I was talking with a co-worker last week about different strategies he’s tried to lose weight. One thing he brought up (which made me beam with excitement!) was that he doesn’t like trying fad diets. Instead, he realizes that he needs to change his eating behavior and overall eating pattern to enjoy long-term, sustained weight loss. He’s so right! And, along with that, we need to realize certain triggers or situations that make us want to eat more food or want to eat foods that are higher in fat, added sugar, and calories.
When you are watching TV, do you sit there feeling like you “need” to eat or like you NEED to eat? In other words, do you desire to eat because you are bored and THINK you are hungry, or because you are just plain hungry? Watching TV, sitting at the computer, and riding in a car are several things that can trigger us to want to eat. They sometimes act as cues to begin eating, whether or not we are actually hungry!
Have you ever heard of the term “mindless eating”? It’s a term coined by Dr. Brian Wansink from the Cornell Unive
rsity Food and Brand Lab that describes the way we mindlessly eat sometimes. In one study on mindless eating, participants were given a bowl of soup and told to eat as much as they wanted. Unbeknownst to the participant, the bowl kept refilling slowly on its own so that the bowl always appeared to be half-full. After about 20 minutes, the participant was asked if they were full. Although the participant just ate soup for 20 minutes, the participant said they didn’t feel full because their bowl of soup was only half-full. Since soup is often pretty filling, it’s kind of hard to believe the participant wouldn’t feel full, right? But, mindless eating was at play here!
The really interesting part is that many of us experience mindless eating on a daily basis. Dr. Brian Wansink suggests that, “Most of us don’t overeat because we’re hungry. We overeat because of family and friends, packages and plates, names and numbers, labels and lights, colors and candles, shapes and smells, distractions and distances, cupboards and containers.” Factors within our environment can influence what and how much we eat!
Becoming more aware of our surroundings and eating patterns is one strategy to beating mindless eating.
• Be aware of what you are doing when you are eating. Are you really listening to your hunger cues or are you just eating because you can?
• Take a hin
t from this cute little guy and stand while watching television. You may feel less tempted to eat if your mind and body are focused on something else – like standing.
• Exercise during the commercials to keep your mind and body active.
• Kneel at the computer desk or sit on an exercise ball. You’ll use muscles in your back and abdomen, which can help take your mind off food for a bit.
• Use smaller plates and bowls for meals and snacks. We tend to put more food on our plate when it is larger.
• If you feel hungry, try drinking a glass of water. Take a few minutes to think about what it feels like in your stomach, and then determine if you still feel hungry.
• If you’re enjoying a nice conversation with friends while eating, remember to pay attention to your food. Your food might “magically disappear” if you get caught up in conversation and forget to watch how much food you ate.
• Replace the candy dish with a bowl of fruit. If candy is out-of-sight, it will likely be out-of-mind, too.
The next time you go to eat something, think about what might be influencing what and how much you eat. It might save you a few unwanted calories.
