You’re spinning around in a carousel eating all day and somehow you can’t hit the break.  The thing about mindless eating is that there’s no control over it because you aren’t conscious of the action. You just eat dinner, washed the dishes and sat in front of the TV to watch your favorite show. Suddenly, without thinking you are grabbing the bag of potato chips and… voilà! Before you know it, the whole thing is gone! How did that happen?

If mindless eating is constantly sabotaging your weight loss efforts, you should follow these tips so you can stop eating without knowing.

1. Try to Eat fiber with every meal: Try to eat have foods rich in fiber so you can feel satisfied. The key word here is satisfied not satiated. Fiber raises your serotonin levels making food sit on your stomach longer. Fiber slows your metabolism and aids your digestion process. Believe me, you won’t be able to snack after a high fiber meal.

2. Only at the table!  If you are the type that eats in front of the TV, computer or while the music is blasting with your favorite tune, it’s time to turn every device off! It’s known that when you eat your meals distracted, you eat faster and way more food. We tend to eat at the pace of the show, and not at our pace. We drink more and don’t chew long enough to break all the food before taking another bite.

3. Slow down: Speed doesn’t help you either because you end up eating more. The key to weight loss is eating small amounts of food slowly. We have to give chance to the acids in our stomach to break down everything we eat. Ideally, we shouldn’t drink while we eat so our saliva does all the work.

4. Eat delicious food: Remember that the key word here is “satisfaction” and you’ll only get that from eating something tasty. The Rolling Stones were right! We know that the reason most diets fail is because the food doesn’t taste that good. Every day diet recipes are becoming tastier, so people can stick to the plan and see the results. When you eat a delicious meal you are going to eat it slowly because you want to savor every bite. Let’s be honest, you don’t want it to end!

5. Shrink your portions! Portion control is everything. You heard this before, but somehow you still fill that plate with food. Trust me, you are not alone. Most people fill their plates to the max and eat it all. Eating a huge serving won’t stop you from eating more afterwards. Use smaller plates to trick your eyes or cut your portions in half so you can start losing weight.

Twitter @FoodvsEvil #FoodvsEvil 

Image by Milena Prinzi