100 Unhealthy Diet Habits that Weigh You Down


There are a variety of unhealthy diet habits that weigh us down, because we are all different and none of us have the same personal history. We have taken a look at planning, our personal history, thoughts, deprivation, our eating personality, and portion control. Let’s take a look at some of the specific habits that can get us into big trouble in the process to develop new healthy diet habits.


Unhealthy Diet Habits


Unhealthy Diet Habits Table


Here is my list of unhealthy diet habits and their healthy diet habit: The words that are highlighted, will all ultimately link to additional information or help on that subject.


Unhealthy Diet Habit Healthy Diet Habit
1. Night time eating Eat Healthy daytime meals and snacks. Eat when the sun shines!
2. Cleaning your plate Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. Understand the hunger chart.
3. Not exercising early in the day Exercise early in the day.
4. Not getting enough sleep Plan your sleep, because lack of sleep causes weight gain.
5. Not dealing with stress Deal with stress.
6. Not eating breakfast Eat a healthy breakfast
7. Skipping meals Do not skip meals.
8. Hanging out in the break room at work where snacks are found Know your real motives and avoid the break room
9. Visiting the vending machines Bring healthy snacks to work.
10. Buying comfort foods Do not buy comfort foods
11. Not being a learner Be a learner
12. Grazing Don’t be a cow!
13. Using food as a reward Never use food as rewards
14. Not standing up to peer-pressure to eat Learn to say “No thank you”! Develop great weight loss support!
15. Not drinking water or soup before your meals Drink water or soup before meals.
16. Not counting drinks that contain calories Count calorie drinks and develop your drink strategy
17. Not counting condiments Count condiments
18. Thinking that all foods that are healthy are diet friendly Learn calorie counts of healthy foods you often eat. You will be surprised!
19. Adding high fat dressings and crunchy processed things to your salads Don’t add high calorie dressings and crunchy things to your salads.
20. Eating foods that contain more than five ingredients Eat real foods
21. Buying foods that contain barcodes or food labels Buy real foods
22. Eating 3 large meals daily Eat smaller meals more often and healthy snacks. See Meal Planning Chart
23. Eating when you are distracted Eat at the table and concentrate on eating. End Mindless eating!
24. Eating from giant size bags rather than smaller bags Buy smaller bags where you can judge your serving amount easily.
25. Not knowing which trigger foods always cause you to overeat Know your trigger foods
26. Not filling up on fiber Fill up on fiber
27. Using cookbooks that do not include calorie statistics unless it is a low calorie source you are using Use newer cookbooks that contain calories or vegetable laden recipes with little fat See my Top 10 Recommended Cookbooks!
28. Not planning your restaurant choices before you leave home Plan them!
29. Eating a high percentage of simple carbohydrates Eat properly balanced meals and choose good carbohydrates
30. Not understanding what is a grain serving Know grain servings and get them under control
31. Not understanding the difference between a serving and a portion Know the difference
32. Not being savvy to food manufacturers who use crazy food labeling to trick you Buyer beware.
33. Expecting to lose weight quickly and keep it off Diets don’t work long term
34. Not understanding the 20 minute rule Learn and use the 20 minute rule to your advantage
35. Not having a calorie food app on your smart phone Download a food app for your phone and use it!
36. Expecting that the latest diet will work for you Quit believing diet books!
37. Not choosing three healthy filling snacks to eat before you allow a binge Choose 3 healthy snacks!
38. Under-eating Eat enough by planning your maintenance calories and meal planning chart.
39. Being too busy to look for new food substitutions Check out the food substitutions section on this site
40. Buying your favorite junk food Don’t buy your junk foods, or have a friend shop for you
41. Not keeping healthy snacks cut up and available Do it!
42. Making complicated meals Simplify your meals, snacks, and shopping. See the recipe section for ideas
43. Having hidden stashes of food in your house or car Keep healthy snacks in your car in serving sized baggies for emergencies
44. Not forming a new group of friends that are like minded in health ideas Make new friends for weight loss support.
45. Depriving yourself of your favorite foods that are not trigger foods in your life Add a daily treat and no deprivation allowed, except for your personal trigger foods!
46. Estimating your portions Know serving sizes, and find serving bowls and plates to fit the proper serving.
47. Using new super large plates Use smaller 8 to 10 inch plates
48. Savoring food as you cook Don’t taste food, but chew gum
49. Sampling foods at Costco and not knowing Costco stats of bakery and food court Shop Costco early in the day before the food samples and checkout the Costco fact sheet.
50. Being a rigid perfectionist Accept mediocrity at times! It can be more productive!
51. Not changing your mindset to healthy eating for health Develop great thinking.
52. Placing serving dishes on the table and expecting to avoid seconds Prepare extra vegetable portions only and pre-plate all meals to proper serving size. Know proper servings.
53. Not following the half plate rule Follow the half plate rule.
54. Not shopping at farmers markets and experimenting with new vegetables Visit local farmers markets this summer in your area!
55. Living on sugar. Man can’t live by sugar Decrease sugar in your diet!
56. Not incorporating one or two homemade soup meals into your week Check out the soup recipe section
57. Not incorporating several vegetarian meals into your meals Prepare meat free meals a few times a week
58. Not knowing all about beans Eat 1/2 cup of beans per day
59. Not shopping bins at your markets which can be cheaper Practice bin buying at your local stores and try new grains, cereals, and beans/legumes!
60. Not being a great strategist for yourself Become a food/habit strategist. Develop a Personal food policies list for the strategies and ideas that best work for you. Mine has 15 strategies!
61. Planning all of your fun activities around foods Plan activities around exercise not food
62. Not keeping to the outside aisles of the market and avoiding the aisles that are mostly junk Do the U at your supermarket.
63. Not making new desserts that contain fresh fruit Check out the dessert recipe section, and experiment!
64. Overeating Figure your maintenance calories and meal planning chart. Bulk up with veggies and fruits so you can eat more volume.
65. Not dropping sugary sodas from your life Check out the drink page
66. Not checking in with your doctor at least once a year Get a yearly physical.
67. Eating the American diet Go Ethnic!
68. Not basing your entire lunch and dinner meals around mostly vegetables Salads and veggies are healthy and full of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals!
69. Not having your blood glucose, cholesterol, and blood pressure checked yearly Watch symptoms to control Metabolic Syndrome.
70. Making excuses for lack of habit control Quit making excuses!
71. Knowing your habits, but not developing Lifestyle Solutions for them Food Journal, and do a Journal Evaluation Worksheet and follow through.
72. Not working on three habits each month all of the time Use Brian Wansinks "Power of three worksheet"! Buy his book on Mindless Eating. Everyone should own it!!!!
73. Eating when you are angry Learn anger management and to keep short accounts with people
74. Eating when you are bored Volunteer or Develop new hobbies
75. Eating when you are depressed or anxious Get help with your depression and anxiety. There is such hope!!!
76. Eating when you are lonely Volunteer with like minded people and you will make new friends.
77. Not looking for ways to cut 100 calories from your diet Send me your five day food journal for specific ideas!
78. Being lazy Get off your butt, Get moving and charge ahead with a plan.
79. Not weighing weekly Weigh weekly. You should never be surprised at your weight. No cluelessness allowed. Your weight is your weight! Own it!
80. Being surprised that you have gained weight when none of your clothes fit. Use your clothes as a weight guide.
81. Not replacing meat meals with fish a couple of times per week. Eat the right fish.
82. Not owning a weight range of 5 pounds. Own a 4 to 5 pound weight range
83. Buying bigger clothes Do not purchase bigger clothes, but use tight fitting clothes as a hint to clean up your diet, and look for ways to save 100 calories.
84. Not parking the farthest you can in shopping lots. Add in extra steps when possible.
85. Not always using the stairs No elevator use allowed!
86. Not taking a daily walk Take a daily walk with a friend.
87. Not exercising Plan exercising in to your schedule and stick to the plan
88. Not developing activities that encourage activity. Encourage family activities that involve moving and visit fun local activities. Check out the free activities to do in your local newspaper.
89. Allowing your family to derail you. Healthy meals benefit all family members and prevent obesity
90. Not having your meal calories memorized to evaluate good choices Memorize your meal planning chart.
91. Not cutting out white foods from your diet Make healthy carbohydrate choices
92. Buying foods that have bar codes and food labels for your kids Do not buy junk foods for your kids but prepare healthy snacks for them
93. Not modeling healthy eating for your family You are the gatekeeper of the family, and your families health and weight depends on your choices. See the Healthy Kids section!
94. Not understanding that some places and situations are high risk for you and avoiding them Know your high risk triggers by journaling.
95. Believing that you can be thinner than you have ever been before Exercise common sense and develop good short term goals.
96. Not accepting yourself as wonderful and a blessing Understand what good emotional health is.
97. Not eating nuts and seeds daily Eat nuts and seeds daily as a great source of protein and snacks!
98. Listening to diet advice to lose weight quickly. Stop this diet mentality today!
99. Dashboard dining Don't eat in the car!
100. Eating fast food too often during the week Limit Fast Food eating! Check out the Fast Food Substitutions List


