Changing How You Eat: Mindfulness and Planning

Do you know what influences what and how much you eat? Do you know your triggers?

You may believe that how much you eat is determined by how hungry you are or by how much you like the food or even by your mood. But you may be mindlessly eating which is dangerous to our success at weight management.

You really can eat too much without knowing it and you can eat less without knowing it. Changing how you eat can make it easier to get to and maintain a healthy weight. Here ae some ideas for making the healthier choice the easier choice:

• Serve yourself 20% less than what you think you might want.
• Take 20 minutes at least to eat and then ask yourself if you are still hungry before taking seconds.
• Dish up food from the stove or kitchen onto your plate versus serving buffet style or family style.
• Sit down to eat. Always.
• Use a smaller plate.
• Keep tempting foods out of sight or in hard to reach places so you have to pause before you eat them.
• Pre-portion snack foods ahead of time.
• Be aware of what you are putting in your mouth when you prepare or put away food.
• Snack only at the table and only using a plate.
• Neogitate with yourself to eat healthy foods first such as the salad or vegatable and then see if there is room for other foods.
• Re-wire your comfort foods. Instead of ice cream use a fruitand yogurt parfait to celebrate a victory.
• Redefine your gatherings around activities instead of foods.

Using these techniques and being mindful of how and what you eat can support your efforts to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.