Smaller Plates = Smaller Waists

This is an old tip, but it deserves to be recycled--use smaller plates and you will eat less. This can be especially helpful for those of us who are "members of the clean plate club" and worry about the starving children in Africa/China/wherever they are at the moment. Like my over eating is going to help them. Never did make sense.

I actually use my salad plates for most of my meals. Except, ironically, when I am having a salad for my meal. Then I usually use the dinner plate!

We tend to have the "Thanksgiving Dinner" syndrome--cover every inch of the plate surface, and pile it up high. Big plates allow for much bigger piles of food. Like we're never going to eat again. Or all we have to do after dinner is veg out in front of the television watching the big game.

That is not how real, day-to-day life is. We all have loads to do after our meals. Eating too much makes us feel sluggish. That's true whether or not we had turkey. It really is not the turkey that's the culprit--it is the amount of the turkey (and fixin's)!

Use smaller plates and then start to reduce the pile of food on the plate. Get to know the color of the plate, not just the rim, but in the middle, too!