Tips To Eat Less

Learning tips to eat less can help you win at the weight loss game! Most of you are in the diet game of your life. The score goes up and then down, yet the game never seems to end. It’s discouraging. You try deprivation, eating differently, and new diets, but fail. The best advice is to eat a little bit less, most of the time! Simple! This works because we're portion challenged! Few of us recognize correct portions any longer. We have fallen victim to companies selling huge portions and restaurants serving double portions. Correct portions look minute!

Tips to Eat Less:

• Be a Label Reader: Any food that comes in a bag or box must have a food label. Read it and look for the proper serving size and use that as a guide. Use care because manufacturers are not above using trickery. Statistics for ½ a cookie, or sausage are common. No one eats half a cookie. If a product has ingredients that you do not recognize or chemicals, do not buy it. Look for a different, healthier choice.
• Follow the Half Plate Rule: The half plate rule is a simple way to practice healthy eating, rather than counting calories. Fill your plate half full of fruits and vegetables (heavy on the vegetables), ¼ full of your protein source, and ¼ full of your grain source. Vegetables are full of fiber and will quickly fill you up.
• Serve Restaurant Style Meals: These are meals that you plate yourself with proper portions. Serving dishes are not placed on the table. If your favorite food is right in front of you, it’s easy to overeat. Save the extra food for leftovers or lunch meals. This can save you money and end the fast food lunch habit.
• Downsize your Dinnerware or Use Salad Plates: Plates from the 1950s were 9 to 10 inches in size. Many of you use 12 inch plates, which have almost 50 percent more surface area to cover with food. Eat from a full 10 inch plate and wait 20 minutes before you reach for seconds. It takes your body 20 minutes to register being full.
• Limit Processed Foods: These foods usually lack fiber, are full of fillers, chemicals, cheap ingredients, dyes, sugar, salt, corn syrup, and should be limited. Many of them cause cravings, and you eat more. Purchase real foods, which do not need a food label, and learn to cook from scratch at home. The payoff will be delicious healthy meals.

Following these tips will allow you to eat less junk food and increase healthy eating, which will bring satisfaction and reduced cravings. It’s a cycle, but one that you can win at.  Eating a little bit less over time will win the weight loss game.