Whatever idiot first concluded that it’s hard not to reach for food every time you’re bored was right. We all have those uneventful days where we venture into the kitchen, open the fridge and stare at nothing in particular, and then walk away only to repeat walking into the kitchen again every 15 minutes for the next 2 hours.

Yeah, infomercials on Sundays are boring. Food! No. Restrain yourself. Walk away from the kitchen. You’re not even hungry. There are starving children in other parts of the globe. Let’s go chew gum!

I know you’ve probably been there, too. Especially when there’s nothing good in the fridge, but you visit it frequently anyways as if you’re waiting for something to magically appear. Let me tell you from experience, unless someone came to your house and restocked the fridge, it will contain the exact same food items it had when you checked 5 minutes ago. We all know that boredom-munching is a problem, but what are we supposed to do about it? Don’t ask me because I have absolutely no clue! Ok, fine, I will try to be more helpful.

Top 5 Tips to Stop Nom-nom-noming When Bored:

1. Keep gum and water handy! Gum has very little calories and keeps your mouth busy while water has absolutely no calories (unless you drink flavored water or something) and helps clean your pores while, once again, keeping your mouth busy.
2. Do something productive instead of lounging on the couch and watching nonsense TV or infomercials with a bowl of chips at your side! If you are preoccupied, you will most likely not result to eating for no reason. Go outside, read a book, listen to music, draw, baby-sit your neighbor’s annoying kids, do something, anything!
3. Make sure you’ve eaten the appropriate number of meals for the time of day. Ex: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A few snacks (usually 2) are allowed for in most modern diets, but make sure they aren’t a heap of junk food. Anyway, my main point was to make sure that you are eating a healthy amount of meals for the sake of my sanity. I don’t want to be training anyone to have an eating disorder here.
4. If you know you’re going to fall victim to the chowing-down bunny, have a few healthy snacks around. I’m a very unhealthy caffeine addict, but even I enjoy fruit like grapes, watermelon, apples, bananas, and, well, yeah, that’s it. Maybe try something containing protein (like granola bars) which gives you energy.
5. Last, but not least, lock yourself in a room with no food. Just kidding! Try to cut back on supplying yourself with sugary/salty/high-calorie/fried/any-kind-of-junk snack foods that we all know are hidden in our cabinets and secret candy drawers. The lack of having anything to randomly munch on will decrease the amount of food you eat when you’re not supposed to eat. Like the fact (or old wives’ tale) of spoiling your dinner when you were a kid. Most unhealthy kids don’t want to eat anything unless it’s that special unhealthy treat such as chocolate ice cream. If mom said you couldn’t have chocolate ice cream, but that you could have a strawberry Popsicle, you would probably say no to show defiance. Which pretty much backfired, but no wonder most kids in our days didn’t have weight problems.

I know that I got very off topic there, but what do you expect? I told you I had no clue. Anyway, if you’re like me and you occasionally give in, keep low calorie/somewhat-healthy-though-not-health-nut food in the house at all times just in case. Or do something! I, for instance, started this article. And then I ate a bowl of watermelon instead of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Reese’s Puffs I keep two feet away. Gold star for me! (Just kidding.) My point is that it’s all about making good decisions and doing something productive with your time. If you were an optimist, you may see the trips to the fridge as an opportunity to burn calories and exercise. I don’t know how close you are to your kitchen right now, but that would not be a good excuse for me, being two feet away and all. Ciao. I’m going to go check my fridge again now.