16 Simple Tricks To Control Your Eating Habits
It all starts with you thinking about the food that you’ve been denying yourself.
It soon changes into an intense craving to eat.
Then the feeding is a relief as well as a comfort to eat, and you don’t seem to be able to stop. You probably eat furiously until you are full. After that, you feel so guilty as well as angry with yourself.
You don’t have to feel that way anymore. We have sixteen simple tricks to control your eating habits.
#1 Portion Control
You can best control your eating habits by building awareness of your portion sizes. Larger portions mean more calories and a more significant impact on weight and blood glucose.
In most cases, your perception of the appropriate portion sizes becomes distorted over time. Therefore, eating small portions of foods that are not weight loss friendly does you no good.
You should not underestimate the number of calories in any food size. Instead, you should use practical methods as well as tools to size up your portions.
#2 Go for Small Dishes and Glasses
Just as food portion sizes have increased over time; so have the proportions of plates and glasses.
Not long ago, we used to drink refreshing juice from a four-ounce glass. Nowadays, we have upgraded to 10 and 20-ounce glasses.
No longer is eating on nine-inch dishes the norm. You now dine on eleven to twelve-inch plates or larger.
Here is the thing, a reasonable portion appears small in a large plate or glass. You may easily over serve using large plates and glasses.
#3 Visual Cues
Other than the feeling of being full, people often use visual cues to stop eating, such as the bottom of a container or an empty plate.
Visual cues are particularly important when eating out, such as in a café where you don’t have control of the size of plates or glasses.
You can avoid overeating by merely looking at the plate size and food portion. You should also consider buying foods that have visual markers that can help you monitor how much you’re consuming.
#4 Drink Water
Drinking 8 eight-ounce glasses per day may seem challenging for some of you. But it will get easier with time.
Drinking water with your meals helps you control your eating habits (overeating) and facilitates the mixing of fluid and fiber in your digestive tract.
Apart from mealtime, it is wise to drink water during the entire day. Try three glasses by lunch and another three by the end of your afternoon, and do the rest before bedtime.
#5 Eat Before You Get Hungry
It sounds simple, doesn’t it? However, if you wait until hunger strikes for you to eat, then you are likely to eat impulsively.
You can easily overestimate your hunger and binge out. When you are hungry, you tend to eat to satisfy a craving, and it is so easy to overeat.
Now, when you overeat, your insulin spikes, you feel tired and hungry again. As you can see, eating to feed the hunger is a terrible idea.
#6 Eat Slowly & Mindfully
Never be in a hurry when you are eating. Typically, it takes around fifteen to twenty minutes for you to gain any sense of satiation.
So, before you gain that sense of satiation, you tend to eat quickly, trying to fill your stomach with as much food as possible to feed the hunger.
Eating slowly and mindfully gives you enough time to feel a sense of satiation, and you can quickly stop eating when your mind alerts you that you are satisfied.
#7 Chew Gum
Chewing gum is one of the simplest ways to control your eating habits. Typically, gum is low in calories, and you can burn approximately eleven calories an hour.
Usually, you overeat when you are nervous, stressed, or bored. Chewing gum helps to alleviate nervousness, stress, and boredom, helping you avoid overeating.
Settle for fruit-flavored gum, because mint flavors may make some diet foods taste strange. But avoid gums that are claimed to curb appetite.
#8 Avoid Distraction
Nowadays, most people get easily distracted when eating. This happens because of the many electronic gadgets that surround you.
Watching the TV or a movie from your PC could make you pay little to no attention to what you are consuming and how full you are.
Always realize that you need to pay more attention to what’s on your plate when you are engaged in a pleasant distraction to avoid mindless overeating.
#9 Limit Variety
When there is so much to eat, overeating seems to be so easy. It is particularly the case when dining at buffets.
If you are presented with numerous options, including tastes, colors, textures, and flavors, you will want to sample everything with the intent of satisfying your curiosity.
So, limit the variety of foods in your meals to eat less. This does not mean that you eliminate almost everything to the extent that the quality of your diet suffers.
#10 Stick with Healthy Foods Away from Home
Don’t just eat healthy at home and snack mindlessly when you are away. If you keep diet foods with low calories close, you will less likely to overeat.
Stash dried or fresh fruits and nuts in your office desk. If healthy snacks always surround you, you can easily manage your appetite without craving for fast-food.
#11 Account for Temptations
You can never truly avoid temptations, especially if your head tells you that you are hungry. So, the next best thing to do is to plan for them.
Consider what food temptations you might face, and how you will cope with them, such as parties, buffets, meetings, and celebrations.
You should know that avoiding temptations at social events, such as parties and buffets may be harder than you would have imagined.
#12 Avoid Eating Directly from the Container
Did you know how easy it is to overeat when you consume food from its container? For example, you can consume a whole bag of chips.
What you should do is portion out. Use a small plate or bowl to create a portion that will be enough. Also, use a thin glass to avoid drinking the entire bottle of a beverage.
#13 Consume Foods Rich in Fiber
Eating fiber-rich foods, such as fruits, oats, vegetables, and beans get you satisfied and satiated for a longer duration of time, controlling your appetite.
Apart from keeping you satiated for longer, fiber-rich foods are best known for the modulation of blood glucose, promotion of normal blood cholesterol, and maintenance of healthy bowel function.
#14 Never Skip a Meal
Nowadays, people tend to skip breakfast simply because they are late to work. However, failure to break the fast every morning may trigger overeating later in the day.
According to studies, people who skip breakfast do usually weigh more and tend to gain more weight over a given duration of time.
Also, skipping meals motivates you to snack a lot and on unhealthy foods. Taking all meals in time will surely help you control your eating habits.
#15 Avoid Eating a Lot at Night
Eating after dinner seems to be a common problem for most people nowadays, which has serious consequences as far as weight gain is concerned.
Night eating can be mindless munching of chips, crisps, a piece of pizza, a bag of popcorn, and so on while watching a movie.
You should avoid late-night snacking. But if the urge is too much, you are probably suffering from night eating syndrome, and you may need therapy to stop.
#16 “Close” Your Kitchen before Bedtime
It works, we promise! Just make sure all the foods, including snacks, are all stored in the kitchen and not anywhere else in the house.
If you crave a snack late at night, and you find everything in the kitchen is put away and unavailable, this will serve as a reminder to avoid mindless eating.