Eating Like the Folks You Hang Out With

Photo: Phillie Casablanca / CC BY 2.0

Have you ever wondered if your eating habits are truly affected by the people in your life? Well, wonder no more. Researchers from the State University of New York at Buffalo have found that kids and teens tend to eat more when they are having a meal or snack with someone they know, rather than with a stranger. That makes sense as people are more self-conscious around someone they don't know. But, check this out. The study also found that overweight kids will eat much more with another overweight friend than with an average-weighted friend. For that matter, the difference is over 300 calories. This study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, shows how folks you eat with can affect your overall weight management.

If you're overweight or obese and you're eating with someone else who is the same, and especially if they're a friend, you'll eat more than if you were dining or snacking with a thinner person. The researchers call this "permission giving". That means that eating more than is necessary is the acceptable norm. What's interesting to note is that in studies of children, a normal-weighted kid consumes on average about 500 calories and it doesn't matter if the child he's eating with is a normal-weighted or an overweight friend. It's the overweight kids who are most influenced by the presence of a "permission giver" (another overweight kid).

Studies of adults have found that when men and women are followed for three decades, people tended to put on more weight if their same-sex friends were overweight or obese. This is the power of the social network. It's viral. The people you live, play and work with can indeed exert a powerful influence on your lifestyle habits.

Here's the good news. It's viral both ways. If you want to improve your current eating or exercise habits, start hanging out with people who are already doing that. Let them infect you with their good habits. Choose your mentors and do what it takes to be with like-minded individuals. Join a walking, hiking or biking club. It really works. This is true whether you're trying to quit smoking, drinking alcohol or over eating. Take a moment and think about who you tend to be with throughout the day.

A rule of thumb when you want to change any lifestyle habit is that you need to change the environment to support your new habit. Part of that environment is not just where you're living or working, but who you're doing that with. Everyone is on their own life journey, and they're also in various states of readiness to make change. There are plenty of people in your life who may not be ready for change and are still living an unhealthy lifestyle. That's OK. Just balance time you spend with them, with time being with more fit and healthy folks. It can often be a tricky balance, but keep working at it.

The bottom line is that if you want to become healthier, find other people who support that through their own lifestyle habits and hang out with them and learn and enjoy their encouragement. Then, one day, after you've succeeded in doing well, guess what? Someone's going to eyeball you and say "Wow, I want to be like you. Can we hang out together?" You see? It's a wonderful, viral process. So, what are you waiting for? Seek out your mentors and get started today.

Related Topics:

• Ladies' Night Out a Diet Wrecker
• Weight Loss & Fitness with Pamela Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP
• Get the Weight Loss Wisdom and Fitness newsletters in your inbox weekly!

The Post Workout Burn

I'll bet most of you have heard about the "post workout burn". These are calories you keep on burning even though you're done with the workout. I got to thinking about it again when I got this email from "afdw" on my weight management message board:

"Firstly, if you work out does it increase your metabolism for the upcoming hours? Then since sleep slows down metabolism, will it ruin your metabolism increase? Because now I wonder if I should workout in the morning or at 9pm. I normally workout at 9pm-9.30pm then I sleep at around 11-12. I am curious if this will slow down my metabolism and will I not get the optimal results I should have if I sleep a few hours after my workout. If i do workout in the morning, will it benefit me more? Please give me advice."

Alright, we'll start with the timing issue. What time is best to work out and how do you schedule that relative to your sleep? My easy answer for the workout time is any time that works for you.

First, at the very least, try to stay as active as possible throughout your day by increasing your activities of daily living. Every calorie you burn counts and also stokes your metabolic fire.

Second, do your deliberate workout at a time of day when you know you will have the least chance of being interrupted. If you're a mother, you work around the kids' schedules. And since most people work, it's about being creative and flexible with the nuances of work schedules as well. Hopefully your workout times coincide with your natural biorhythm - some of you are larks (early risers) and others are owls (late to bed). Also, about 50% of people can sleep perfectly fine after an evening bout of exercise. You won't know if you're one of those until you've experimented, so give it a whirl.

Finally, as you try to integrate physical activity into your busy schedule, it's so important to remember those two words I keep repeating: adapt and adjust. If Plan A doesn't work, get going on Plan B. Keep workin' it until you get a baseline schedule of exercise that works for you. Those who do, look, feel and live like it.

