Cleaning your plate. Don't feel obligated to eat everything that's in front of you. Stop eating as soon as you're full, rather than stuffing yourself with unnecessary calories because you don't want to waste food. If there's enough left, save it for lunch or a snack the next day.
Eating while standing up. Often, this translates to leaning over the kitchen counter or sink, or gulping food as you grab it out of the refrigerator. "It's like mindless grazing," Ansel says. "It's nonstop noshing ... It's very hard for your body to know when you've had enough, when you're constantly popping food into your mouth." Planned snacks and meals are typically the only time you should be eating, she says. For the average person, three meals and one or two snacks a day will suffice.
Forgetting to plan ahead. "We tend to make food decisions in real-time," says Scott Kahan, codirector of the George Washington University Weight Management Program in Washington, D.C. "All of a sudden it's lunch time, and you're standing in front of the menu or fridge, trying to decide what to eat and how much of it to have." Spend a few minutes each morning either packing a lunch or checking out restaurant menus and calorie counts online. "That makes it much easier to eat healthier in the moment," he says.
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