Listen to Your Gut

When Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, asked a group of French people how they knew when to stop eating, they replied “When I feel full”. Americans said things like “When my plate is clean” or “When I run out”. Certainly slowing down will help you tune into your stomach signals, but here are a few ways to manipulate the external clues as we work on listening to our internal signs.

• Serve smaller portions in smaller containers

• Leave empty bottles, bones, and so forth on the table so you can see how much you’ve eaten or drunk

• Use glasses that are more vertical than horizontal

• Leave healthy foods in view, unhealthy ones out of sight

• Leave serving bowls in the kitchen rather than on the table to discourage second helpings