QuickTips Index

Introduction to the Healthy Eating and Weight Loss Tips
No one teaches basic eating skills. What we see in our culture encourages fast, mindless eating. Go through these skills to reprogram your eating habits. You may find yourself losing pounds without really trying.

Do Nothing But Eat During Meals and Snacks
Doing anything other than eating while you are eating increases your calorie intake. Do not read, talk, watch TV or do anything else when eating. Try to make meals (and snacks) a special time of the day to just eat.

Watching TV and Eating Adds Extra Calories
Watching TV while eating can add hundreds of calories to each meal. When we are watching TV, you're not paying attention to how much you eat. Turn off the TV while eating and save yourself calories.

Slow Down and Pay Attention By Using Chopsticks
Slowing down and paying attention to your foods can help you eat healthier. Chopsticks make you do both of these things. Try using chopsticks for a week and see if your eating habits change.

Food Thoughts Make You Hungry
Thinking about food can literally make you hungry. While food is everywhere, do your best to eliminate any picture of images of food from your environment. Try not to think about food and if you do, use a breathing exercise to redirect your thoughts.

Convince Yourself That Unhealthy Food Tastes Bad
Too often we get excited for unhealthy food and expect it to be delicious. Change this expectation and you will eat unhealthy food less often. Visualize the food clogging your arteries. Picture yourself sluggish and tired after eating it.

Move Your Food Around to Remind You About Your Goals
Rearranging your food in the pantry and refrigerator can shake you out of an automatic habit of eating and snacking. Move your food around so when you reach for it, it won't be there. Use that moment to remind yourself that you have a goal of eating less.

Make It a Challenge to Get to Your Food
Food is everywhere and too easy to obtain. Make food inconvenient and you'll need more motivation to get it. Move your food around. Put the cookies on a high shelf. Make it difficult to get to snacks.

Increase the Variety of Healthy Foods
By increasing the variety of healthy foods, you will eat more of them. Instead of having just one vegetable at a meal, try having two or three. You'll eat more vegetables.

Only Eat One or Two Things Each Meal
hen there are a variety of foods on the plate, you tend to eat more. Keep meals to a 1 or 2 types of foods and you will be satisfied with less.

Avoid Using Food as Reward, Punishment, or Comfort
Avoid using food as a reward, a punishment or a source of comfort. Make food about nourishing and taking care of your body.

Stop When You Are No Longer Hungry
Many people are used to eating until they can eat no more-- otherwise, they eat until they are "full." This point of "satisfaction" needs to be reset. Don't eat until you are full; eat until you are no longer hungry. This approach will reduce your daily calories and help you maintain a good weight for healthy aging.

Make Unhealthy Food Look Bigger
You can trick your brain into thinking you have eaten more. Make your food look bigger on the plate and you will feel satisfied with less.

Control Food Decisions
Eating less is important to your health, both now and in the future. For longevity and healthy aging we must learn to resist the snap decisions that have us eating junk foods. Resolve to decide your foods in advance each day and stick to your list.

Keep the Serving Dishes in the Kitchen
aving the serving dishes next to you makes it too easy to just add one more scoop to your plate. Move those dishes so you have to get up for seconds.

Eat Less by Sitting Next to Flowers
Much of taste is really smell. By adding smells that don't match the foods you are eating, you can reduce the pleasure of eating them. If you are trying to eliminate a craving, try eating it next to a fragrant candle, flower or other scent. You won't enjoy at much and will lose interest.

One Extra Spoonful of Veggies Each Meal
Vegetables are an important part of our diet and almost everyone needs to eat more of them. Each time you serve vegetables to yourself, put an extra spoonful on your plate. This little bit extra will fill you up with healthy food.

Iced Drinks Burn 1 cal/oz Extra
Drinking cold drinks burn calories because the body must warm up the liquid. Switch to unsweetened iced tea or water and you could burn several calories a day just by drinking it.

Eat Your Meals and Snacks at the Table
Eating and drinking while standing, walking, driving or watching TV means that you will probably eat more than if you were sitting at a table. Make it a goal to eat all of your meals and snacks this week at the table.

Use a BIG Salad Bowl
By making vegetables look smaller, you can trick yourself into eating more. The brain estimates food based, largely, on appearances. Eat your vegetables on a big plate, and you'll eat more of them.

Count Your Fries and Chips
You can eat several servings of a snack at one time and not even realize it. To keep track, count the number of chips, fries or other snacks that you eat. This will slow you down and help you monitor what you are consuming.

Avoid Bags and the Chip Bowl
When you eat snacks right out of the bag or bowl, you have no idea how much you have eaten. Eat ALL your snacks on a plate so you can see what you are putting in your body.

Don't Reuse Dishes
When you put extra servings on the same plate, it doesn't seem like you have eaten that much. But if you use a new plate each time you add a helping, you'll recognize how much you are eating. Do the same with drinks -- get a new glass every time you fill up to let yourself know how much you are really taking in.

Eat First, Then Drink
While you are eating, you don't usually pay attention to how much you are drinking. You can easily drink several glasses of soda or sweetened tea during a meal. Instead, enjoy your drinks separate from your meals. You will be able to focus on your foods while you eat and keep track of what you are drinking.

Hide All Your Food
When we go through our day looking at food and snacks, we will eat more. Put away all your food and any pictures of food away. By removing food from where we see it all the time, we reduce the temptation for impulse snacking and giving in to cravings.

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