More Ways To Curb Mindless Eating

On average, you make more than 200 decisions about food each day However, you’re only aware of a small fraction of them. The rest are performed by your unconscious mind, and can lead to so-called mindless eating. Mindless eating can make the difference between under-eating or overeating. It can also promote either easy weight loss or unexplainable weight gain. This article explores why mindless eating happens and what you can do to stop it.

It’s an age-old problem for many of us. Maybe the food tastes too good. Or we feel compelled to clean our plates. Perhaps we fail to recognize that we’re full and just keep eating and eating and eating.

But most of us don’t overeat because we’re hungry; instead, it’s because of “packages and plates, names and numbers, labels and lights, colors and candles, shapes and smells, distractions and distances.Well, you get the idea that Brian Wasnick, PhD, director of the Cornell Food Lab, is trying to get across: We overeat because of external signals. Or habit. Or both.

And if it’s the external world that is tapping us on the shoulder and silently urging us to “Eat, eat!” then wouldn’t it stand to reason that we can alter the way we see or act in the external world so that we can get a different message? Right?

Yes, perhaps, but that doesn’t come naturally or easily to many of us. That’s why I’ve compiled a list of suggestions so that the next time you’re tempted to overeat, you’ll be able to stop and listen to that voice of reason. After all, with the over 200 decisions Wasnick says we have to make about food each day, wouldn’t it be nice to make the right decisions?

Wrap it up

This can be done a few ways: If you’re at a restaurant, ask the server to wrap half of your dinner before you even dig in; if you’re at home, wrap up whatever food tempts you so that it’s tough to open and maybe not worth the effort after all.

Use Visual Reminders

Behavioral scientists believe one of the main reasons people overeat is because they rely on external rather than internal cues to decide if they feel hungry or full. Naturally, this can lead you to eat more than you need to. To demonstrate this point, researchers provided participants with an unlimited amount of chicken wings while they watched the American football Super Bowl....

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