Here are the first six tips, tricks and techniques that helped me lose weight (in no particular order):
1. Nuts and nut butter. Huh? That’s it? Well, they have been instrumental in warding off hunger. They pack a powerful punch between the satisfying fat and the stick-with-you protein. The key is to eat very small amounts. A few ways nuts have helped me:
I carry a small amount of nuts with me at all times so I’m never tempted to buy anything when I’m shopping and missed lunch.
I often eat about an 1/8 cup of nuts or a nut butter granola bite with some tea at about 4:00, which sees me through until dinner.
I add 2-4 walnuts to my granola every morning to up the protein and Omega-3's.
I add a tablespoon of peanut butter to a half an apple for a snack or at lunch. I’ve found this helps the apple “stick with me” and I’m not hungry so quickly again.
2. Never eat out of a box or a bag. The other half of this rule tip is not to buy as many bags and/or boxes (which also part of eating more real foods). However, we do buy things like chips or crackers (with only 2 or 3 ingredients) that we eat occasionally. Dried fruit and nuts also count- basically anything I might lose track of, I put in a small bowl or container first to make sure I don’t eat too much before I’ve even thought about it.
This “unthinking” eating has been my downfall my whole life. Did you know your stomach doesn’t register fullness until about 20 minutes after the first bite? Think about how fast we eat in our culture now…and how much we can put away in 20 minutes. Yeah…I know that “oh my gosh, I didn’t realize ate that much” feeling all too well.
Along this same line of thought, at dinner I often serve the salad before I put anything else on the table (as a “first course”) just to get us used to taking a bit longer to eat our meals.
Now…do I really NEVER eat out of a bag? No, I’m a real person and there are times I dip my hand into a bag. But it’s the goal, and I’m often sorry when I’ve forgot it.
3. Drink afternoon tea. And morning tea or coffee. The ability of liquids to fill us up cannot be over-emphasized. Instead of reaching for a snack in the morning around 11:00, I am in the habit of drinking a cup of liquid (usually coffee with milk) at 9:00 or 10:00 which sees me through the “elevenses.”
Likewise, I always have tea around 4:00 each afternoon along with a small snack (much smaller than I would’ve had in the past), and together they fill me up and satisfy my hunger.
What kind? It doesn’t matter – I have my favorite herbal flavors, but I also like a good cup of black tea with milk and a bit of sugar. In the summer I drink iced tea or a spritzer made with one of my fruit syrups and seltzer water. But…I live in Oregon, and there are still times in the summer when a cup of warm tea is just right. Sigh.
In the past year since I’ve become intentional about tea in the afternoon, I’ve come to see it as comforting – it’s warm and I enjoying holding it while reading my email. This is a great change for me, since I’ve spent many years associating food, not liquid, with comfort.
4. Use smaller plates and bowls. I know we hear this one a lot and I used to ignore it. I mean, I have a dish set and I use what I have, right? {wink} Here’s what I found after a trip to a thrift store yielded some small, old restaurant-ware ironstone bowls: a 1/3-cup of granola looks a lot more substantial in a smaller bowl than a bigger one. That was my “duh” moment.
And we have to get past our cultural “bigger is better” mentality. I’ve heard others talk about new dishes not being able to fit into cupboards and silverware that hardly fits into drawers. When we needed new everyday flatware a couple of years ago, I brought home three different patterns before giving up and buying a vintage (1980's) set on Ebay. Why? The forks were so large I felt like I was going to stab myself. The “teaspoons” were now the size of soup spoons. And it all looked incredibly silly with my vintage (1940's) dishes.
Is it any wonder that a “normal” sized portion looks tiny on these new plates?
5. Use measuring cups. Especially for cereals. And “prep bowls.” They look like this:
I was given a set of similar bowls a number of years ago which I used sporadically, but in the last year the smaller bowls in the set have become something I use almost daily. They’re like a bowl, so I don’t feel like I’m “measuring” my food, but they help me know just how many nuts it takes to fill 1/8 cup. Or dried cherries. Or chocolate chips (yes, I eat chocolate chips sometimes…more on that later).
And it’s been eye-opening. What I thought was “just a handful” or “a little bit” before was, well…not.
6. Listen to your stomach, but don’t eat every time hunger occurs. If you’re hungry 30 minutes before a meal, it means you’re ready for the meal- drink water or tea to tide you over. Or maybe a couple of nuts (but just a couple).
Sometimes, if I’ve eaten lightly at dinner (the goal, *a-hem*), I will feel hunger at 9:30 or 10:00 at night. I’ve learned to ignore it and use it as my signal to go to bed. By the time I’m reading in bed, the hunger is gone.
It’s OK to be hungry sometimes. When I’ve gotten into the habit of putting something in my mouth every time I’ve felt hunger in the past, I ended up eating too much throughout the day. The worst is when I’ve eaten a big snack and then am not hungry for dinner. But it’s a meal I really like. So I eat anyway. Which is…guess what? Yep, overeating.
So yeah…learn to listen to your stomach, eating when hungry and stopping when you’re full (at the first sign of fullness). But don’t let your hunger control you. Thankfully, most of us know another meal is close at hand.
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