How To Eat Less Food – Healthy Eating Challenge

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Fitness is made in the kitchen

We’ve all been there before – you just completed a killer workout. You sweated, you pushed, you pulled, you ran, and you’re feeling completely awesome as only the workout of the month can leave you feeling. Afterwards you are feeling ravenous because of this amazing shred you just went through and conclude that a reward is in order for all your hard work. You decide a few tortilla chips can’t be all that bad, so you have a few. Then you have a few more with cheese on them. Then you have a few more with cheese, salsa, guacamole, and beef in the form of “nachos grande” and chase it down with a half a bowl of ice cream. Before you know it, you’ve nullified all the hard work you put in earlier plus deposited a few hundred calories in the reserve tank.

DANGIT! This is the always just the worst! Unfortunately it’s also a situation that we find ourselves in often. I don’t care how active you are; if you do not watch your diet and pay consistent attention to what you’re eating you simply are not going to see results. It’s for these reasons that today I wanted to share with you 10 simple tips to actually help you eat less food throughout the day and share them with you in the form of a week-long “Healthy Eating Challenge”. Read all ten tips and pick 5 to follow religiously this week. I’m in. Are you with me?

1. Make calories count. We’ll start with the biggest, most-important difference maker in teaching you how to eat. Oh if you can learn but this one principle about food consumption: the biggest factor in eating less food isn’t really how many calories you consume but the manner in which you’re getting them! Take this graphic for example – look at how much room 400 calories of fats and oils (butter, sugar, candy, soda, etc) takes up as compared to eating the exact same calorie-equivalent of fresh vegetables! Which one do you think is going to fill you up faster? Which one will prevent future grazing and fighting off hunger/the urge to eat more? Think about that concept – the first way you can consume fewer calories is by eating more (of the right kind of) food! This brings us to our next point:

2. Eliminate fats, oils, sugars, and sweets from your diet. I get it. Baked goods, candy, soft drinks, and ice cream are delicious. There’s a REASON why they’re manufactured that way – so you eat more of them! These substances actually cause a hormonal reaction in your body wherein the pleasure center of your brain is stimulated shortly after eating them. This is the reason why you’ll have “just a small slice” and eat half the cake! Because not only does it taste good, it feels food too! Fortunately you can actually reprogram your brain to eradicate the craving for this stimulus. How do you do it? Eliminate fats, oils, and sugars from your diet (at least cut them down significantly). You will start to curb your cravings for these substances and consequently eat less throughout the day.

3. Eat more regularly throughout the day. I know, I know – here I go telling you to eat more again. But this is one of my favorite strategies when it comes to eating less. If you’re anything like me, snacking between breakfast and lunch isn’t really a temptation; but when about 4:00 hits I am ravenous! I find that this is the time where my diet can really suffer as I fill this craving with a little snack… and then another… and then another. It’s easy to start grazing on snacks once you start. So how do you eliminate this? Plan smaller meals more frequently. Eat a little bit less for lunch at 12:00 and then eat a small, healthy meal around 3:30 when the munchies start to hit before dinner (salad is awesome at this time of the day!). This will fill your stomach up more effectively with healthier food (see bullet point #1 above) and prevent unnecessary snacking in between meals.

4. Use a salad plate for your meals. This one is awesome. Have you ever noticed how enormous plates in the United States have become?! Seriously – I was in a restaurant the other day and our waiter brought out massive quantities on gargantuan plates! It’s just a fact – the bigger the plate the more food you’ll put on it! I highly recommend serving yourself dinner on a salad plate. This results in smaller portions of food on your plate and therefore less that goes into your stomach.

5. Eat slowly. You actually have receptors in your stomach that, when they pick up a stretch stimulus from an expanding stomach, send a signal to your brain telling it you’re full. Eating slowly gives your stomach more time to expand – which gives those stomach receptors more time to stretch – which signals your brain that you’re full – which (hopefully) turns off the eating!

6. Set a daily cutoff time and stick to it! As a rule, you should never eat after 8:00 pm. Now I know that sometimes there are job requirements and working late and special instances come up, but starting right now I want you to set an “eating curfew” for yourself AND STICK TO IT! That way you know – and will always know – whether or not you should eat that snack, dessert, treat, whatever. As a general rule I try to stick to 8:00 so I can burn off those calories for a couple of hours before I turn in.

7. Identify WHY you’re eating before you do it. I dare you – just for a day – to ask yourself the following question before every time you eat something… “WHY am I eating this?” (prepare to be terrified!) Unless the answer comes back “I’m hungry and it’s meal time” DON”T EAT IT! You’ll be shocked at how many times you answer with “I don’t know”, “I’m bored”, or “just because”. Identifying why you eat and when you eat are crucial steps in a successful diet and important parts of eating less food throughout the day.

8. Drink more water. I can’t stress this one enough. Water is an excellent way to fill up your stomach, trigger those stretch receptors, and trick yourself into feeling full. It’s zero fat, zero calories, and 100% good for you (kidney, liver, immune, cardiovascular, etc, etc etc). Try to get at least 64 ounces in throughout your day. Need a little help in getting in the full recommended amount? Print off T&T’s FREE 30-Day Water Challenge right here!)

9. Chew gum. Gum is my go-to whenever I’m hungry and it’s not quite meal time yet. A) it keeps your mouth busy (it’s amazing what just chewing can do to suppress your appetite!) and B) most food doesn’t taste too good with a fresh minty taste in your mouth (how many times have you said “I would, but I just put in gum” when offered food?! Trust me – it works!)

10. Eat breakfast. Every. Single. Day! “It’s the most important meal of the day” isn’t just a line your mother used to get you to eat something before school. It really is the most important meal you eat! Eating earlier in the day has actually been linked to a lower total intake throughout the day. Breakfast serves as a “kick-start” to your day – people tend to be more active and less likely to seek out other food sources.

So are you ready for things to get real? It’s one thing to read about all of these tips – it’s quite another thing to DO them! My challenge to you is to pick at least 5 (come on – that’s only half!) of these tips and follow them for one week. Come on – 7 days! You totally got this! Start making necessary changes in your diet right now this week to help get you on the right track and start seeing the results you crave. Use the “comment” board below to report on your progress! We’ll do it for one week and, with any luck, maybe even develop some pretty stellar habits! Good luck, everyone!

Need some healthy recipes to get your started? Follow this link to be taken to dozens of my favorites!

As always, please feel free to comment below or email me with any thoughts or questions that you feel I might be able to help you out with. You can reach me at ToneandTightenFitness{at}gmail.com

Make it happen,

Jared