Day 17: Stop Overeating Part 2 | 30-Day Weight Loss-athon
Welcome to Day 17 of the 30-Day Weight Loss-athon.
All tasks in the 30-Day Weight Loss-athon are adapted from the 52 Weight Loss Missions program.
Read the steps first, then take 10 minutes to think about them and take action. Ready?
What You Need:
- Your thinking cap.
Step 1
Yesterday we took action to help reduce portion sizes and avoid mindless eating.
Sometimes though, overeating stems not from prodigious portions, but from other, more insidious mind tricks that cause you to eat when you’re not really hungry.
These tricks of the mind include:
- Habit – you always eat that much
- Timing – the clock says it’s time for lunch/dinner/a cocktail
- Politeness – someone offered it to you
- Cost-effectiveness – you’d better eat it all to get your money’s worth
- Waste avoidance – the starving children will be annoyed if you don’t finish it
- Preventative eating – you don’t want to be hungry later
- Advertising – you saw an ad and now you have to eat it
- Because it’s there – the kids left it so you might as well eat it
- A desire for a reward – you’ve worked so hard and you deserve a treat
- A desire for comfort – you’ve had a crappy day and eating will ease the pain
- Childhood hangovers – clean your plate or else!
We all surrender to some of these tricks some of the time. I tend to eat to a timetable because that helps my productivity, and I’m a slave to comfort eating if something has upset me.
But if any of these are causing you to consistently eat food you don’t want or need, then it’s smart to stop this form of automatic eating and save your calories for the good stuff.
So as our first step, consider which of these automatic eating patterns are a concern for you.
Step 2
Next, let’s think of ways you can turn off the automatic response.
Here are some suggestions:
Eating out of habit
- You may just be in the habit of piling too much food onto your plate and then finishing whatever’s there. Review Day 16: Stop Overeating Part 1.
Eating because the clock says it’s time
- If you’re not hungry at mealtimes, it may be that you’ve eaten too much at the previous meal. Experiment with eating a little less at each meal, but eating more regularly.
- You may need to play around with your schedule to find a routine that works well.
Polite eating – to make someone happy or to avoid offending someone
- Be honest so that your sincerity comes across.
- Say something like:
- Thanks so much, but I’m still full from breakfast/lunch/dinner
- I’m not hungry now but it looks so good – could I take some home?
- I couldn’t fit any more in – I filled up on your [something else yummy your host prepared]
- It looks/smells amazing, but I’m focused on losing weight/getting healthy/losing the baby bulge so I’ll have to say no thanks.
- If you’re pressed, say no thank you with a smile and change the subject.
Cost-effective eating – getting your money’s worth
- If you’ve had enough and your plate is still half-full, that’s fine. You’ve got your money’s worth from the company, ambiance, being out and having fun. That’s what you paid for and it’s money well spent.
Eating so it doesn’t go to waste
- If you’ve had enough it’s already wasted – the choice is whether you store the waste in the bin or on your body.
Preventative eating – to forestall later hunger
- Keep a goal-friendly snack (one that’s consistent with the actions you chose for Day 4: Tweak Your Diet) in your bag, in case you get hungry later.
- Eat regularly and don’t go too many hours without food.
Eating because you were enticed by an ad
- Become aware that you’re being manipulated, and decide to choose for yourself.
- Remember Pavlov’s dogs? We can become aware that the bell is making us salivate, and choose not to eat the food.
Eating to reward ourselves
- Look for other ways to reward yourself – taking a bubble bath, reading a novel for 30 minutes, playing a game on your phone or computer, going for a walk, listening/dancing to music, calling a friend to chat, meditating, etc.
Eating because you feel you must clean the plate
- You’re a grown up now. It’s okay to leave food on your plate.
- Make a habit of leaving some food on your plate to break this automatic eating pattern.
Bonus Step For 52 Weight Loss Missions Members
Emotional eating – eating because we’re upset, bored, feeling down, feeling happy, etc.
- See Mission 43: Address Emotional Eating – Part 1 and Mission 44: Address Emotional Eating – Part 2.
Step 3
Decide which of these strategies will you use – and use them!
Check in!
