Why Portion Size Really Matters…

One day at lunch time I had gone into a grocery store to get a milk. This wasn't my usual routine; I usually packed leftovers for lunch and ate at my desk while reading. But there I was standing in front of maybe ten or 15-feet of “milk section,” scanning for an 8-ounce carton of milk. Remember those? The size they used to serve with school lunch? I wasn’t finding it, when a middle-aged gentleman asked, “what are you looking for?” I looked at him and said, “I wanted an 8-ounce milk, but they don’t seem to have it.” He looked at the shelves, pointed to the smallest carton, and said, “here it is.” The carton he pointed to however was a pint (16-ounces/2 cups). I said, “no, I want one cup, that’s two.” The gentleman got a confused look on his face, glanced back at the container then back at me, and said, “that’s a cup.”

Click to read more ...

Stop Fighting Losing Battles with Food!

You will win the war by avoiding battles.

If humans were logical, there would be no argument regarding the fact that controlling what food is readily available to you is a smart thing to do. That’s not, however, what people tend to do. What is the most relied upon way of controlling what you eat? Willpower. What’s also the least effective form of what psychologists call “behavioral control?” Unfortunately, it's willpower.

Click to read more ...

What Happens to your "Good Intentions"?

The most recent data on calorie intake shows that Americans’ average calorie intake has increased by 571-calories per day between 1977 and 2006.[1] Over this same period obesity increased dramatically from 15% to 34% of American adults. Why exactly are we seeing this dramatic rise in obesity now, after thousands of years of leaner humans being the norm? It’s not because of changes in our genetics, or physiological changes in appetite regulation (which would mean we’re genetically mutating at some fantastic rate). The popular topic of hormones (leptin, ghrelin, etc.) and “hypothalamic regulation of feeding” suffer from the same underlying problem (have these systems changed in 30 years?) and ignore the fact that nowadays humans simply choose to eat—without consideration of whether they are hungry or not.

Click to read more ...

White Knuckles and Willpower…

If humans were logical, there would be no argument regarding the fact that controlling what is readily available to you is a smart thing to do. That’s not, however, what people tend to do. Exactly what is the most relied upon way of controlling what you eat? Willpower. What’s also the least effective form of what psychologists call “behavioral control?” You guessed it, willpower.

Click to read more ...

How to Eat Better at Work AND Save Time and Money

In my last post I introduced the concept of stimulus control: adding healthy food choices to your environment as well as removing trigger foods that tend to provoke eating in the absence of hunger (or overeating). While we have the most control over the food environment in our homes there is plenty that you can also do to set yourself up for success while you are away from home—at work—during the day.

Click to read more ...