Defense against “Mindless” Eating …Change the color of your plates!
One of the biggest obstacles to managing your weight is “mindless” eating.
What I’m talking about is: You aren’t even hungry… but then you notice that bag of chips in the cabinet, or walk past a vending machine at work…
And the next thing you know, without thinking… you’re “mindless” helping yourself to a little snack.
The problem is, little “slips” like these add to your daily calorie intake… and make it harder to control your weight.
(Believe me, I struggle with those impulses, too.)
And willpower alone isn’t always enough, because your brain is receiving “eating” messages you aren’t even aware of.
There’s a nerve that connects your brain to your gut…constantly sending messages back and forth:
Your brain sees a snack, it alerts your gut, and your gut says “Feed me that bag of chips.”
Then, “mindless”…you obey.
So you have to find ways to resist or eliminate those powerful “mindless” destroying messages… by using cravings blockers, learning to choose healthy snacks, or just white-knuckling it on willpower alone.
ACTION TIP: A way to send yourself a automatically kick into action message…One that says DON’T eat. There is a way… and you won’t believe how easy it is:
Change the color of your plates!
I know, it sounds hard to believe. But researchers have discovered that colors can affect how much you eat.
Think how many fast-food logos are red and yellow. Well, that’s no accident…
But it turns out that the color blue is an appetite suppressant — and people eat less food when they use dark blue plates.2
Researchers aren’t sure why. It could be because blue has a calming effect and makes you feel like sleeping more than eating.
OR possibility since there are almost no blue foods in nature, blue doesn’t stimulate your hunger triggers the way other colors do.
Whatever the reason, blue helps turn down your appetite.
And there’s more…
It turns out when the color of food contrasts with the color of the plate, you tend to eat smaller portions… because you’re more aware of how much you put on your plate.
So when the food and plate colors are similar, you tend to put more on your plate — which means you’ll be eating larger servings of healthier foods like dark leafy veggies.
If you’re serving green vegetables and mashed potatoes on a dark blue or green plate, you’ll end up eating less of the starchy potatoes — and more of the healthy broccoli.
And it all happens “mindless” without you even thinking about!
Now, there’s no guarantee that changing plate colors will change your eating habits.
But every bad calorie avoided — and every extra helping of healthy food — puts you one step closer to achieving your weight-control goals.
So why not give it a try. You’ve got nothing to lose — except a few “Lbs-EZ”. 🙂
To your health!