Now, onto the issue of the post workout burn. The calories that you expend after you finish up your exercise are known as the "after-burn". Exercise scientists call it EPOC, or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. After you've worked out, especially if you did an intense workout, your body spends time getting your oxygen, body temperature and blood circulation back to its normal state. Muscles are repairing themselves and restocking their glucose fuel. You may notice your heart and respiratory rate are elevated for a while, and your nervous system remains somewhat activated as adrenalin and cortisol (stress hormone) levels slowly settle down to pre-exercise levels.

This adjustment period can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 48 hours. A rule of thumb is that during this period, your body will continue to burn between 10-15 calories for every 100 calories you burned during your workout. The more intense the workout, the more calories you burn. For instance, in studies comparing low and high intensity workouts in which the same number of calories was burned (500 calories), the high intensity EPOC burned 45 vs 24 calories for the low intensity exercise following each workout. Long, low intense exercise (1.5-2 hours) also raises EPOC to optimal levels. Think of hiking or walking.

New science has shown that if you're looking for a maximal EPOC, don't forget to do both weight lifting as well as cardio. Colorado State researchers compared moderately intense weight lifting and aerobic exercise (cardio) to see if there was a difference in EPOC. It took the weight lifters 100 minutes of lifting versus 60 minutes of cycling to achieve the same 600 calories of exercise expended during exercise. The strength training produced an extra 24 calories of after-burn (total EPOC 51 calories) compared to the same level of intense aerobic exercise, cycling (total EPOC 27 calories). Let's do a little math. The EPOC from cardio done 5 x week would equate to an extra 7000 calories per year above and beyond the calories already spent during the exercise sessions. The EPOC from weight lifting 2 x week would be equal to 5000 calories of extra calorie burn per year. Combining the two, that's a grand total of 12, 000 calories or (dividing by 3,500 calories/pound) almost 3.5 pounds of fat removed as a benefit of the after-burn. Not bad for after-burn!

The bottom line is it doesn't matter when you work out, but what counts is the intensity. If you haven't yet tried intervals of intensity, gradually increase speed and resistance under the supervision of an expert. Ask a fitness professional at your gym or community center for direction, and check out WebMD's fitness resources to get started safely. Start racking up those bonus calories today!

Related Topics:

• WebMD Slideshow: The 30-Minute Workout
• Weight Loss & Fitness with Pamela Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP
• Get the Weight Loss Wisdom and Fitness newsletters in your inbox weekly!

Cooking Calories While You Sleep

Alyssa L. Miller / CC BY-SA 2.0

Today a patient of mine told me she's having difficulty focusing on her new healthy lifestyle habits because she feels so sleep deprived. On average, she's been trying to live on 4-6 hours of sleep per night. She looked at me and asked how important sleep was to her weight loss efforts. I'll share with you what I told her. First, we'll start with what happens to your body's calorie burning engine while you sleep.

Have you ever wondered how many calories your body burns while you sleep? Here are some fascinating facts. Please keep in mind the usual variances here - while sleeping, Shaquille O'Neil burns a tad more than Lance Armstrong. During sleep, an average individual burns the equivalent of 77 calories per hour. 20% of the time you're sleeping (90 minutes), you're dreaming which means you're spending roughly 115 calories in dreamland (e.g. the rough equivalent of running .8 miles). Generally, a 160 pound individual will burn roughly 549 calories over 8 hours of sleep. A pound of muscle burns about 6 calories at rest and a pound of fat 2 calories. Clearly, those people with more muscle, and especially if it's well trained (our pals Shaquille and Lance), are at an advantage for cooking a few more calories than the average guy while they get their nightly shuteye. Just another argument for staying physically active.

But wait, there's more. There's new research showing that the quantity as well as quality of your sleep directly influences weight loss. A lot of focus has been on the appetite hormones leptin and ghrelin. These two hormones are the reason why after a bad night's sleep nothing you eat seems to fill or satisfy you. Ghrelin, produced in the GI tract, stimulates appetite while leptin, produced by fat cells, is supposed to send a signal to your brain that you're full. Clearly, many factors influence the secretion and regulation of these hormones including genetics, stress and lifestyle. When you don't get enough sleep, and/or it's poor quality sleep, ghrelin levels skyrocket and leptin's plummets. Appetite is out of control and here comes overeating. Other studies showed that the less sleep you get, the more body fat you carry.

