Quick Tricks for Healthier Eating

From the folks at Health magazine and CNN come “Sneaky Little Slim-Down Tricks.”

The Most Reliable:

Start smart
Begin lunch and dinner with a veggie-rich salad or broth-based soup, says Pennsylvania State University satiety expert Barbara Rolls, author of “The Volumetrics Eating Plan.” “That lets you fill up first on a big volume of low-calorie food and ends up displacing some of the foods you’ll eat next — the choices that are usually higher in calories.”

Here’s a good salad recipe: Mix 1½ cups of salad greens with ¾ cup of raw veggies like onions, bell peppers, carrots, broccoli, or cucumbers; drizzle with 2 tablespoons of low-cal bottled dressing.

I keep trying to follow this one, but it does conflict with my desire to pare down the grocery budget and with the small size of my fridge. Scott’s great when it comes to this strategy — he always eats his salad first to try to fill up before the main course, even if it makes me worry that his entrée will get unappealingly cold in the meantime.

It would be nice if I could let things stay warm in the oven perhaps while we enjoy a separate salad course upfront to blunt our appetites. Something to consider for when we get back.

The Most Intriguing (It’s New to Me):

Sneak a snack
“Ten minutes before each meal, eat some healthy fat (around 70 calories or fewer): a handful of nuts, a few slices of avocado, or a spoonful of peanut butter, for example. That helps activate ghrelin, a hormone that lets you know you’re full,” says Michael Roizin, MD, co-author with Mehmet Oz, MD, of “You on a Diet: The Owner’s Manual for Waist Management.”

I’ve heard about that fullness hormone before, but always in the context of eating your meals slowly so that you have time for body to tell you it’s satisfied before your belt busts open. This bit of advice sounds pretty good if you’re the sort of person who does most overeating at meals (hmm . . . see the next part for more on that). It’s not going to help you much if you sabotage yourself through unhealthy food choices or caving to those never-hunger-based junk-food cravings.

Maybe this advice could be combined with the Volumetrics idea through getting that healthy fat via some oil, olives, or nuts on the salad?

The Most Disturbing:

Choose your pals
Studies show that most of us base how much we eat on what others around us eat, says University of Toronto psychologist Peter Herman, PhD. So steer clear of the big eaters in your social circle, at least when food is around. Sashay over and make small talk at parties with the folks who aren’t hovering near the food table.

“Marching to your own caloric drummer requires some independent thought and calculation,” Herman says.

Hand in hand with this goes a chronic obstacle to almost any wife’s diet plan. Unless you are significantly taller and far more athletic, your caloric needs are way less than your husband’s! Women pack on the pounds after marriage not only because they ditch the pre-wedding diet but also because they start portioning out the same amount of dinner to themselves that their husbands do.

It’s tough to sit at the same table and watch Scott put away more food (especially when it’s something tasty), but if I ate the same number of calories per meal that he does to lose weight, I would balloon. He’s eight inches taller than me and more muscular, and thus he can consume more calories without gaining weight than I can. It’s just the way it is.

You may not have noticed a change in the amount you consume, but that’s likely because you were brought up comparing portions with someone closer to you in size, such as a sibling. Even my brothers ate small portions at meals in my house growing up because they spread their eating out over the whole day. You ate the same size portion at others at the table then, so it doesn’t seem different to eat the same size portion as your husband, but odds are the portion size has grown in absolute terms.

I have to remind myself at every meal to eat only half or two-thirds as much as Scott, depending on the entrée. I also take time while preparing a meal to think out correct portions for each of us, such as setting out two slices of graham-flour bread for him and one for me. It’s all about planning, right?