It’s easy to eat more than we should. Some of it is the idea that more is better. A bigger meal for less money is such a good deal, how can you skip it? Whether it’s a super-sized meal or a carefully worded nutrition label, we’re all ready for a bargain.
Unfortunately, this way of thinking is what causes us to have such a massive waist line. It’s also difficult to get over that waist line once it’s there. It is quite a daunting task. I know. I’m still working on that particular task, so I know it can be done. All you need is a little information and a well working will power.
Eating Frequency: We were raised to believe that we need three square meals a day. Maybe an afternoon or bedtime snack was added, just to keep you going until dinner. Actually, the snack idea isn’t a bad one. Three huge meals, on the other hand, can be.
It is best to eat about six times a day. You can go meal, snack, meal snack or simply have six small meals. This will help keep your blood sugar levels consistent and can go a long way to preventing attacking a meal with the zest of the starving.
Does this Light make me Look Fat? Lighting, while most people don’t consider it at all, is critical to controlling how much we eat and what that food is like calorie wise. Believe it or not, that nice, romantic candlelight dinner is likely to cause you to eat more and the food will be higher in calories.
How much do you Want those Fries? This is an important question. When I first started on this journey, there were foods I ate on automatic pilot. The burger came with fries, so I ate them. Then I looked at the calorie count and realized that I don’t like fries enough to spend five hundred calories on them. Look at what you eat and see if there is something you can cut out that you won’t miss.
Plate Sized Dilemma: We have an unconscious urge to avoid blank spots on our plate. That may be part of why restaurants serve so much food on one plate. If your plate is more than ten inches in diameter, you are likely to overeat, simply to avoid the blank spots. If you don’t do that and still use the larger plates, believe me, you’re likely to feel unsatisfied after finishing your meal.
Portion Control: The most important aspect of getting back to a healthy weight and staying there. One of my problems stemmed from childhood. We lived on a farm, and there was a lot of work to do. If I asked for seconds at dinner, it was no problem because we burned a lot of calories just doing daily things.
Now, while I am working out, the rest of the time I’m a mouse potato. Seconds would definitely constitute overeating, even if I love the food and want more. This is where self control comes in.
What Actually Constitutes a Serving? This can be a tricky issue for a lot of reasons. A twelve ounce steak is actually about enough to feed three people. A serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards. Another problem comes with nutrition labels. If you read the label of a 20 oz regular soda, it says it’s for one serving. However, there are two and a half in the bottle. It is easy to assume it’s a single serving, because that’s how we drink it…that can really mess up your calorie tally.
Overeating is a problem, but it doesn’t have to be. With the above tips, it is possible to tame the monster.