The bottom line is you want to do everything you possibly can to get 7-8 hours of sleep every night. My patient typically took her laptop to bed, pounding away on the computer trying to finish deadlines, and then collapsed in a heap. She wonders why her sleep time and quality are so poor. Optimizing the quality of sleep means creating a sleep-friendly atmosphere (e.g. no laptops, don't watch a horror show or getting into a shouting match with your better half before hitting the sack). Try to get on a regular schedule of going to bed at a specific reasonable hour. Do sleep inducing activities before going to bed - read a book, meditate, cuddle with your partner, listen to relaxing music. Finally, remember that your goal is to let your body's natural and powerful chemistry work for you. Don't confuse your hormones with a crazy sleep schedule. Team up with your body for the best win win.

Related Topics:

• WebMD Video: How Better Sleep Can Help Weight Loss
• Weight Loss & Fitness with Pamela Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP
• Get the Weight Loss Wisdom newsletter in your inbox weekly

Exercise Does Help You Shed Your Weight

I couldn't believe my eyes. I'd just gotten my current issue of Time magazine and after reading the cover, my jaw dropped - actually clanked on the floor. The cover story read "The Myth of Exercise: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin". The cover photo portrayed a young woman running on a treadmill and dangling in front of her was the real reason she was sweating - her mental fantasy of a cup cake. Trying to be objective, I methodically read the article. It's written by a good writer who typically doesn't work with this kind of subject matter. His premise was that exercise, especially intense activity, increases your appetite and you end up eating more and actually gaining weight. Further, he noted that people want a food reward - their favorite treat - after every workout session. He also shared his own struggle - he's not obese - with that male gut issue. But there's a cynical, biased edge to his writing, as though to say "Why should I work out if my gut's not disappearing?" I've got a news flash for Mr. Cloud. An over 40-year-old man has decreasing male sex hormones that directly contribute to more fat distributed to his belly. He's not as metabolically efficient at burning fat. Relative to his age, he's eating too much, thus the gut.

Who said that the main reason we work out is so we can chow down on pastries? I asked my good friend and gym mate Newsweek's Eleanor Clift what she thought of this and she posted on her blog:

"...exercise has kept my blood pressure down near astronaut levels, and the endorphins released during exercise help keep me sane...I happen to believe that exercise is the closest thing we've got to a fountain of youth."

I loved this quote because it stresses that activity is a mind and body experience. Heck, so many of my patients over the years have said to me that they began doing more activity to drop weight, but actually continued it because it was so good for their heads - calmed them down, reduced their anxiety and depression, and helped them to cope with the stresses of life so much better. There's also the pride in performing better, from sports to activities of daily living. Doing more activity and watching what you eat does allows you to be able to metabolize that occasional treat without weight gain. I don't know anyone who workouts out so they can plow through a box of doughnuts afterward. There are people out there who fool themselves into thinking exercise will somehow cancel out indiscretions like that, but after jumping on the scale a few times post over eating, reality sets in.

And what about that roaring increase in appetite sending us all racing to a post workout Crispy Crème binge? Read the research. A recent study from University of Pittsburgh found that overweight and obese women didn't need any more calories when exercising regularly than when they were sedentary. So let's set the record straight. Of course you're going to have a greater appetite if you engage in intense exercise. So, you just make sure to keep healthy foods (especially fruits and veggies) around and be mindful of your calories. The basic energy balance equation says that to maintain your current overall weight, you need to take in the same amount of fuel (food) and you burn each day. Ideally, to drop weight you reduce the total number of calories you take in, and you increase the calories your burn.

