In an effort to reduce the amount of food that’s wasted many colleges have
gone trayless. Amazingly, this small nudge has resulted in 20-25% less food
being wasted.

It makes sense right?

Without a tray to pile food on, the amount of food people can carry isn’t
nearly as much. And if people want more food, they’re forced to get back up
again – often enough of a barrier that makes us think “Do I really need xyz?”

While scientists haven’t researched the affect of trays on our eating
behaviors, they have researched the affects of plate sizes. They’ve proven, for
example, that changing the size of the plate we serve food on, changes the
amount of food that we eat before feeling full. Smaller plates lead to smaller
portions and interestingly – people believe they’ve eaten more.

Larger plates can make a serving of food appear smaller, and smaller plates can lead us to misjudge that very same quantity of food as being significantly larger.

For example, in a study conducted at a health and fitness camp, campers who
were given larger bowls served and consumed 16% more cereal than those given smaller bowls. Despite the fact that those campers were eating more, their estimates of their cereal consumption were 7% lower than the estimates of the group eating from the smaller bowls.

This means that not only could large plates and bowls cause us to serve and eat
more; it can do so without us noticing and trick us into believing we have
eaten less.

What if we ate healthier foods such as veggies and salad in larger plates and
served less healthy foods in smaller plates to trick ourselves into feeling
satisfied with less?

You might find that you’re eating less, and wasting less, without really
noticing it.

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Tricks and tips like this certainly can help you eat less. But losing weight isn’t as simple as just, “Eating less and exercising more,” or else we’d all do it.

Let’s face it. It were easy to change, people would do it.

It’s the pushing and the coaching and the guidance and the inspiration and the daily expectations and the support and the accountability that help the change occur along with our proven program and system.

Are you ready to change? Join today!

Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. A Christian tradition in which through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial – believers prepare for Easter.

For those who celebrate Easter many of you have told me what you intend on
giving up for Lent.

Let’s talk about how to be happier for a second…

There are two ways to make ourselves happier:

1. Stop doing things that make us feel bad

2. Start doing things that make us feel great

It turns out, the best way to stop doing things that make us feel bad is to
replace them with things that make us feel great.

For example:

1. What if you went for a quick walk every time you wanted junk food?

2. What if you drank tea every time you wanted wine?

3. What if you exercised instead of sitting on the couch?

It’s very hard to quit behaviors and habits. It’s less hard (not saying it’s
easy but certainly very doable) to replace them though.

In the spirit of Lent, let’s focus on something you’d feel comfortable giving
up for the next 33? days. (We have a 7 day head start.)

But let’s say Lent wasn’t 40 days – nor the remaining 33. Let’ say it was only
a week. And let’s pretend for a second you could only focus on the benefits of
giving that ‘thing up’. Thinking about the discomfort we must embrace isn’t an
option right now.

Got that one thing?

So, you’re giving up something that makes you feel bad. Using it or eating it
or doing it makes you feel bad after you’re done. Just for a week though.

I got mine.

What’s yours?

Now what if I said it’ll be just for the next 24 hours instead of a week.

Less scary right?

Let’s try it just for the next 24 hours.

For the next 24 hours, starting right now, let’s have our own mini-lent. (For
those already giving something up for Lent, pick something else.)

We’ll call it Disco.

Disco begins now…

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I’ve become very interested in meta-cognition. Or thinking about my own
thinking.

Some experts suggest that we try to control our thoughts. But trying to control
my thoughts seems pretty challenging to me. How can we control our thoughts?

I have no idea.

That’s like trying to control the wind. It ain’t happening! Having thoughts is
what our mind is for. They just pop up.

But what I do believe we can control – is how we react to our thoughts.

Big difference.

Thinking is a beautiful thing, unless, we get caught up on a particular
negative thought. We tend to suffer from ourselves only when we’re fixated on a
negative thought.

Hovever, being aware of our own thinking can be very helpful in dealing with
our own worst enemy or best friend —> Ourselves!

