Tired of coming home starving with no idea what to eat?  Scrounging around the cupboards looking for one last morsel of chocolate? Bored and staring into an empty fridge? Getting hangry really doesn’t have to happen so much. 

Luckily, there are so so many foods you can keep at home so that you never end up stopping at a drive-through, eating an entire bag of chips in desperation, or calling for delivery again.

How to stop the hangry monster

Really, the best way to keep from over doing it when the stress and hunger hormones peak is to keep your home clean and prepped. It’s not just about getting rid of  your old temptations, it’s also having food at home you love that’s ready to eat and won’t set you off on a binge.

Obviously, it can’t all be chocolate we leave in the freezer (although wouldn’t that be nice).

The Two Absolute Must-Do’s:

1. Make big meals and freeze them in individual portions. Super Important!
   • When you get home starved, put it in a bowl of hot water for 15 then cook if you forget to take it out for the fridge the night before.
     Then there’s a healthy, filling, satisfying dinner ready in 20.
2. Schedule your grocery shopping or get at-home delivery so your fridge is always full of fresh fruit, veg, and protein.

“That won’t stop my hangry hunger monster…”

Of course, sometimes stress will make us eat five jars of cashews if that’s all we have in the house. In that case, it’s about more than prep (check out this article about eating our emotions). If this happens more often than not, it’s time to start a food psychology journal. Instead of only writing down the food you eat and counting carbs, it’s looking at things from the emotional point. The goal is writing down your reactions to emotions and food and find the triggers. Let it be about fact checking, not judging. Get to the root of the ‘why’, then we can work on the ‘how’: how can we substitute this negative reaction for a positive one.

In the end, a reaction is a habit; and habits are things we can change.

The List

Here’s my list of food to always keep at home. I know it helps me avoid buying my favourite bag of chips on my way home when I’ve got something tasty waiting for me that actually makes me feel good.

Pantry:
● Raw Eco nuts & seeds: walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, macadamia, pistachios, Brazil nuts, coconut flakes, sesame seeds
● Raw Eco nut flours: almond flour, coconut flour
● Oils: Olive oil, Avocado oil, Coconut oil
● Legumes: lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans, etc
● Nutritional Yeast (cheese replacement, great on salad and fish)
● Canned (wild is very important) fish for salads: salmon, tuna, sardines
● Eco Eggs
● Onions/shallots, garlic, ginger
● Fresh fruit: avocados, tomatoes, oranges, apples, bananas, etc
● Complex Carbs: Sweet potatoes, squash, beets (Make your own veg chips!)
● Dark Chocolate *my fave is from Lindt 90-99 %, but it can take time to train the taste buds to build up to notice the sweetness from dark chocolate.
● Red/Dutch Cacao powder (24% fat)
● Natural Vanilla Extract
● Spices & Herbs: cinnamon, turmeric, curry, nutmeg, cloves, oregano, etc

Freezer:
● Veggies of course: spinach, peas, squash, green beans, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, etc (fresh isn’t always better – there’s no nutritional difference)
● Protein: wild fish, eco meat (farmed animals eat corn, not grass, and are full of antibiotics and growth hormones which affect you)
● Individual Meals: veg chilli, chicken & veg, soup, curry, etc
● Dessert! Energy balls, brownies, nice cream, fat bombs, etc!

Fridge:
● Sugar free nut milks; Almond milk, coconut milk (no rice or oat milk)
● Ghee! Make your own it’s just Ecological butter boiled down
● Fresh vegetables; broccoli, zucchini, lettuce, avocados, carrots, cucumber
● Fruit; oranges, apples, lemons, limes, berries, medjool dates
● Seeds: chia, hemp, golden flax (grind it up fresh right before use)
● Chocolate coconut mousse! (recipe below)

Remember, the end goal is this:

Focus on how the food you eat makes you feel, not how it tastes. 

Emotion wins every time.