10 Quick Tips to Make Eating Less and Eating Right Easy

No one will argue that improving your eating habits is one of the best things you can do for your health (and your life).

So here’s a quick list of tips to make eating less and eating right easy.

Make eating LESS easy.

Use smaller plates. According to one study, eating from a 10- inch vs a 12-inch plate results in reducing your portions by 22%!

Drink more water. 80% of the time our body registers thirst as hunger. Carry a water bottle around with you. When you feel hungry outside of meal times, drink a cup of water first, wait 10 minutes and then decide if you’re really hungry.

Fill at least half your plate with veggies. Vegetables have fewer calories but more fibre and vitamins than other types of food. If you fill your belly with the good stuff, you’re less likely to overindulge in the bad stuff.

Slow down and chew thoroughly. It takes time for you to register “full”. Put your fork down between bites, savor your food — taste the tastes, smell the aromas, feel the textures, chew your solids until they become liquid — these are all great ways to eat more mindfully, and incidentally, less quantity.

Make eating the right food easy.

Plan your meals. At the end of the day your willpower is zilch and you are more likely to make unhealthy choices. If you’ve decided in advance (I recommend at least 24 hours — but I prefer to plan all my meals on Sunday), then you don’t have to use brain power to decide what to eat. Your “higher self” decided what was best for you with a full tank of willpower and now you need to just stick to the plan.

Don’t buy junk. Period. Never go to the grocery store hungry. Do your grocery shop with a list of foods you’ll need based on your meal plan. Just buy what is on your list.

Eat single ingredient foods. You can never go wrong with whole foods. The more you can reduce packaged and processed foods — the better. Those foods are scientifically engineered to be addictive and cause you to overeat.

Try to do the majority of your shopping at the farmers market. There are a hundred reasons to make visiting the farmers market a part of your weekly routine. Not only are you supporting local farmers and small businesses, but what you find at the farmers market is seasonal, picked ripe (and therefore has more nutrients then something that has been shipped from across the world), and local — which means a lower carbon footprint.

Out of sight, out of mind. If you can’t completely eliminate unhealthy food from your house (maybe your housemates are not 100% on board with healthy eating just yet), then here is how to make you less likely to give into temptation. Hide it. Put those foods out of reach — behind healthy food, the top shelf of your pantry, cover it up with aluminum foil or in containers that you can’t see through.

Put healthy options front and center. Your environment is stronger than willpower. In the same way as you want to hide unhealthy food, you want to display healthy options. Put a bowl of apples or nuts on your counter. Cut up veggies and put them at eye level in the fridge. Design your environment to trigger you to make healthy choices.

Big picture and how to consistently eat healthy day after day, week after week.

Sometimes I question the value of creating these “list” type blogs. Our brain loves steps, hacks, tips — it feels doable and give us a little hit of motivation. As you read the suggestions above you might be thinking, “I should do that!”, but you don’t.

Instead of accumulating more knowledge, accumulate small wins. Small wins create confidence. Confidence begets better choices. Better choices = better health.

Pick just one tip from the list above — just ONE. Make it a habit. Automate it until it becomes your default way of eating. Once that habit runs on autopilot, pick another one. And continue like that. Real change takes time. Slow and steady wins the race.

Want more healthy eating tips? Grab my free tipsheet here.