After neverending holiday parties, countless cookies, and maybe one too many cocktails, our bodies are often craving a clean break from all the indulgences by the time January hits. While there’s no need for a crash diet or an extreme detox, clearing out the sugar and processed foods can help create steady energy, maintain our weight, improve our digestion, sleep, and skin, along with much more. Village dietitian, Jamie Miller, gives us some tips on how to clean out the junk food and make way for the nourishing choices to help us feel our best.

Toss It All In the Trash?

If we have become frustrated with how the holidays have left our pants fitting too tight, there’s a temptation to take a big trash bag and load it with every item in the house that isn’t a carrot stick or apple.  However, dietitian Jamie Miller, actually cautions against doing “The Great Purge”. Taking away every bit of unhealthy food in the house can create an “all or nothing” mentality that often backfires. She finds that individuals have only enough willpower and drive to eat so restrictive for a short time. When we name certain foods as “off-limits” and banish them from the house, then they become more tempting.  By depriving ourselves too much, it creates a rebound effect to overeating later . If we do finally have cookies in the house or are around a bowl of chips at a party, we likely will overeat them since it’s the only chance we have til they are gone again! Instead, it’s more ideal to have a healthy relationship with food where we can keep certain foods in the house, but not always be compelled to eat them.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

So if we don’t toss out all the unhealthy food automatically, then how do we clean up our diets? Miller notes that it is sometimes helpful to throw or give away some food items if they are personal triggers for overeating or if they are cluttering your pantry space. Or a great option is to instead just move these unhealthy items to a place where they are not easily seen, such as the top shelf of a pantry or in the freezer. This is because we often eat out of “sensory hunger” instead of physical hunger- just seeing, hearing about, or smelling food can trigger a desire to eat certain foods even if we are not truly hungry. So if there are unhealthy foods on the counter top or in easily accessible areas of the pantry, then every time you see them as you walk by, you’re likely triggered to want to eat them.

Choose What’s In Plain Sight

Now that the indulgent foods are put away, it’s time to set yourself up for success by using the prime real estate of your refrigerator and pantry to display delicious, nourishing foods. Make it easy to grab healthier food items. This could be having cut up veggies at eye level of the refrigerator ready to scoop up a delicious dip. Or instead of a candy bowl, try putting out a bowl of clementines to grab. The goal is to make it extremely EASY to eat healthy and HARD to eat unhealthy foods.

Be Prepared to Fill Cravings in Healthier Ways 

It would be silly to think that you will only want light, nourishing meals and will never crave something salty or sweet. We WILL have cravings, so the key is to be equipped with delicious products and recipes that fill the cravings, but leave you feeling your best. Miller shares some great ideas and a few recipes to fill cravings whether you have a sweet tooth or knack for something salty.