Mindful Eating for Fast, Lasting Fat Loss

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Welcome to the Virgin Diet lifestyle show with your host, celebrity nutrition and fitness expert and New York Times best selling author, JJ Virgin.

What if you could trick yourself into making better choices simply by shifting the way you think about things a bit? Now let's think about this. We're ruled by habits, mindlessly making the same choices every day. And it's these choices, the decision to add the milk to your coffee, to have the afternoon snack pack or two, to have that treat after dinner or not, that makes a big difference. After all, it's not the once a year birthday cake that's taking you down. I'm all about making simple shifts. In the sugar impact diet, I have you shift from high sugar impact choices to lower ones. In the virgin diet, I have you swap the seven foods that could be holding your health hostage for healthier options. And in this show, I'm going to give you some simple strategies, some easy shifts to trick you into better eating habits. Now first off, if it's out of sight, it's out of mind. And here are a few ways that you can use this. First of all, never ever put out a candy dish.

Oh my gosh.

It's just like that little candy dish is going to go. Come here, come here. And when you serve the dinner plates, put away anything that you shouldn't be taking seconds of at a restaurant. The way you can do this is if you get your dinner and you know you only want to eat half of something, get the doggy bag and put that away before you even get started. Do not make this hard on yourself. And remember, size matters, especially with your serving dishes. Now if you shrink your plate, you'll shrink what you eat. Same with skinnier glasses, you'll drink less. So if you're drinking water, let's get really big glasses though, right? And same with serving platters. So look in your, look in your, and this is, by the way, amazing. Look in your cabinets. Turns out that the houses in the 50s actually had narrower cabinets than we do now. We used to have smaller plates we used to have smaller serving platters. We used to be smaller. Just saying. Okay, now, next thing I want you to do is I want you to finish last. I want you to be the last one at the table to finish eating. One of the ways you can do this is actually put your fork down in between bites. If you find that you got this death grip on your fork, relax, put it down. Or better yet, eat with chopsticks. Now, one of the things that you can do, too, if you find that you're losing it while you're doing this, stop, get up, go to the bathroom, have a chat with yourself, regroup. And one other thing that you want to do is eat with slowpokes. If you find that you're a fast eater, find some slowpokes, go sit down with them, and you'll watch. You're going to naturally start to pace yourself with them. Okay? Now, another big one is don't invite the enemy to the table, to the house, to your party. Because after all, willpower is a joke. You know? You think, I will get that ice cream because I've got willpower? I'm not going to eat it. That's crazy. I would never do that to myself. It's just mean. The other thing you want to make sure you're doing is avoiding your trigger foods. Now, here's the deal. Too much healthy food, it's unhealthy. So even though almond butter is healthy, a jar of almond butter is not, right? So figure out what those things are that you lose your mind with and don't bring them into the house. And you know what I'm talking about here, because we've all got one or ten, right? One of the places I see people lose their mind is at the movies. I've heard people say, you know what? I can't even go to the movies without eating popcorn. How do you do that? So here's how you do that. You go to the movies, and you don't bring any money for popcorn. Just bring money for the movie ticket, leave the rest, keep it at home, lock it in the car. Can't get popcorn if you don't have any cash for it, right? Same with if you're going into that morning coffee and you feel like you need to have the muffin. It's a cupcake. Muffin. It's a cupcake, right? Just bring exactly what you need for the coffee. Don't bring the extras for the treats.

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Some people think nature is like this, but actually, it's like this. Mother nature's not all sunshine and rainbows. Nature can be hotter than a sauna and colder than an arctic skinny dip. That's why Columbia engineers everything we make for anything nature can throw at you. Columbia engineered for whatever.

Okay, here's one that was interesting because Brian Wansink did a cool study on this where he showed that if you left the remains sitting out there, which seems kind of ick, gross, right? But you actually ate less because it gave you a visual cue of what you were up to, which what you've already consumed. So he did a study with chicken wings, and in one of them, he took the chicken wings away after people were done, and one, he just let them pile up. And when he let them pile up, people were like, oh, my gosh, I've eaten that many chicken wings, right? So they chilled out on it. The big place I see this happening is at those parties where they're just pouring you a little more wine and a little more wine and a little more wine. And all of a sudden you turn around and you're like, oh, my gosh, you don't even have a clue how much you've had. And then, you know, if you've had a lot of wine, you're going to have a lot of other stuff, too. So a good rule of thumb there is do not let them Fill up your glass of wine until you've actually finished the glass. Then when you have, before you have the next glass of wine, have two, two glasses of water.

All right?

Another thing I want you to do is I want you to work for it again. Another study by Brian Wansing showed that if the Hershey's Kisses were set at your desk, you ate more than if they were set at a desk just six feet away. I mean, isn't that crazy that you actually had to get up and go get it, but you had to think about it? I like to apply this to things like pistachios. Heck, you know, if you have shelled pistachios versus pistachios in the shell, you're going to eat a lot less when you actually have to shell them. Artichokes, another great one. You really have to work for an artichoke and then think of things like soups and salads that take a long time to eat and are very nutrient dense and calorie poor. We like that. And I'll tell you, I employ this one with my shakes and you know my mantras. Start the day with a shake. If you're on the virgin diet, it's a virgin diet shake. If you're on the sugar impact diet, it's a sugar impact shake. It's actually the same shake. And what I do, how I make my shakes is I actually make my shake more like a smoothie mousse. I eat it with a spoon. So I put in some avocado, some extra fiber. I use my, of course, my all in one shake mix. And I make it really thick and I eat it with a spoon. So you can try that one too. Because it's actually, for me, I feel like, oh my gosh, I'm eating something now you're at a party. Let's think about this. Why are we eating before we eat? You know, you look at a party and they've got these appetizers. What I see with people with appetizers, most of those little appetizers, they are not innocuous. They have 100 to 200 calories. You eat more than you would have sat down and ate at dinner before you even sat down to eat dinner. You're full before dinner. So here's what. You do not eat standing up, ever. Only eat while seated when you have a plate that you're managing. So when you're at the party, while you're standing up, keep your hands full. Then you can't pick up the appetizers and don't let someone put one in your mouth. All right, so gals, that's a clutch and a drink. And guys, it's a phone and a drink and that's it. Full hands. No appetizers. Sit down to eat. Never stand up. Now I know I just gave you a load of tips, so here's how to make sure that you put them into action. Pull out your daily food journal, which is your number one ally in making sure that you're successful on a program, and decide which strategy you're going to start with and put it into practice. Now once that one becomes second nature, then go on to the next one and nail that one. This is going to become your new way of living. That's going to reinforce healthier eating. And you know, if you eat and live like a healthy, lean person, you're going to become one. To get more of my mindful eating tips in a great handout that you can post on your fridge as a reminder, text 58885 and enter JJMind Space, your first name space and your email address. Again, you text to 58885 and enter JJMind Space, your first name space and your email address. In the Sugar Impact Diet, I help you clear up the confusion around sugar and take back the control that sugar has over your life. In just two weeks, you'll lose your sweet tooth and shrink your waistline. Why wait? Start those two weeks today.

Hey everyone, did you like this episode? Be sure to subscribe for the next one and tell a friend. If you'd like world class training and cutting edge information, visit the Virgin Diet.

Hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week, I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading. Next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change, or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read. With a whole list of new books and authors to try.

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