Planning your meals can help you get organised and save time and money. Meal planning is a great way to improve your food preferences, choose healthy and nutritious options and avoid wasting food. Some simple tips and recommendations follow:

Snacks have been related to both weight gain and maintaining weight, and with a lower or higher diet quality as well. Even though snacks could be a regular and important part of a healthy diet, they could also lead to health problems. The difference between these two cases is snacking behaviour: what you snack on, why you snack, snacking frequency, and how snacks fit into your overall dietary plan.

The types of foods that people prefer for snacking vary, but these are often processed junk foods that are high in sugar and fat. Here are some strategies to curb unhealthy snacking:

Goal setting is a key intervention for those looking to make behavioural changes, such as changes in eating habits ¹⁴. Visualising what we need to do to reach our goals may make it more likely that we will succeed. Goals are a form of motivation, they provide direction and a sense of personal fulfilment and they also help tracking progress. 

The acronym SMART is a goal setting technique that can be used as guidance through the goal-setting process, and it is the most common way to set goals nowadays ¹⁴. Setting SMART nutrition goals has been found to be helpful in assisting people in making positive and long-term lifestyle changes. 

The acronym SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable-Attainable, Relevant, Timely ¹⁴. 

Specific → Get as specific as possible about your goals

If you want to improve your health, specify what exactly you want to change, e.g., do you want to lose weight, do you want to quit smoking? The goal “I want to eat healthy” is a broad statement that does not pinpoint anything specific.

Measurable → Ensure that the goal is measurable.

If you want to work out, for how many minutes will you exercise and how many times a week? If you want to lose weight, how many kilograms do you want to lose?

Achievable-Atteinable → Ensure you can reasonably reach your goals.

If you commit to going to the gym daily, how realistic is this goal given your daily and weekly schedule? What would be a more attainable goal? If you want to start eating more fruits, is it achievable to set a goal of 3 fruits a day if now you are eating none?

Relevant → Ensure that the goal is relevant to your situation.

Why do you set that goal? Is it relevant to a change you want to make? Why do you want to make that change? How will this change improve your life? E.g., if you want to lose weight and you set a goal of reducing your screen time, are these related, and if yes, how?

Timely → Define a specific timeline for the goal (days, weeks, months or a defined date, etc.). Proximal, rather than distal, goals are preferred.

When do you want to reach the goal? Setting a goal of losing 3 kilograms in the next month may feel less overwhelming than a goal of losing 30kg in the next year.

While hunger is a natural physiological response signalling the body’s need for nourishment, emotional eating often arises from psychological triggers rather than genuine physical needs.  Emotional eating, often linked to anxiety, overeating, and weight gain, involves consuming food as a response to emotions rather than the body’s actual need for nourishment. This behaviour typically emerges when distractions like driving, working, or screen time take precedence during meals, leading to mindless or unconscious consumption ^1,2. 

Recognising emotional eating triggers and distinguishing between emotional hunger and actual physical hunger is the initial step towards nurturing healthier relationships with food. This process involves increasing awareness of emotional cues that prompt eating and learning to address these emotions using alternative coping mechanisms rather than resorting to food for comfort ^3,4.

Signs of Emotional Eating

• Sudden Cravings: Craving specific comfort foods unrelated to physical hunger.
• Mindless Eating: Eating inattentively or consuming larger portions.
• Emotional Triggers: Seeking food as a response to emotional stress, loneliness, or anxiety.
• Rapid Eating: Eating quickly without paying attention to satiety cues.
• Guilt or Shame: Feeling guilty after eating, especially when not hungry ^2,4,5

Strategies for Managing Emotional Eating

• Mindfulness and Awareness: Recognize emotional triggers and develop mindfulness practices to assess true hunger.
• Healthy Coping Mechanisms: Find alternative ways to manage emotions such as exercise, hobbies, or seeking support from friends and family.
• Balanced Eating Routine: Establish regular mealtimes and include a variety of nutritious foods to maintain a balanced diet ^2,6