3 Mental Tricks for Weight Loss
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3 Mental Tricks for Weight Loss
I have a funny story that is proof positive that playing mental tricks can help you change your eating habits…and eventually help you lose weight…
My daughter had a friend sleep over last weekend. They decided they wanted to camp out on the back 40. So we helped them set up camp and they carted their sleep mats, pillows, and 30,000 trinkets back to the tent. They also loaded a backpack full of junk food for their big night in the wilderness: Oreos, Cheetos, Doritos, Skittles, and mini Snickers bars. There was not a scrap of junk food left in the house.
I advised them bring a 5-gallon bucket to catch the puke.
Anyway, about 5 seconds after it got dark they were back at the house. Too scared to stay out, they said. But, lo and behold, they had forgotten the bag of sleepover snacks. They didn’t realize this until after I was already in bed. (My kid knows better than to wake me up for anything less pressing than the house burning down.) They were either going to have to brave the dark to get the snacks themselves, or live with what was left in the house.
They went with option two. And I know this because when I got up in the morning I found containers of empty cottage cheese, a half-eaten bag of almonds, and a bowl of cherry pits scattered about the kitchen and living room.
Lesson: when the junk food wasn’t available, they chose healthier options.
Mental trick for weight loss #1: Get the junk out of your house
You can make all the excuses you want about “needing” the junk food in the house. “My kids like it.” “My husband whines if I don’t buy it.” But here’s the reality: humans are hard-wired to eat. Period. This is not an issue of willpower, folks. And anyone who says so it is, is dead wrong. We are hard-wired to seek and eat food. And if food is available – especially highly palatable food – we are programmed to eat it. Your willpower may help you for a short time. But if the Oreos are in your cabinet, it’s only a matter of time. This is not your fault. It’s your biology.
The best thing you can do is work with your biology and make it harder to make poor choices. Get the junk food out of your house. (I’ll openly admit that I’ve driven to the store at 10 PM on rare occasions. But nine times out of ten, I won’t. I’ll opt for something that I already have.) And if you’re really smart, you’ll have foods on hand that are easy, healthy, and readily available, like single-serve packages of chocolate covered almonds or apples with a little peanut butter.
Mental trick for weight loss #2: Eat from smaller plates
The human tendency is to fill blank spaces, whether we are coloring, decorating our house, or putting food on a plate. So, a normal-sized portion of rice is going to look paltry on a huge plate. And while we’re here, let’s talk about wine glasses. The jumbo-sized wine glasses we use nowadays make a 5 oz. serving look like a sip. The reality is that most of these wine glasses can fit about half a bottle of wine. Chances are good you are vastly overdoing it if you are pouring into a modern wine glass.
Add on top of this the fact that most of us have eyes that are bigger than our stomachs. This is me all the way! It’s like I have a fear of going hungry, so I load my plate. About half-way through the meal, I realize it’s way too much food. But I feel compelled to eat it all because, you know, the starving children in China.
The solution? Work with your brain! Get smaller plates and glasses. Your plate will look full, which will satisfy your brain’s wish to fill the empty spaces. And if you fear not getting enough, don’t forget that you’re an adult now, and you really are allowed to go back for seconds if you are still hungry. You’re simply more likely to eat less if you put less on your plate…and to put less on your plate, the plate needs to appear full.
1 serving of almonds on a small plate. Roughly the same serving on a normal-sized plate.
Mental trick for weight loss #3: Leave the serving dishes in the kitchen
You’ve finished a plate of food and you are comfortably full. But, oh, the food was so good, and the main serving dish is still right there in front of you on the table. Maybe just a little more… Ten minutes later and a full second serving down and you’re unbuttoning your jeans.
Once again, we are hard-wired to eat food that is right in front of us. Believe it or not, doing something as simple as leaving the main serving dishes in the kitchen can help you subconsciously eat less. The reason this works is two-fold. 1.) The food is not right in front of you where the sight of it tempts you to take another helping, and, 2.) Humans are lazy critters. To get a second serving you will have to physically get your body into the kitchen. Sure, you may go the extra mile, but you might also think twice. Especially if you keep in mind that it feels pretty awful to be stuffed.
Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash
Blog Author: Kelly Bailey, IIN certified holistic nutrition coach, and NPTI certified personal trainer
Learn more about the author here.