TricksToEatLess

Hey, folks, It's Ben from BenGreenfieldFitness.com and today I'm going to show you some easy and proven ways to help you control your appetite and eat less. So let's go ahead and start off with utensils. You know, when I used to eat my morning oatmeal, I would use a spoon like this. Now I use a spoon like this. The reason for that is that this spoon makes me take smaller bites and causes me to spend a longer period of time eating breakfast. And studies have shown that when you use bigger utensils, you tend to eat more. So when you have the chance and you're eating anything that requires especially a spoon, try to choose a smaller spoon. It's a simple trick, but it actually works. And I do it every day. Now, that being said, let's go ahead and grab a big spoon like this. Now, if you've got a big serving of rice or casserole or any other meal sitting in front of you, which of these utensils, if we were to compare this spoon and this spoon, do you think would cause you to eat more when you're serving up your plate? Well, it would be this one, of course. So what you can do is take a normal size spoon, the type you would normally say eat soup or something with, and you would take that normal size spoon and replace it with a small spoon, and then take that normal size spoon and use it to replace the big spoons that you would normally use to serve large meals. You can do that with forks as well. This works from salad to casserole to pasta to anything else that requires you to scoop stuff onto a plate. Use the smaller utensil for that as well. Now, next, let's talk about the actual plate that you're scooping from. Now, remember that when you're trying to control your appetite, eat less or lose weight, you need to get rid of some of the standards that society might expect you to use when you're eating. And one of them would be very, very big platters that you serve stuff from. Especially if you're serving a meal at your table, there is no need for you necessarily to say, let's, let's say make one of my favorite recipes, sweet potato fries, and put all the sweet potato fries into this bowl. Because if I were to make, say, sweet potato fries with two sweet potatoes, they're only going to fill up a little bit of this bowl. But if I use a bowl like this and put it on the table, it looks like the bowl is literally overflowing with fries. Now, a bowl like this, you'll polish off the fries a lot more quickly. A bowl like this, you'll tend to split into several smaller portions as you're eating. And it should go without saying.

You probably know where I'm going to go with this. The actual bowl that you use to eat out of, you're going to eat less if it's smaller as well. Now, for example, one of the snacks that I like to have at night is I stir a little bit of coconut milk into some protein powder. Sounds kind of gross, but you should try it out. I just use a chocolate protein powder, stir some coconut milk in there, and it's pretty good. I used to use a bowl like this and I would need like four to five scoops of protein powder in order for me to feel like I was getting a real, real solid snack. Now I use a little bowl like this and it helps me eat a lot less because again, you put just a little bit into a little bowl like this and it tricks your brain into thinking that you're getting a lot more food. So especially when you're snacking and it's not a full size meal, really focus on using little bowls. And the other thing that I do is I will use a smaller plate versus a larger plate. As a matter of fact, my wife was asking me the other day as I was making a salad and it was overflowing onto the counter. She's like, why don't you just grab a bigger plate? Like, because I'm tricking my brain into helping me to eat a little bit less when I use this smaller plate. And yeah, it may leave a few leaves of spinach on the kitchen counter, but it actually works when you use smaller plates and smaller bowls. Now, let's talk about actually displaying food. In a lot of offices and homes, you'll find things like M and Ms. And nuts and raisins and trail mixes on display. Well, if you were to display something like candy, whether on your desk or in your office or in your home, in something like this, you're going to have a lot less candy out there to be eaten compared to a great big bowl like this. So when given the choice, always use smaller containers to hold the food that you're presenting in the workplace. Now, I know that many of you, if you're watching this video, may be past the stage where you have a big bowl of M and Ms. On the coffee table in your house, but perhaps at your office, you're required to have some type of candy out on display. And in a case like that, just try to use the smaller bowl. You'll be much likely to eat less of it if it looks like it's kind of being rationed out. Now that being said, it also helps.

To have it out of sight and out of mind. For example, if you have a snack, a tasty snack that you're constantly tempted to eat, and if you keep it around the house in something like this where you can't see it, it's going to trigger your gastric hormones and the neurotransmitters in your brain that are responsible for saying eat that. Compared to something like this jar where you can constantly see it and it's on display anytime you can see through something and it's transparent, you're going to be a lot more likely to eat it versus something that is opaque that you can't see. So again, for even treats that you keep in your pantry or refrigerator, if you can find something that's solid to keep them in versus something that's see through, you'll be a lot less likely for those to trigger your brain. When you open your refrigerator at 9pm at night to grab a snack, the cookies in the opaque container are a lot less likely to call your name versus say, some appetite, satiating or Controlling food One of the ones that I brought up in a food cravings video over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com and a perfect example for this is pickles. The pickles are in the transparent jar and the cookies are in the opaque jar. So those are just some of the tips that you can use. I'm going to put some more tips for you as well in an article that accompanies this video over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com so be sure to check that out for these tips and others that will help you to control mindless eating and engage in some of these tricks that will help you to eat less and control your appetite.