I
am an avid reader (I can hear the guffaws from the people who know me
personally, maybe because saying that I am an avid reader is kind of an
understatement).
Anyway most of the information I post I find in magazines and online resources
like www.prevention.com and www.ivillage.com -feel free to check out these sites for tips and recipes, don’t forget
to let me know what you think of the sites.
So,
I’ve been reading and I came across some notable tips to help me DROP IT 4
LIFE, and being this being advent (pre-Christmas) and all, I decided to share…
Blue
Plates
One way McDonalds
attracts you to their shops and gets you to eat their ‘McEvers’ is their yellow
and red color scheme. This is because the human eye is naturally drawn to these
colors and they seem to stimulate us to want to eat. We all seem to gravitate
to the brightly colored salads at the salad bar, right? See what I mean:
You
see how you were drawn to the delicious colors in the pepper salad? And you
were like ‘what – the…&&^^%%’ when you clapped eyes on the other meal?
That’s the trick colors play on us and make us eat. We all can’t live on pepper
salads every day all year round, so I hear the trick to try is to change the
color of your plate! You read me…your plate! And BLUE is the recommended color.
Researchers say that the blue colored plate has a way of stalling your appetite
(it’s all in the brain), and you end up eating less (all things being equal).
Size
Matters
NO! I don’t mean
that! This is not that type of blog! I am talking about plates. The size of the plates you eat off of matters. We tend to
eat less when we eat off a smaller plate – provided you don’t end up going for
seconds, thirds and fourths… The smaller plate helps you control your portion
size and what quantity you end up eating. In addition, it helps you know what
you are fuelling up on in real terms.
Your friendly
neighborhood researchers say that using a larger fork could help you eat less – up to
10% less than you would eat when eating with a regular sized fork or another
utensil. The same researchers say that the rationale for this is that when
using regular sized forks we subconsciously feel that we aren’t eating much
(relative to the utensil) so we tend to
take more forkfuls to ‘satisfy’ our ‘hunger’.
Attention!
First off you need to give kudos to the cat...he's giving a good impression of a soldier at attention, isn't he? :)
Do you know that we
are estimated to eat 40% more when we eat and do another engaging task (like
watching TV, or using a computer) at the same time. This about this… that’s 40%
more chow, 40% more food than our body needs. My mom always told me that you
don’t live to eat, but eat to live. So I’m guessing if I’m eating 40% more eat
seating then I am living to eat. What about you?
Anyway, I hear that
to control how much goes in AND to know when to STOP eating (because eating on
autopilot short circuits the message from the brain that you are full) we all
need to stop multi-tasking when eating and give 100% attention to the meal in
front of us…
24/7
Call Girl
Some serial dieters [like
I was] would attest to the fact that we tend to ‘be good’ all week long then
take the weekend off. But then our setbacks would usually occur over these
weekend breaks. Right? I’m thinking that the thing to do is NOT take those
weekends off your healthy living/eating regime. In essence, be on call 24/7! I don’t mean that you
should not treat yourself every once in a while, I for one have regular treats!
But I am permanently ON my healthy living routine. I am conscious of the amount
of carbs & proteins I eat, the amount of exercise I get, supplementing calories
with fruits and veg and all of that. This has become my lifestyle! Should I ask what your lifestyle is? Do you have more ‘off
days’ than ‘on days’ on your healthy living lifestyle?
Chomp
on It
The average person
chews his/her food 8-12 times before swallowing – and we all end up eating
really fast and consuming more than those not so average people who really chop
down on their food (chewing until the food is almost liquidized in their mouths
before swallowing). Chewing up to 20-40times can possibly help you eat 12% less
daily in the long run.
On a personal note,
my dad is one of those who really chews on his morsels of food for a whhhiiilllee – he is a really slow
eater. But everyone at home has come to attribute this to the fact that he
hardly puts on an ounce of fat. So I am trying to emulate him – but counting
while eating is kind of strange, right? To avoid strange looks I sing quietly
to myself (I sing the birthday song a few times) – pick a song and let me know
how that works for you. I have found that it takes longer to finish a meal and
most times I end up getting tired of eating at all and just push my plate away.
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