Curb Emotional Eating Strategy #4

This very simple strategy can really help...it is so simple that you might not believe that it will work, so hear me out...and try it, before you say it won't work. You just might be surprised!

Strategy #4 Use Small Bowls or Plates

This strategy is about controlling the quantity we eat by controlling portion size.

Think about it...when you go on an emotional eating bender, how do you eat? I know I tend to eat right out of the carton...ice cream by the half gallon, cookies by the box, chips by the bag.

That makes it so easy to eat a lot more...instead serve yourself a dish. Don't eat at the kitchen sink, sit yourself down and make it a real snack, with things you have to wash.

Sure you can always go back for more, but the act of dishing the food up does a few things for you...it controls your initial portion (which might just turn out to be enough, thank you very much!), and by forcing you to return to the kitchen to get more you are buying your brain time to kick in and say, hey...I don't really want more of that.

By making it a more formal event, by sitting down and eating, then you are also using strategy #3, which if you recall from yesterday was making your eating a conscious decision.

In addition, it also reinforces that you have permission to eat this treat because you have given it "meal" treatment, with a plate or bowl and spoon or fork.

So this deceptively simple strategy actually incorporates 3 strategies in 1. Not bad! In fact...it also works in a 4th strategy...strategy #5, which we'll go into more detail on tomorrow!