i had two helpings instead of one, plus a half of a sandwich. The sandwich i'm not as upset about but why when i'm eating can't i stop myself and think, " Take it easy here, let's wait a while and see if you really really need this second helping?"



i can't seem to think when i am eating. *sigh

Maybe you can plan BEFORE you eat. Get only one serving and put the rest away. Then drink a glass of water. Then eat your one serving. DO NOT go back for seconds. The time from when you serve yourself while you are drinking a glass of water, until you actually start to eat can do 2 things. First, it will help get you started towards feeling fuller sooner. Second, it gives you time in between serving and eating to think about your ONE portion and slows you down so you don't have to immediately dive right into the food. It can help train you to slow down instead of just gobbling...

Hope maybe that can help.

Barb

When I started to eat smaller portions, I took the old advice to put your fork down between each bite and drink a sip of water. It forced me to eat slower, so by the time I was done, I knew I didn't need a second helping. No thinking involved! Now my mind is reprogrammed to eat these smaller portions and recognize that they will fill me up. I know that was the hardest part when I started eating less, thinking I had to have a second helping when really I just didn't give my stomach time to tell me it was full. Good luck!

Are you starting your meal feeling famished? I know I'm a lot more likely to mindlessly eat when I'm starving than when I'm comfortably hungry.

angelskeep's suggestions of drinking water and to plate up one serving and put the rest away before you sit down to eat is a good one. Sometimes all it takes is removing the easy access. There's something about serving food family-style (with the serving dishes out on the table) that's nice, but it's really easy to go overboard when the food is staring you in the face.

Another thing to look at would be your environment...do you eat in front of the television? Do you eat at the dinner table? Is there a lot going on around you when you sit down to eat? Remove as much stimuli as you can and focus on your food and company! Good luck

I've struggled with this, and when I "got serious about weight loss" I wasn't sure if I could handle portions or not. Well, I pretty much follow the advice of taking one portion and forgetting the rest. I take my plate of what I think is reasonable (well below what I WANT to put on it) and eat it in the other room. We usually put on an hour long TV show while we eat, so I promise myself that if, by the time the show is over, I am still genuinely hungry, then I can go back for more. It works for me pretty well, actually, I hardly ever go back for more. I also aim to take a walk after dinner, and that works so well at curbing appetite that I can struggle to get above 1200, if I wasn't above it before the walk.

My bigger problem was going back for snacks almost every half hour. I'm not sure exactly why my urge to continually go back for snacks has stopped, other than the cravings stopped when I almost completely "quit" sugar. Evidently for me, even though I could fit sugar in to my calorie limits, it was doing harm in more than one other way. So that might be something else to think about.

When I know that I'm huuungry and could eat the whole fridge if I let myself, I try to slow down that hunger before I even start eating. I drink a bottle of water with crystal light pretty quickly, so I have something in my stomach. Then, 20-30min before my meal time, I eat a snack. Basically, I spoil my dinner. Then, my stomach feels full from the water, and my stomach has had a chance to send the "I've eaten something!" to my brain to turn off the crazy hunger. Then I can eat my meal and feel full.

There are some EXCELLENT suggestions here, ladies, thank you. i'll try them all. LOL