January is all about resolutions and “turning over a new leaf”.  So all this month, we’re talking about the big nutritional benefits you can get from making just a few small changes.  Now let’s take a look at ways you can start to eat less without leaving your tummy grumbling.

We started with little adjustments you can make when you’re buying food, and in the last post I suggested some ways in which you could make changes in the way you prepare your foods to shave calories and make them healthier.  You might already be reaping some benefits if you’ve been trying to make these changes – and you may even be thinking that there isn’t a whole lot more tweaking you can do.  Maybe you haven’t given it much thought, but a little fine-tuning in the way your foods are served can also affect your food intake, too.

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Here are some reasons why you might eat when you’re not hungry – and what you can do about it.

You’re not hungry but you eat anyway:

Life and calorie control would be a whole lot easier if we only ate when we were truly hungry.  Then it would simply be a biological drive that needed to be satisfied – like downing a glass of water when your throat is parched. It’s the rare person who doesn’t eat for reasons other than hunger – most of us find ourselves doing it from time to time.  Read more »

Our bodies send clear signals telling us when to eat and when to stop – but are we listening?

I was talking with a new client the other day and I asked her to describe her appetite.  She thought for a minute, then told me, “I can’t really say that I ever get hungry.”  She ate frequently throughout the day (maybe a little too frequently), and on a fairly set schedule.  So she relied on the clock – not her hunger – to tell her when it was time to eat.  And when I asked her how she knew when she’d had enough –that it was time to stop eating – she was completely stumped.  “I don’t have a clue,” she said.  “I’ve never really thought about it.” Read more »

I rarely eat when I go to the movies, but when we went last weekend, my husband was in the mood for some popcorn.  We ordered a bag to share – choosing a “medium” size for no other reason than a “small” size sounded…well, “small”… and “large” sounded more like “family size”.  So when we were handed this enormous bag of popcorn – enough for about six people – it got me to thinking.  If the folks running the movie theater are deciding what’s a “small” or “medium” or “large” serving of popcorn, do we blindly accept those labels? Do we tell ourselves that “medium” means “moderate”? Do we go ahead and eat half of that “medium” bag of popcorn – even though it’s clearly a large amount of food? Read more »

If you’re a seasoned dieter, you’re probably pretty skilled when it comes to counting.  In your efforts to keep your weight under control, you’ve probably counted everything from calories to carbs, and from fat grams to fluids.  Snap on a pedometer, and you’re counting how many steps you take every day. If you feel like you’ve run out of things to count, rest assured.  Researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina have developed the tool for you – enter the bite counter. Read more »