So, I put it out there on my weight management message board to see what all of you thought about the exercise-weight loss connection. Here are your voices:

"I wondered what research was used for such headlines. I am 60 years old and have never lost weight with a calorie restrictive diet. I cannot starve myself enough. Yet when I added aerobic exercise my entire body improved and I lost 5 dress sizes. I begin in May of 2002 and didn't really notice much the first two months as muscle does weigh more than fat; but by the time school began in the Fall I needed an entirely new wardrobe. From August to November that year I lost one size per month before reaching a plateau. It is not until I hit a bit of depression six years later and stopped exercising that I needed to buy larger sized clothing. I begin my exercise program with a stationary bike and 20 minutes. Eventually I worked up to 70 minutes a day on the elliptical. I ate a healthy diet at that time using WebMD's food intake program (before it got all of the bells and whistles) - I was never hungry or deprived of my favorite foods. With "diets" having such a rebound issue of regaining the lost weight plus 5 to 10 pounds, I just can't believe that diet alone is the key. Exercise improves multiple body functions keeping your metabolism up much better than the loss of muscle associated with weight-loss alone." 1949Rose

"Weight loss is a simple equation: you either decrease the calories you take in by diet modification, increase the calories you burn by exercise, or DO BOTH! Personally, I have had great success with the third option (down over 93 pounds
in 2-1/2 years)." Dukeof Earle

"There is probably some truth that you can lose weight without exercise, I lost several pounds without exercise when I first started. The problem I have is that this article will further convince people that they don't need exercise which I firmly believe to be false! I have no doubt I could have lost a decent amount of weight without exercise but I also know that I could not have dropped the 90 pounds I have lost and kept off without exercise! Exercise is responsible for firming up my muscles, it is responsible for giving my body the shape it had lost but even more than that, exercise has given me more self-confidence then I ever had before - enough so that I trained for a ran a 25k race. My body does require more fuel because I exercise 7 days a week (no not everyone needs to exercise that much but I enjoy my workouts) but the food I eat is healthy and I count my calories so I am not in the position to gain weight. I guess the bottom line for me is exercise is not only good for the body but the mind and soul as well." Redwingfan

Finally, I'm going to put on my hat as the American College of Sports Medicine's spokesperson for their global Exercise IS Medicine campaign. Here are the facts.

• Physical activity is one of the most important behavioral factors in weight maintenance and improving long-term weight loss outcomes. In fact, participation in an exercise program has proven to be the very best predictor of maintaining weight that was lost.
• Exercise and physical activity have been proven to help prevent chronic conditions such as heart disease, osteoporosis, anxiety, depression, obesity and diabetes.
• Studies show that when students are more active (through physical education, classroom activity, play, etc.) they improve test scores and attendance and experience fewer discipline problems and sick days.
• Simple activities like walking, accumulated in 10-minute bouts, can have significant benefits.

So, get on out there and live in balance. Pay attention to your eating and your moving. They're both life giving vital signs.

Related Topics:

• The Incredible Benefits of Regular Exercise
• Weight Loss & Fitness with Pamela Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP
• Get the Weight Loss Wisdom newsletter in your inbox weekly

Minimize Your Menopot

Alright, raise your hand if you're a woman trying to navigate the treacherous waters of the perimenopausal (40-52) or menopause years (cessation of all menses, usually by age 52-54)? Yep, just as I thought. There are about 78 million baby boomers and over half of them are women, so you're in good company. Can you relate to this post I received on my weight management board?

"I am 57 years old and am postmenopausel. I work out at least one hour 5 days per week. I eat less than 1000 calories every day, and I CAN'T LOSE ANY WEIGHT! My current weight is 165 pounds. I have had my thyroid checked, and blood drawn, everything is normal. help!" from dmlevins

OK, for dmlevins and all the rest of you who feel her pain, here are some tips and tools. I spent many years in my laboratory at the National Institutes of Health, as well as clinical years working with women over 40, studying what the heck was going on with their ever expanding tummies. Lo and behold, I published Fight Fat after Forty which described why we start having such girth control problems, and I named the extra fat collecting around the middle the "Menopot". All women get this fat accumulation. On average it can be in the range of 3-6 pounds. It should not be double digits. And, you can't completely get rid of it. Your goal is to minimize it.

Where does the Menopot come from? As a woman enters her perimenopause, she is slowly withdrawing from powerful sex hormones. Pre-40's, estrogen usually directed any fat storage to the hip, thigh and buttocks. Post-40, estrogen begins to wax and wane, and any extra fat heads for the abdomen, resulting in the mission impossible of zipping up those jeans. In Body for Life for Women, I wrote that what's important during this critical time in a woman's life is that she pay attention to her body composition, not just her weight – the amount of muscle, fat and bone. Every woman should march into her gym or buy a body fat scale and know what her numbers are. Body fat should be in the 20's, preferably around 25%. Fewer fat cells mean a reduced risk of breast cancer. Her girth should measure less than 35" to decrease her risk for diabetes and heart disease.

