Go out for a single serving. If you’re craving ice cream, go and get a cone from Sonic or a small blizzard from Dairy Queen. If you want chips, you can get a single package of them a grocery stores. Sure, they cost more, but ultimately it’s worth it.
Also, don’t shop when you’re hungry. I find that 90% of my cart is filled with powdered donuts, chocolate dipped granola bars, caramel cups and other unhealthy snacks when I shop hungry. I might not even realize hungry until I get in line and evaluate the contents of my cart.
It’s embarrassing going through line and having the cashier and people in line behind you look at what’s in your cart when you’ve gone shopping when you’re hungry. You can just tell they’re thinking “No wonder why she looks like that!”
Start paying attention to what skinny people have in their grocery carts. Probably lends a clue to why they’re trim.
Remember: Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels!!
What are your red light foods, and how do you deal with them?
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