Is junk food creeping back into your home? If your family has a taste for ice cream, chips, cookies, and other unhealthy (but tempting!) foods, it’s almost impossible to prevent them from reappearing in your cupboards. So how can you ensure that your house is temptation-proof?

Create a Temptation-Free Kitchen

To help you maintain your healthy lifestyle, try these suggestions for ridding your kitchen of foods that aren’t South Beach Diet–friendly:

• Plan a monthly cupboard cleaning to throw away any unhealthy foods that have somehow sneaked back in.
• If foods are still packaged, consider donating them to a food bank.
• Make it clear to your family that certain unhealthy foods should not be brought into the house. Or, if that suggestion creates havoc, create a separate out-of-eyesight snack drawer or cabinet where they can stash their snacks.
• Don’t allow yourself to succumb to impulse buys when shopping: Avoid the grocery aisles that contain chips, cookies, and other baked goods or junk food. Instead, shop for fresh vegetables, reduced-fat or fat-free yogurt and cheese, and nuts and seeds — all good for Phase 1 dieters. On Phase 2, whole-grain crackers, air-popped popcorn, and baked whole-wheat tortilla chips are good choices. You can separate them into single-servings and store in plastic sandwich bags to keep portions manageable.
• If you’re looking to satisfy your sweet tooth on any Phase, choose sugar-free hard candies, a no-sugar-added Fudgsicle, sugar-free gelatin, or a sugar-free popsicle. Just be sure to count them toward your daily recommendation of 75-100 calories of Sweet Treats.

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