5 Ways to End Mindless Eating

Over half of what we do is mindless, without thinking, on autopilot. When it comes to eating, Cornell researcher Brian Wansink reports we eat 92% of what’s on our plates.

This helps explain why we down supersize buckets of popcorn at the movie theater and bags of chips in front of the TV. Mindless eating often involves eating low nutrient, high calorie foods when we’re not hungry, and can happen when bored, nervous, emotional, or multi-tasking. If you eat without thinking, you consume more calories. As you well know, when you take in more calories than you burn, you gain weight. If you find yourself doing an NWT (nibbling without thinking), here are 4 tips that might help:

 Eat and drink from a small plate or cup. The less we see or have in front of us, the less we eat.

  • At home, use small plates, rather than a dinner-size plate.  
  • If you’re at a restaurant, ask the server to put half of your food in a carry out box before they serve it to you, or get a carry-out box and split your order before you begin. Many restaurants supersize portions, so half is often closer to a recommended serving size.

Hide sweets and snacks. Out of sight, out of mouth.

  • Wansink suggests you keep healthier foods at eye level, in the front of your cupboard or fridge. 
  • Store candy and chips in hard to reach places in single serving bags. 

Read food labels.

  • Check out the label. If you eat out of the bag, you are likely to eat more than 15 chips, which is 1 serving. Save money and make your food last longer. Count or measure out an individual serving and save the rest for another day.

Turn off all screens when you eat.

  • When you watch TV, text or surf the web, it’s hard to focus on what you put in your mouth.  Make it a habit to eat at a table, not in your recliner, on the couch or in the car.

Keep healthy snacks ready to go.

  • Put grapes, popcorn, carrots, or cut melon in individual serving bags where you can grab and go. Mix it up. Look for healthier snacks that save you money and make for some good munching! Try nuts in the shells, since you are less likely to eat the whole bag if you have to do a little work to eat them.

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