For example, do you always worry? Do you always assume the worst?

There are definite thought patterns we all have. If you tend to turn molehills
into mountains and worry (for no reason) realize that’s what you do.

The more we can be aware of our own thinking the better off we’ll be.

According to scientists the new crucial skill to making good decisions is the
ability to think about our own thinking. Unless we reflect on how we’re making
decisions, we won’t be able to use our instincts or gut.

The best predictor of good judgment isn’t intuition or experience or
intelligence. It’s the willingness to engage in introspection.

Who wants to play, “Don’t think about a grey elephant?!?!”

This game we’re about to play only has one rule: Don’t think about a grey
elephant. You can think about anything but a grey elephant.

Ready?

Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Now banish the animal from your head…

Don’t worry, you’re not the only one…

That’s what happens. When we try to avoid thinking about a grey elephant it’ll
come to mind every minute. In fact, whenever we try not to think about
something, it gets stuck in our loop of self-consciousness.

Our mind backfires. Our attempts at repressing the thought turn into a
fixation.

But because we’re now aware of the fact that our mind fixates on things we can
learn to not listen or trust our thoughts.

We can realize that our thoughts are just thoughts.

We don’t have to necessarily react to them. We don’t have to believe them. And
we certainly don’t have to act on them.

2 examples of how this can apply to us:

1. Let’s say a family member doesn’t call you back. You can go into a tail spin
of thinking about why they haven’t called you back. You might create all sorts
of stories about what might have happened and the reasons why.

Or, you can just realize that our mind is faulty and creates all sorts of
stories and that we have no good reason to believe any of them.

2. You fixate on a certain food. Therefore, you fixate on it even more. Knowing
our mind is going to torture us is helpful.

But these can both be very uncomfortable thoughts – even if we’re prepared for
them.

Here’s the key: distract yourself. Thinking about a certain food?

Quick: Think about a grey elephant!

Let’s make it a mindful and thoughtful week.

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Let’s get tactical, tactical, I wanna get tactical, let’s get into tactical…

Today, as you might have guessed, I want to get tactical.

Many of you tell me that you always feel hungry. I hear ya!

Let’s explore:

First off, let’s ask ourselves this question while we’re thinking rationally: Is it possible to be hungry all the time?

Rationally, we know that it’s not possible to be hungry all the time. So what gives?

Well, most of the time it’s emotional hunger.

Real/physical hunger comes on gradually. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly. Real hunger can be satisfied with any food. Yes, that’s right – if an apple doesn’t satisfy our hunger, we’re not really physically hungry.

Emotional hunger comes with a craving for a specific food. And unfortunately, it’s usually not apples.

When we get ‘hungry’ it’s worth looking at the clock and asking ourselves a few questions:

1. How long has it been since I’ve eaten?

2. What was the last thing I ate?

3. Was it something nutritious?

If you suspect your hunger might be emotional, ask yourself what you might be really hungry for?

Perhaps, it’s affection, assistance, rest, excitement, peace of mind…

Is it possible to have the need met by someone? How about by yourself?

Here’s the challenge: Many times we feel like our needs can’t or won’t get met so food becomes our escape.

When we’re ‘hungry’ that is one need we feel like we can control.

Sometimes, it can be very helpful to explore what it feels like to have the need go unmet by simply writing about it, and many clients have reported that this eases the discomfort tremendously.

This is also how to find out what you might really want out of your life because typically we’d shovel food into our mouth so we don’t have to experience or face the feelings.

But when we’re not suppressing those feelings, they’ll come to the surface, and we’ll be able to see what it is we really want.

Food is ONLY love when it is used to feed our true physical hunger and we actually enjoy and relish and savor the experience. Otherwise, we’re using food to cover up feelings.

Feelings that are preventing us from becoming the person we really want to be.

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Are you ready to stop hoping and wishing? Are you ready to finally stay consistent and get the body you’ve always wanted? What exactly are you waiting for? Let’s get started today!