Starting Fall With Healthier Eating Habits

With the new season it’s time to start thinking of refreshing ourselves again along with the weather! I know I’m always looking to try to improve my healthy habit and diminish the bad, but I always seem to get in my own way. We’re too food oriented, and I’m too bad with self-control. I found an article, though, with simple habits that we can use to help control unhealthy eating tendencies. Here are the best tips that I walked away with (and am instituting in my home).

Start by making the healthiest freshest foods your first visual and option. Rearrange your cupboards and refrigerator. Put a bowl out on the counter and/or table. Wherever you can make sure your fresh fruits and vegetables are the first thing seen when you’re feeling hungry.  You’re much more likely to grab or crave something within your line of sight.

Hide the less healthy food, or at least make it inconvenient to reach. The only out and visible foods should be your fruits and vegetable. All other foods should be out of sight, out of mind. Hide them on the top shelf or the far back of your fridge. The less convenient it is to grab the less you’re going to subconsciously want to reach for it.

Serve food away from the table. When you’re sitting down to breakfast or dinner, make sure to serve from bowls on the counter or on the stove, rather than on the table itself. This will make you less likely to just keep going back for more, increasing your serving size exponentially.

Eat and drink from smaller plate, utensils, and glasses.  Serving sizes obviously can be monitored better with smaller sized containers, but it’s more than just that. Just because you’re using a smaller glass doesn’t mean you’re going to have to go back for me. The larger the plate or glass to more apt you are to “fill it” whether you need that much or not. Smaller vessels equal lesser amounts all around.

Lastly, when you’re eating a meal, be sure to focus on only your meal. We’re too multitask-oriented, and when we eat and do an activity (even as simply as watching TV) we have a tendency to over-eat. We end up eating mechanically (on mindlessly) because our attention is split, and we’re less likely to know when we’re actually full until it’s too late.