(Bad) Eating Habits

The next few entries will concern some detrimental eating habits that many overweight people have developed over time.

One of mine was the habit of "cleaning my plate" at every meal and whenever I snacked. Yes, I was raised in a home that required plate cleaning, probably because my parents were children of the depression. No one in India or anywhere else will starve if you don't clean your plate.

Saiety in eating is very complicated. It takes about 20 minutes for the stomach to send a message to the brain and get back the feeling of fullness. One way to help get the feedback is to slow down your eating. It's easy to say, hard to do. If you are trying to cut down on your portions, enlist the support of whomever you share your meals with, tell them you need help in slowing down. Solicit suggestions from your meal partners on how to make the pace of eating more leisurely.

Try this: after each bite, put your fork down on the table. Now this isn't easy either. I have discovered it is somewhat easy at a dinner party, when there is a lot of table conversation, and also when we dine out with friends.

Some of us rush when we are especially hungry. What I've learned, however, is that real hunger makes the meal taste its best! So when you are "starving" take the time to really savor each bite. As your plate gets emptier, think about your feeling of fullness. For me, fullness and saiety were not the same thing. Fullness came first, especially when I was eating something I really enjoyed. Reaching saiety involved cleaning my plate; it was what I was required to do, long after I stopped eating with my parents.

Think about how you might work on breaking this habit. Put less on your plate, and/or, as it empties, think to yourself "Am I full?" It's OK to leave some food there and throw it away.