I would advise women who want to drop their over 40 weight to:

1. Get your body composition and waist measurement done.


2. Know your thyroid and cholesterol profiles, as well as your fasting blood sugar and blood pressure.


3. Keep a journal of your eating for one week to observe your patterns--- it may be quite an eye opener.


4. Never eat less than 1200 cals per day or you'll effectively shut down your metabolic drive, and thus your calorie burning potential. Aim for 1400-1600 calories per day based on activity level.


5. Eat smaller, balanced feedings every 3-4 hours starting with breakfast and ending with dinner.


6. Eat lean protein at every meal and the mid afternoon snack. Protein is your appetite, carb crave killing friend.


7. Avoid alcohol except once or twice on weekends. Too much packs on the belly weight.


8. Cross train your cardio (don't do the same thing all of the time--- mix it up). Burn 400 calories of cardio 5 days per week. Increase your activities of daily living. Get up and move more.


9. Add intensity intervals. Too many women look like night of the living dead on their treadmill or elliptical. Ramp it up and shake up those post-40 fat cells. Sweat!


10. Lift weights 2 x week, paying attention to your upper body especially, since your legs are getting their cardio workout. Don't forget your core and stretches at the end of each session.

Please take a patience pill. For crying out loud, you're over 40 and you need to give your body a chance to adapt and adjust as you shed excess weight. Practice a little self love and don't starve yourself or live in a physical boot camp for weeks on end. Gradually and patiently, you can minimize your Menopot.

Lifestyle Approach or Gastric Surgery

Which Way to Go for Weight Loss
If you’re over 100 pounds above the recommended range for healthy weight for your age and gender, you may have found yourself wondering which way to go to drop the weight. Recently, I’ve been messaging with Therese, a young woman on my weight management board. Here’s an excerpt from her email:

"Hi everybody, this is kind of an update from my first post on this board. For a recap I am a 22yr old female, with diabetes and neuropathy. I recently began seeing a new internist, he highly recommends that I have weight loss surgery, my BMI is 36.2, which my doctor tells me is not typically big enough for surgery but he said because of my health problems I qualify. The hospital I am planning on having the surgery at has a wonderful bariatric program and is supposed to be one of the best in the USA. But even knowing that I am very nervous, I know this is something I have to do though, in my case it could really prolong my life. My doctor said it could possibly make the diabetes either go away completely or make so I wouldn't have to take medication for it. … I am leaning towards the gastric bypass surgery, I like the fact that it would help me drop the weight faster and help me keep it off. Either way failure is not an option for me. …Thank you All Very, Very Much, Therese"

I’ve been dealing with gastric surgery patients for many years. Here’s a valuable lesson I learned through one particular woman who did not opt for the surgery, but slugged it out to remove 150 pounds by taking on her own addictive demons, getting buddy support, and becoming more physically active. This was no easy feat but she pulled it off and has maintained for 10 years and counting. I once asked her why she didn’t choose surgery. She smiled and said these words, "Dr. Peeke, gastric surgery is GI surgery, not brain surgery. I would have gone into surgery with the same bad mental habits as I came out of surgery with. Once the weight came off, I’d still have to deal with my own mental demons, just waiting to sabotage me." I never forgot those words. And, she’s right. What I am making certain is that Therese and other folks considering surgery make sure to realize that unless their surgical program is affiliated with a strong support team of nutritional, fitness and mental health experts, success in the long run is unlikely. You don’t just undergo the surgery and call it a day. You need strong ongoing support to help you as you adapt and adjust to significant weight loss. When I wrote "lifestyle or surgery" as the title of this blog, the true truth is that either option has to involve a major lifestyle change. You have to become more physically active, vigilant about the quality and quantity of calories, and you must learn how to rein in self destructive habits leading to weight gain.

I have observed that people do indeed drop weight, but by about the 12-16th month post op, weight begins to creep back on for those people who did not take the time to do the mental homework involving tackling the tough work of learning new, healthier habits. That’s the tragedy you don’t want to happen – to undergo surgery and regain it all back. It’s mental and physical work that is needed for success. Surgery does not eliminate that work. It is not an easy way out. Gastric surgery is only life saving if it’s done with the right team and the individual is ready and willing to do the work for a lifetime. Those are the words of wisdom I’ll be sharing with Therese as she contemplates her choices.

