Comfort Eating Derailed My Healthy Habits

5 strategies I used to ditch junk food and get back on track

Our downhill slide started with the Super Bowl.

Feeling festive, my husband and I took a detour from our healthy diet with a big tray of gooey, cheesy nachos. They offered some solace as my hometown team, the Kansas City Chiefs, floundered and ultimately lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31–9.

That was just the start of one of the dreariest Februarys on record. As we trudged through the cold, snowy days, comfort food started looking mighty appealing.

Things we hadn’t bought in months wound up in our grocery cart. Chili cheese corn chips, frozen egg rolls, diet soda, and almond butter cups? Why not? Feeling too low to cook? Take-out pizza and burritos were a two-minute drive away.

By the end of the month, we both felt lousy. It wasn’t just the couple of pounds we picked up. We were puffy-faced, bloated, and beat.

We finally looked at each other and said, “Enough.” We knew what to do. We just had to overcome inertia to get back on track.

How the pandemic changed what we eat

Research shows that pandemic stress made “America’s already poor eating habits worse.”

Abrupt lifestyle changes like working remotely, homeschooling, and increased isolation sent stress levels skyrocketing, and comfort eating became common.

A global survey of more than 7,500 people revealed that the pandemic and accompanying lockdowns increased their intake of sweets and sugar-sweetened drinks.

And although 60 percent of Americans said the pandemic prompted them to do more cooking at home, more than half also acknowledged more snacking.

And no one wanted to run short: Nearly 40 percent of consumers said having plenty of sweet and salty snacks on hand is important during the pandemic.

The worst way to fuel your body

Almost everything you buy is processed. A bag of ready-to-eat salad has been washed, for example, and a box of frozen broccoli was chopped and flash-frozen before being shipped to the store. They are minimally processed.

In contrast, ultra-processed foods such as cookies, chips, cereal, and crackers “are formulations of salt, sugar, oils, and fats, as well as flavors, colors and other additives,” CNN reports.

More than half of all calories Americans consume come from ultra-processed foods. New research indicates that foods like pizza, potato chips, cookies, ice cream, fries, and cheeseburgers may even be addictive and trigger our brains to overeat, according to the New York Times.

Heavy consumption of ultra-processed foods creates significant health problems: They can raise the risks of heart attacks and strokes, increase the threat of some types of cancer, and are tied to developing diabetes.

Highly processed foods could also shorten your life. An eight-year study done in France found that every 10 percent increase in ultra-processed food carried a 14 percent increase in the risk of death.

We did a reset starting March 1, returning to four strategies that helped us get healthier in the first place.

Planning meals

More than half of Americans plan their meals just 30 minutes before eating, which often leads to poor choices like hot dogs with a side of chips or packaged pasta meals.

I’m no Barefoot Contessa, but sheet pans, a slow cooker, and an air fryer have made me a passable cook. There are thousands of healthy recipes online, so scrolling through and choosing a few to freshen up my existing file took less than an hour.

Planning meals reduces food waste because you only buy what you need. It also saves you money. An analysis of 86 popular meals found that it costs almost five times more to order carryout from a restaurant than cooking at home. When the average tab per person tops $20, it adds up fast.

Making a list

With your meals in mind, making a list is easy. Start by cleaning your refrigerator and tossing items you won’t need for next week’s meals. Give processed meats and sugar-filled sodas, jellies, and condiments the heave-ho. Make sure to check your pantry, too, for basics like olive oil, spices, dried beans, and canned tuna.

What you’re left with should be a list of items that you’ll incorporate into the meals you’ve planned. Research shows that people who shop with a list tend to eat healthier food and are more likely to maintain a healthy weight.

If you’re avoiding grocery stores, you can easily adapt this strategy for online shopping. That can even help you avoid impulse purchases that derail your well-laid plans.

Shopping strategically

Americans average 88 trips to the grocery store each year, creating plenty of opportunities for unhealthy impulse purchases. Ever notice how the bakery is located right at the front of the store? Or wonder why a new cereal bar is artfully positioned at the end of an aisle?

Grocery shopping is “a cunningly orchestrated process” designed to keep you in the store longer and to spend more money.

Supermarkets employ all kinds of strategies, reports Business Insider. They locate butter, eggs, and almond milk at the back of the store, forcing you to walk past hundreds of items you normally wouldn’t buy. They place brightly packaged and expensive products at eye-level so they’re the first thing you see. They load candy, chips, and sodas into racks at the checkout line, where you’re tempted to grab them on your way out.

Be a savvy shopper and stick to the store’s outer aisles where fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, fish, and meat are found. Only dip into the center aisles for healthy staples like frozen vegetables, steel-cut oats, coconut oil, and vinegar.

Reading food labels

When you buy a packaged product, one of the best things you can do is ignore the claims on the box’s front. Sugary cereals, for example, are often touted as helping to lower cholesterol.

Better to flip the box over and read the nutrition label on the back. Healthline advises taking a look at the first three ingredients. If they include refined grains, sugar, or hydrogenated oil, put the product right back on the shelf.

Sugar and salt go by many names. Many shoppers know to avoid corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup. However, honey, agave nectar, cane sugar, evaporated cane juice, coconut sugar, dextrose, malt syrup, and molasses are all alternative names for sugar, according to Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Monosodium glutamate or disodium phosphate are other terms for salt.

Also, keep an eye out for artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives, all hallmarks of ultra-processed foods, per Harvard.

Probably the best advice is if the product you’re buying has more than five ingredients and includes things with a lot of unfamiliar and unpronounceable names, give it a pass.

Never shopping when hungry

When your time is limited, it’s tempting to skip lunch to get your grocery shopping done. That’s a bad idea. Scientists say, “You’re bound to make poor decisions that are not based on the nutritional content of the food but on temporary cravings that will leave you asking for more later.”

In fact, researchers at Cornell University found that grocery shopping when you’re hungry can set you up for an entire week of unhealthy eating. When you load your grocery cart with frozen pizzas, instant noodles, pre-made breakfast sandwiches, and packaged snack cakes, that’s what you’ll be eating in the days to come.

The course correction pays off

Ten days along, my husband and I have ditched ultra-processed foods and are back on track.

Not only have we each dropped a couple of pounds but, most important, we feel much better: No more cravings, no more bloat, and no more fatigue.

A long hike on a nearby wooded trail that looked daunting at the end of February was a pleasure last weekend.

Just like that hike, the journey to better health isn’t a straight upward trajectory. You’ll stumble on roots, navigate switchbacks, and sometimes get stuck in the mud. If you keep going, though, you’ll reach the summit. And the view from there is just great.