Tips to help you break the junk food habit, along with a recipe for “Vanilla Custard” you can make yourself – gluten free.
Food advertising and marketing shows us many truly beautiful looking products. Many of these products do actually look amazing in real life.
A bakery is an example where almost every single item on display is a work of art.
It really does seem impossible sometimes to resist.
We know this is never going to stop. We also know there isn’t really any chance of avoiding it. There may be times when we avoid it all for a few days. But the reality is it’s just part of life.
There will never be a pill or diet that can deal with this reality. The reality that food can really be quite beautiful. That will not change.
New Thought Patterns to Use
Since we have to deal with this reality, we need to come up with some “mind” tools we can use.
When you first make a big change in your diet, you probably have a reason why you made the change.
You will need to continue reminding yourself why you’re going to continue. This reason may actually change over time. As long as the reason continues to move you in a positive direction.
You can create some specific reasons why you want to avoid some foods or ingredients.
I’d suggest starting either with those that are the most damaging to you, those that are causing you the most cravings, or that you continue to cheat with.
Let’s break down what we can do.
For example, let’s say it was a specific product that is your “Achilles heel,” such as Oreo cookies. You want to quit eating them because they contain sugar.
Intellectually we may know sugar’s bad. But it’s not enough. You still keep eating them.
You could take a look at the other ingredients that are in the cookies. Read all about the bad things about some of those ingredients. Some of that info might strike a cord with you, and go a long way to giving you a better reason to not eat them.
Another approach is to come up with some alternatives.
This has a couple different paths.
One is to keep yourself full. When you’re full, you’ll be less likely to want to eat more. This method won’t work if you are a big overeater, because you know you’ll just eat it anyways.
A Key Preparation Tool
Another option is to preplan alternate food. The reality is you’re probably not going to be able to make a healthy version of an Oreo cookie. Just be aware that this is not a magic bullet. But it should help to reduce the “pull” that the food is having on you.
You can experiment with seeing which part or feature of the food works best. It could be the “crunch,” or the chocolate, or the filling texture. Try out a few things and see what works.
For example, you could try making a delicious custard. Here’s a recipe you can try.
Vanilla Custard – Gluten Free
Makes 4 serving
Prep time: 15 minutes1 1/4 cups Whole milk (full fat)
1 Vanilla bean, split length ways or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 Egg yolks
1 tablespoon Raw honey
1 tablespoon Gluten-free cornflour or cornstarch1. Heat milk and vanilla in a small pan. Bring just to a boil.
2. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks with honey. Mix cornflour or cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water to make a paste.
3. Pour hot milk over beaten egg yolk mixture. Whisk vigorously. When combined, return to the pan with the cornflour. Stir over low heat for about 5 to 6 minutes, or until mixture thickens to coat the spoon.
4. If using vanilla bean, remove when ready to serve.
5. Serve with sliced bananas, or a dollop of fresh, whipped cream, if desired.
If you want a quick creamy treat, try this recipe:
Nut Butter and Banana Pudding
If it’s the crunch you like, then try a crunchie sweet treat like a nut cookie:
Coconut and Nut Treats
If it’s the chocolate, then try making some healthy chocolate pudding, such as:
Healthy Chocolate Mousse
It will likely be a bit of each of these tricks that will help: learning about other bad ingredients and finding some alternate foods.
For example, I really missed good, thick creamy salad dressing when I first changed my diet to not eat pre-packaged food. I was making simpler oil based salad dressing, but they really weren’t my favorite. Even though the creamy versions took a bit longer to make, they were very well worth it. That was enough for me to no longer be tempted to buy salad dressing.
Here’s some recipes to try out:
Salad Dressing
Another one was spice mixes. I really loved some of the exotic flavors. For these, I tried a lot of different spice mix recipes. It took a while to find some I really liked, but the time spent was worth it, because that, too, was enough to break my desire to buy some premade ones in the store.
Here’s a few to get you started:
Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn Seasoning
Homemade Seasoning Salt
Other Spice Mix Recipes
A side benefit of these things I did was to save significantly on the cost, since premixed spice mixes and salad dressings are extremely expensive. The difference in price was actually enough to allow me to fully switch to organic vegetables.
When you make your own food, from scratch, you quickly realize how very expensive pre-prepared food is. The benefits of doing this will benefit your pocket book, and your health.