French Fries

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This is not a complete list of unhealthy diet habits! We are all creative. You must first develop great awareness. The best way to do this is through journaling. You will clearly see your unhealthy diet habits. Many of them, will be covered on this site.

For those of you, who are creative and develop unique unhealthy diet habits, send in a note with your problem, and I will post it and send advice your way. Chances are if you are struggling with an unhealthy diet habit, someone else has been there and done that, and can offer you advice and what Lifestyle Solution they developed!

Otherwise, choose three unhealthy diet habits to work on per month, make changes, and when each unhealthy diet habit is under control, add a new one. Slow and steady does win the race to transforming unhealthy diet habits to healthy diet habits!

See Also: Children's Nutrition or....Unhealthy Diet Habits for Parents



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Lifestyle Solutions

With Lifestyle Solutions, you learn to develop a plan to incorporate healthy diet habits into your life and make lifestyle changes for health. It is a new way of life! See the step by step process!

Meal Planning Steps

  1. Figure Your Maintenance Calories
  2. Fill out Your Meal Planning Chart
  3. Plan several Healthy Meal Choices for each meal! (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks)


Meal Planning For:

Breakfast

Healthy Breakfast Tips from Healthy Diet Habits

Lunches

Healthy Lunches
Healthy Dinner Tips from Healthy Diet Habits

Healthy Snacks

Healthy Snack Tips by Healthy Diet Habits
Healthy Holiday Meal Planning

Healthy Holiday Meals

Healthy Weight Loss Meal Tips by Healthy Diet Habits

Healthy Weight Loss Meals

Quick Meal Plan Tips by Healthy Diet Habits

Quick Meal Plan Tips

Weekly Meal Planning Tips by Healthy Diet Habits - Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday etc.