How You Eat is Important to Weight Management
Most of us think of eating as being as natural as blinking or breathing. Unfortunately, it is not that simple since many have learned to eat incorrectly. Without proper eating skills, you will have trouble when on diets. With our fast-paced society, many bad habits have become the norm when eating. If you can break these habits, you will be more likely to drop pounds.
First, the speed at which you eat is key. Eating too fast, like many workers must do to fit lunch into their day, has a negative impact. As we rush through work and off to various after-work or after-school activities, we carry that fast eating habit into other meals as well.
According to studies, the brain doesn’t realize that the stomach is full until a full 10 minutes or more later. If you rush, you could be overeating and not even fill it yet. If you are eating in less than 10 minutes, you are probably guilty of this. You can slow your meal down by talking, setting the fork down after each bite, chewing more slowly, and completely swallowing before taking a drink of water between each mouthful. Once you have finished the meal, wait for another 10 minutes before you choose to have dessert since you may find that you are too full to manage it.
Other tips to help you develop better eating habits include leaving the serving bowls on the counter instead of setting them on the table. If you do this, you will have to walk into the other room to get more food, which makes you more aware of whether you really want it or not. Of course, you should always dole out a single serving of ice cream, chips, and other snacks that come packaged in larger servings. If not, you may overeat as you mindlessly keep eating without paying attention to how much you are taking in.
Even though our TV generation mindset has us eating in the living room, you should eat at the dinner table instead. Sitting at the table keeps you aware of the food. If you are watching TV or reading a book, you might not keep track of how much you are eating or of that feeling of fullness.
Break the rule that your mother always gave of cleaning your plate. This childhood rule was made to encourage us to eat the good food served for dinner rather than junk. Unfortunately, more than 50% of adults still clean their plates no matter if they are full already. By trying to have good manners, a person cleaning his plate could be overeating and packing on the weight. To cure this problem, you can use a smaller plate, take smaller portions, or eat only the foods that you enjoy and know will make you fill full.
Another bad habit to break is storing food where it can be seen. If the cookie jar or chip bag is plain view, you will be more likely to want to snatch it up and start snacking even if you are full. Tuck snacks into cabinets and put leftovers in the fridge immediately. This way you will have to work to get the food and you may decide it’s not worth the hassle.
The way you think about food needs to be healthy, also. Don’t beat yourself up all day if you do overeat. Look at it as one small mistake and go on trying to make better choices to make up for it. If you sulk over it, you are more likely to keep repeating the bad habit.
It may seem daunting to take on such a task as changing your eating habits. Since it has taken you a lifetime to learn the wrong things, give yourself time to make new habits to take their place. As you start losing weight by eating the right way, you will see it was worth the hard work.
