Reducing your caloric intake can be a major challenge for most people. They envision it means a life of rice cakes and always suffering with a grumbling belly. But that doesn't necessarily have to be true. You don't need to turn your life upside down in order to start eating less. In fact, through employing these small adjustments to how you think about food, you might not even notice the reduction at all.
1. Eat Slower
Some people are ravenous eaters. When they see food in front of them, they just wolf it down at a 100 MPH. This might be the best way to overeat, though. When you are really forking the food down, your internal cues that tell you that you are full have trouble catching up. So you wind up with that thanksgiving dinner bloated feeling and a ton of food that will inevitably be converted into fat.
2. Don't Eat Your Whole Meal While Eating Out
If you are out at a restaurant, don't think you have to finish everything you order. In fact, it might even help to request a doggy bag along with your meal. When your order comes, you can just place half of it in the doggy bag. This tip can save you money as well. You get two restaurant meals for the price of one.
3. Stop Thinking You Have to Clean your Plate
The idea that it is a cardinal sin to leave food on your plate can be deep rooted for many people. It can bring about memories of childhood lectures on starving kids in China and ingratitude. But this kind of thinking is destructive in a country where the majority are overweight. If you don't think you need to finish your meal, don't finish it. Just wrap it up and save it for later, or if it's a particularly unhealthy food, it might even be best to just throw it away entirely. Out of sight, out of mind.
4. Pay Close Attention to Your "Full" Cues
A lot of people just eat not because they are still hungry, but because it's just "something to do." It should be a no brainier if you're trying to lose weight: if you're not hungry, and it's not time for a scheduled meal, don't eat. But a lot of people just eat for entertainment. If that sounds like you, starting paying closer attention to when you don't actually need food, and find some other way to entertain yourself. Read a book. Play your musical instrument. Play video games. You might even get entertained and get exercise at the same time by going for a hike. Just do what you can to keep yourself occupied so you don't eat "just because."
5. Avoid Alcohol at Parties
Alcohol doesn't just encourage your body to store fat; it makes you make bad decisions. And at parties, where booze and fatty foods often mix, those bad decisions can often destroy your diet. Just lay off the hooch when you go out with friends, and you might embolden your willpower enough to say "no" when someone shoves a tray full of mini pizzas in front of your face.
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