Easy tips to help you to eat less without realizing it and lose weight.

What you eat is vitally important to ensure that you are giving your body the nutrients it needs to function optimally but even overeating on healthy food can prevent you from losing weight and ultimately reaching the goal weight you are aiming towards.

Our subconscious mind impacts our appetite control, weight loss and healthy eating. We can use this to our advantage and trick our minds into eating less, feeling fuller and satisfied quicker. Here are a few easy tricks you can use to teach your brain to eat less without feeling deprived or even realizing it.

Aim to use smaller bowls and plates to eat from. We tend to serve ourselves significantly less in a smaller bowl compared to a larger bowl. This is because the same amount of food looks like a bigger portion on a smaller plate, which sends a signal to your brain that you are eating a full meal compared to eating from a partially full larger plate.

Use taller slender glasses when drinking alcohol, fruit juices, cordials and fizzy drinks to trick yourself into drinking less. By choosing taller slender glasses rather than shorter wider ones you can decrease your liquid energy intake easily as your mind perceives height more readily than width. This tricks your brain to think you have had much more to drink than you had.

Make sure the colour of your plate or bowl is different than the colour of your food. The bigger the difference in colour between your food and your plate the less likely you will be to overserve yourself as your food portion is visually more noticeable to your brain. For example, serving white rice on a red plate versus white rice on a white plate.

Cut your food into smaller pieces before starting to eat. This can trick your brain into thinking you are eating much more than you are, so you would eat less. For example, think of having one sandwich on your plate versus 4 sandwich quarters scattered on your plate.

Keep unhealthy food out of reach and keep healthy food within sight and easy to reach. Convenience and visibility of food significantly affect how much we eat. The more visible and accessible food is, the more likely we are to eat it. Think out of sight out of mind. The harder it is to get to food the less likely we are to eat it as you will be allowing yourself time to consider your actions before you go through with your mindless eating. Stock your home and office space with healthy food and you will have only healthy food to eat.

Don’t eat or drink straight from a package or container or even out of the fridge. It is easy to lose track of how much you have consumed when eating or drinking straight from a package, container or even out of the fridge, which would lead to an excess number of calories consumed. Aim to always serve yourself a proper portion that you can visually take note of. Alternatively choose smaller single serving snack packs, which would motivate you to consume less calories.

Don’t eat in front of the computer, tablet, cellphone or tv as we tend to eat more when we are distracted. Focus on your plate of food. Chew slowly. Drink slowly. Put down your utensils between each bite. Focus on the different tastes, textures and aromas. Use all your senses when eating and you will feel more satisfied after your meal. When you eat just eat.

Alternatively, the opposite can be done to encourage healthy eating habits. If you are struggling with drinking water then opt for a shorter, wider glass for water. And if you want to increase your fruit and vegetable intake then place your fruits in a fruit basket in a prominent place in your kitchen or dining room and eat your green vegetables on a green plate.

-Written by Esmé Maré (Registered Dietitian & Exercise Specialist)