"Sunday Roast 2" courtesy of ronny7362I have previously written ‘’10 Tips for Reducing Fat in Your Diet” and that the “Power of One” was a must have diet book . Here is another diet strategy from the book. The book says that you should “Stop eating when you are approaching feeling full but have not yet swallowed the lead-filled beach ball’, when it describes strategy six.
What does that mean? To put it more simply, when you’re eating a meal, you need to stop eating before you feel totally stuffed. How many times have you eaten a wonderful tasting meal and later felt guilty because you ate too much and maybe you now even feel like taking a nap as a result.
Most diets and common sense would dictate that we need to reduce our portions. You might be able to eat some of those things that you know aren’t healthy for you, if you’re able to control how much you eat. And we tend to stuff ourselves with fatty and sweat foods that are higher in calories, that only expand our waistlines.
We’ve become programmed over the years to “finish” what is on our plates. The book talks about how our body creates a fictional famine that compels us to keep eating past where we really should stop. Most of us have heard our parents (and might have even said to our kids) that we should finish our plate because there are starving kids in so and so. There is a guilt associated with not finishing your plate and this often drives us to eat what is remaining on our plate, past where our body really needs it.
To meet our body’s needs we need to stop eating after we don’t feel hungry any longer but before we reach the point where we feel “stuffed”, but how can we do this? Here are some things that you can do…
• Put smaller portions on your plate or don’t even put it on your plate to begin with. If you have smaller portions, you can finish you plate without that “stuffed” feeling.
• Don’t wait to eat until you are feeling starved. If you eat before your stomach starts making noises or are being driven by your cravings, you’re more likely to be in control of what you eat and can think with your brain instead of your belly.
• Eat your meals slower, you’re not in a race to eat as fast as you can. When you eat quickly you don’t enjoy your meals as much as if you eat them at a more leisurely pace. You also don’t “taste” all the flavor or are not able to appreciate the effort that went into making the meal if you’re racing through it.
• Walk away from the table more often. How often have you been eating a meal and something called you away from your plate, upon your return you discover that you aren’t hungry any longer?
• Don’t go back for second and third helpings.
• If you give yourself smaller portions, you can say to yourself that while that tasted good and that you realize you could eat more but since there isn’t any more on your plate you’ll stop.
• Over time you can develop a knowledge of knowing how much is enough. This knowledge needs to become second nature and a habit.
By eating to where you don’t feel hungry any longer, but don’t feel “stuffed” you find yourself well on the road to weight-loss and healthier eating. Do you have any tips to avoid “stuffing yourself” of if you have any comments, I’d love to hear them. If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us or on Digg and pass it on to anyone that you think might appreciate it .Thank you. :)
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