Sunday, January 27, 2013

Strategy #8: Shun Seconds

Shun Seconds

     When food is good you just want to have more but resist the urge because if it is really good, you may not stop at just the second round. You may serve up a third and fourth time! If the meal you just had was loaded with calories, going for seconds will just make it worse because you will double up on the calories.
     You may be thinking, okay I'll just eat from a big plate so that I don't have to go for seconds. Uhhh, not a good idea. I have seen some humongous dinner plates that may be mistaken for platters; you definitely want to stay away from serving yourself in these kind of plates. Grab a small plate and load up your food on it. Eat slowly so you can savor your food-mmmm yum! Pay attention to whether you feel full yet. Unfortunately the body's mechanism to tell you that you are full takes a while to get to the brain so it's important to just slow down. Your brain may start signaling that you are full before you even finish up the food on the small plate if you start eating slowly. Rushing through your meal may leave you with an upset stomach and by the time you finish you may think you are still hungry.
     If savoring your food is a foreign concept, try to incorporate it slowly. Try it with one meal first then spread it out to other meals. Chew your food slowly for about a minute, while you are chewing put your spoon/fork down. Give yourself about 25 minutes to enjoy your meal. It is hard to concentrate on just eating because there are so many distractions around. Sometimes you may even eat while you are chatting on the phone and after you get off the phone you start wondering where all that food went to! So savoring your food will also help prevent mindless eating, which in my opinion is responsible for a lot of excess weight.
   Make the most of that first and only serving-eat it slowly so you can enjoy every bit of it!!

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