Lynn Grieger, Health, Food and Fitness Coach

Friday, November 09, 2007

How much should I eat?

I get asked this question all of the time. There are several ways to respond:

1. We can look at the food label and find out the serving size. For example, 2 Fig Newton cookies is a serving.

2. We can think about the amount of calories we're eating, and fit our snack or meal into a prescribed calorie range.

3. We can think about how hungry we are, and how much to eat to satisfy that hunger.

I really prefer the third method, because we're in charge. Many of us routinely overeat, either out of habit, because we just don't think about it, because we don't want to waste food, or because we like feeling stuffed. When we overeat, our body can only store the extra calories as fat, and most of us don't need the extra body fat!

Try this the next time you're deciding how much to eat:
- Take a couple of minutes to think about how hungry you are.
- Remember that our stomach doesn't hold an unlimited supply of food. Serve yourself the amount you think you want to eat, but realize that you don't have to eat it all.
- Eat half of the food you served yourself, then stop and think. How full are you? How would you feel if you stopped eating right now? How would you feel if you continued to eat? There's no "right" decision here - it's up to you and how you're feeling.
- At the end of the meal, stop and think again about how full you are. Stop eating when you are just barely full. You could eat a couple more bites, but know you're OK if you don't eat any more.

The more often we eat mindfully, typically the less we eat and the more energetic we feel.

Labels: , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home