And you’re done!
Be sure to leave your comment below to check in and stay accountable. If you’re reading this by email or in a reader then please click here to leave your comment.
See you tomorrow!
My tendency is to eat when I’m bored so instead of going to find what junk someone has on their desk or left in the kitchen, I’m going to opt to walk around the parking lot or to climb the six flights of stairs in the office. And, I always keep a 32 oz. cup of water on my desk to make sure it isn’t thirst that is causing me to eat.
I try these days to put less on my plate to start with, and when out, I try to limit my eating to healthy foods in smaller amounts, bringing home the excess. The list of justifications remindede I need to eat consciously, aware at all times of what, how much, & how often I’m eating.
I’m using portion control to stop mindless eating… when I open up a package I immediately portion it out and store it that way so I don’t grab the whole bag and snack without realizing it. When I go out to eat, I immediately divide my food in half so I control how much I eat – the rest is saved for lunch the next day. I’m trying to find recipes for low calorie/healthier snacks that will satisfy my sweet tooth when I feel the need for a reward.
This is probably my worst habit! Eating because of boredom or just because it’s there. I’m trying hard, to question myself every time I open the fridge or pantry to see if I’m just bored or really hungry. It will take time to break this habit, but I’m working on it now that I’m aware I do it so often.
Make a habit of leaving some food on your plate to break this automatic eating pattern. I hate wasting food but by having to decide what I am going to leave on my plate, I am seriously considering the food that is being consumed.
I’m going to have to work on serving myself less. My boyfriend can eat a LOT at one sitting and I always feel like I need to grab as much as he does, and then I of course feel like I need to clean the plate. The ideas of using a smaller plate and utensils from yesterday will help this for sure!
I can relate to all of these, especially rewarding and boredom. I have become a lot more conscious of when I eat and what I eat since starting this challenge.
I am definitely becoming more aware of how and when I eat because of this challenge. I like the idea of having different rewards instead of food, and I love the reminder that it either ends up in the garbage or on my hips!
Choosing a healthy snack is helping me–and my daughter. She ate some of “mommy’s apple” today.
hmm, I think you are on to something with that deserving a treat at the end of a day, like a wine or a bit of cake with a cuppa. we all do it and its easily justified. I have picked meditate or 10 minutes on the treadmill extra to curb this urge.
I really had a problem with the rewarding yourself with food, now I try to reward myself with a new motivational book to read….it has been a win win for me as I don’t get the calories & I do get to grow from the book!
Oh my! I see so many here that I need to address! Probably the top three I deal with are it’s time, cost effective/doesn’t go to waste, and rewarding myself. I’ve caught myself “rewarding” myself. Oh, “I deserve it” for whatever reason. No more!
Yes, many of these are huge factors for me. Will try to remember it can be stored in the trash or on my body, and to implement rewards other than food.
Hi, my name is Shirley and I am a comfort eater. When things aren’t going my way I want to wallow in a bit of chocolate, maybe a few cookies, a trip to In & Out and definitely a HUGE Diet Pepsi. I confess to still giving in to the call of a Diet Pepsi now and then but the whole ‘keeping track of my food’ thing (I add my food BEFORE I eat) has made me rethink my food choices. When I used to hear the phrase ‘nothing tastes as good as being thin feels’ I thought they just haven’t been eating the right foods, I get it now. Not that I’m thin but I am ‘lighter’ and ‘lighter’ feels better.
I have started to make snack size zip locks of good snacks. These are 100 calorie packs. I put the snack into them when the shooping is done. This way I have them when I am hungry or going out for the day. No excusses that I don’t have time to get a healthy snack!
I have been working on theses strategies already. It helps to see this in writing because then it makes you think before you eat. Also I have been knitting when I watch tv which keeps my hands busy so I tend not to mindlessly snack.
This may be harsh, but to politeness I say: No thanks, I am trying to avoid diabetes which caused us bury my dad last month. Ok, I am not saying it aloud, but reminding myself that it is the consistent noes that keep me healthy.
Great post, Michelle. I tend to overeat when we go out with friends. Makes me feel not so good the next day. Just say no thank you? Doable, but not easy for me.
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