I think lots of us have made some great discoveries of little things that make dieting easier for them. Sometimes it's help with cravings, other times a psychological boost. I just discovered a new trick I wanted to share, then realized I have a bunch of these and probably lots of other people do too. So please let's share! What are your wonderful, easy, helpful diet tips?


Stomach holding in pants: I went to a wedding wearing one of these to look good in a snug dress and discovered that I wanted to eat much less than normal at the meal. I think just having my stomach compressed makes me feel less hungry. I'm wearing one today again and again it worked. I'm not as hungry.

Splitting lunch: Every day at four, after eating breakfast and lunch, I typically feel hungry and really really want to eat something. I usually prepared snacks and wished I didn't have to eat so often. One day I decided to split my lunch in two in an effort to eat less. I ate half at lunch and saved the other half for 4pm. I expected to feel very hungry that day at 4, much more than usual and I thought it may take me a week or more to get used to eating less. To my amazement I didn't feel much hungrier and found this easy to do. A revelation! I don't know why this works for me but it really does.

Cheese not chocolate: I love having something sweet with tea and in general sweet stuff is what is my bane and I feel deprived when I do without. But I decided to have a bit of cheese with my tea when I couldn't find anything sweet in the house to eat and to my surprise I liked it. Less calories and healthier too. I may manage tea by itself again but for the moment this is helping with my addiction to sweet stuff. babybel or any cheese is easy to carry around too.

Googling what I'd like to eat followed by "low calorie" to find a recipe: Diets tend to make me feel deprived but some of this isn't about quantity, it's about having a desire for something and not being able to eat it because I don't yet know how to make a version of this that fits in with my diet. So if I see something I'd love to eat, mussels yesterday, I buy it and then google for a recipe. This gives me a feeling of freedom that dieting used to quench.

Recording honestly what i eat: This always helps me to focus on my diet. It's too easy for me to lose track of how many exceptions or exception days I've had during the week otherwise.

I remembered another one. This I haven't tried but on tv I saw a man being interviewed who lost weight by eating using a very small fork. He thinks that forcing himself to eat slowly helped him because it gave him enough time for the feeling full hormone to be released. So he ate less without feeling hungry.

Those are all good tips!
Portions, Kid Sized The one that I have found recently is that my son's toddler bowls hold exactly 1 cup, so I've been using them as measuring and for bringing stuff to work. I fill it with honey kix (only 96 cal in 1 cup!) and use that as my "sweet" throughout the day at work.

Herbal Teas I also have been using herbal teas, no sweetener, and as I get used to the lack of sugar I am enjoying the actual different flavors more. I have a stash at work and any time I start feeling hungry I make a tea and that tends to fill me up till my next meal. If not, I make another tea. lol.
Hope this is helpful to someone.