Eating While not Hungry?

May 26, 2009

Nature had endowed us with the feeling of texture and flavor. Our tongue and nose often betray us while we are dieting. Our brain sends us the signal of well being and satiation when we had just finished a good tasty meal.

But nature is not entirely unfair to us. It has devised a mechanism for us to know that now we are full and we have to stop eating. But are you one of those who ignore these signs and continue eating? Don’t worry you are not alone in this. Modern living is taking its toll on many of us. We want to make up for what we lose, with food. We have developed our own mechanism to ignore all the signs and fill ourselves up with food.
If you want to deal with any problem, try to find out the root cause. That way you know what you have to do. So try to ask yourself why are you eating while not hungry? What makes you eat without hunger? Be honest here and it will in return show you the right path to deal with your weight control problem.

• It is time to ask yourself some right kind of questions. Are you
eating for the sake of it? You simply like the smell and texture
and couldn’t stop yourself?
• Are you a couch potato? While you are sitting comfortably on
your favorable spot you can’t help binging? Are you feeling
good after shopping or beauty treatment and want to reward
yourself with food?

• You have nothing exciting to do? You are filling your boredom
with food?
• You have just finished a stressful and hectic week at office and want to relax in weekends by eating?
• You are feeling lonely and dejected?
It you spot in yourself some of the above symptoms, its time to gear up and do something. What you can do to stop yourself from eating when you are not hungry?

Don’t be too hard on Yourself: Don’t go on guilt trip. Do not try to take some drastic steps. Think for a while and try bringing some small positive changes in your lifestyle to control your weight. Don’t take any huge step upsetting your lifestyle. Introduce some small changes in your meals. So that your system too go easy and have time to adjust to change.
Research has proved that changing the size of your plate helps you eat 20-22% less and ultimately you will weigh less. So go and shop for new plates that are smaller in size compared to your current ones. Don’t take this simple and practical suggestion as a joke. Most of the solutions around us are simple but we want some complicated solutions for our dear problems. Professor Wansink in his research proved that a person will eat an average of 92% of any food they serve themselves. So, serving less is undoubtedly going to be beneficial. He came out with this suggestion that switch over from a 12-inch plate to a 10-inch plate.
Another thing you can do is cheat yourself into reducing your calories. Reduce your calories in a phased out manner and in smaller quantities. This will take time but you will lose weight over a period of time and you have enough time to get acquainted with the change without feeling the withdrawal symptoms.
You should put calorie food out of your reach. This way you can’t easily fish out some cookies and munch on it happily. When you have to find a stool to reach it you might lose the urge to eat it. Or your brain might get enough time to ask some questions about your actions. That might halt your mission and you end up losing weight.

Posted by admin | Tags: Healthy Eating
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