Mindless Eating vs Mindful Eating

Most of us are Mindless Eaters, that is we grab food without much thought and then we do not remember later that we ate it and wonder why we are gaining weight. Most of us eat whatever we want anyway without thought. So common sense would say that we need to become Mindful Eaters and there are starting to be new diet books written about being Mindful Eaters. At first I thought wow this is it! They get it! The more I think about Mindful Eating though, I just get tired. Is it really possible to plan every single thing that you eat and be so organized and on top of life like that? Can a person really plan their daily calories when being off by only 100 calories per day can add up to 10 pounds of weight gain a year. There is a lot of room for error. I am not sure that most of us can do that! Is there HOPE?

I believe there is great Hope! Mindless Eating seems random but if you are journaling (see Monday's blog) you will begin to see patterns of eating forming. Maybe you are skipping breakfast and hunger is extreme from lunch on. Maybe you hit the break room machines at 3pm every day. Maybe you eat 1000 calories while you fix dinner. There are 1000's of habits that we have that cause us to overeat and I believe many of us make it much more complicated than it is. Also, it is difficult to see these habits and not want to change all of them tomorrow. That is how we are; Perfection or Nothing! All or Nothing Thinking! STOP!

I would encourage everyone to pick three habits at a time only. Work on those habits and when you have mastered one, add a new one. There are a few habits that can make a huge difference though and I will list a few and maybe you can then lose weight without really trying!

1. Downsize your dinnerware. If you eat off of a 10" plate vs a 12" plate, you will eat less. Your brain needs to see a full plate and will be satisfied. The same amount that fills a 10" plate looks like an appetizer on a 12" plate and your brains says "I have been denied" and you fill your plate more. A great place to find 10" plates is at an antique store. Yes, plates used to be that size. Our ancestors actually ate less!
2. Clean up the junk food in your home. Throw it away and do not buy it again! Please stop setting yourself up for failure! If you are trying to eat healthy but you keep your favorite Costco size bag of tortilla chips in the cupboard, you might have a problem! It is a lot easier to pass the chips at the store than your cupboard at night when you had a hard day. Same goes for ice cream, hidden chocolate stashes, cookies......You get it!
3. Do not put your serving dishes on the table or I guarantee you you WILL eat more. This is such a simple thing to do. In our house, I serve everyone at the stove and then put the leftovers away in tupperware containers for lunches the next day. I always have extra salad though. When someone wants seconds I say, "Well, I put the extra in a tupperware for your lunch tomorrow and if you eat more now you are going to have a skimpy lunch" My husband loves leftover lunches and hates sandwiches so he has an extra serving of salad. This is a habit everyone should do. If you leave the food on the table you will all eat more!!!!!
4. Use the half plate rule. This is my favorite. Fill half of your lunch and dinner plate with veggies. Then add one serving of your protein and one serving of your healthy carbohydrate (1/2 a cup is a serving, no tears, you can have more tomorrow.) None of us eat the recommended amounts of fruits and veggies. You should really see this on your journaling. Get creative. Trader Joe's has many salad dressings that are good and not high calorie. Try their balsamic or rasberry vinaigrette and drizzle it on.

There are so many easy tricks to add to your repertoire and I believe as you become saavy you can make up what works for you. Tomorrow I will post a list of some types of mindless overeating habits and you can see the type of eater you are!