Sugar Addiction

A couple of weeks ago, I started a discussion group about sugar addiction on my weight management board. And since then, I’ve been flooded with posts from many of you identifying with what you can only refer to as an addictive drive to eat refined sugar in any form (e.g. refined sugar in drinks, cookies, candy). We researchers and experts are still trying to understand refined sugar’s hold on people, driving them to binge on foods they know full well aren’t going to help them shed their nagging weight. Here’s a classic from Sarah:

"…I definitely think I'm addicted to sugar. I do go completely off sugar, but it seems that if I have one bite of something sugary, I'm back on the downward path. Though it's that one bite of sugar that pulls me back to the addiction, I find that when I start eating sugary foods, then I lose control over most of what I'm eating. Instead of eating regular meals and snacks, I find I'm just grabbing foods when passing through the kitchen, etc. The good thing about an alcohol addiction is that you can get through life without alcohol, but a food addiction? You have to eat, and it's harder to make yourself avoid those sugary foods when they are OK for most other people. Ugh."

So what’s the answer here? We don’t have the definitive answer, but we have a good enough understanding of how cravings affect brain function, that we can recommend how to minimize trouble with sugar in your life. Here are some thoughts.

Not all sugars are the same. The worst ones are refined, processed sugars and they’re usually white &ndash table sugar, white rice, white pasta, white bread. They’ve literally been stripped of all of their original healthy nutrients and fibers and you’re left with, well, a lump of sugar! These sugars are nothing but trouble. And, like so many people on my board have noted, if you’ve effectively avoided them for a time, and then, whoops you have just one serving, you’re off and running because you can never have just one serving of this stuff. It’s like awakening a sleeping giant. If this sounds like you, quit tempting fate. Your brain has attached such reward to having a sweet something, that you’ll always over eat it and binge. Instead, avoid it. Another thing I have noted is that many people with addictive family histories (e.g. alcohol, drugs, cigarettes) also have some level of problem with feeling addicted to sugary foods. You yourself may not have the substance addiction, but if you carry it in your genes, we’ve observed that it may manifest itself in you with feelings of being addicted to sugary foods. It’s interesting to note the number of people who have undergone bariatric surgery (e.g. often 100 pounds over ideal body weight) who are or come from addictive family backgrounds, especially alcoholism.

What can you eat? Why, natural sugars. These healthy carbs are primarily derived from plants, have lots of satisfying fiber (that’ll fill you up the right way and keep you regular), and include whole grains, veggies, fruits and beans. When you read the food pyramid recommendations, they note most people should be ingesting about 45-65% of their calories as carbs as healthy carbs, not the refined stuff. So, if you feel you have a similar addictive situation, I would steer clear of refined sugars and substitute with healthy natural sugars instead. It will take you about a week or so to make the taste switch and a month to really effect a longer term change. And once you’ve achieved this, don’t wake up that sleeping giant by tempting fate. Reward yourself not with a moment of fake bliss after devouring refined sugar, but with new energy, a leaner body and a satisfaction greater than any lump of sugar can ever provide you.

Make the Mind-Belly Connection

Ever find that you’re sitting around watching TV and an hour later the bag of chips in front of you is gone? Where did it go? Inside your belly. Mindlessly. It’s like you’re in a food trance. Once you wake up, you’re blown away about what just happened. Count the empty wrappers, boxes and bags.

You’re out with friends, and everyone is munching. You’re at the movies, and since they don’t offer a small-sized soda, you shrug and take the “regular” size. And at the restaurant, the portions are so large, and like me, you want to get your money’s worth, so you are determined to finish that plate!

But this is where we make the mistake: we don’t think about what is going in us, or how much of that food is going to stick once it is in us.

We don’t get fat by gorging on a couple meals. We gain all that weight a few extra calories at a time. The bowl of chips at the party is just an example of what we’re doing each day at home. There’s that cookie jar next to the microwave, and sure, it’s almost an hour to dinner, so maybe just one… But since no one is around, maybe you’ll have one more, till you turn around and realize there’s only one left in the jar.

Or it’s Saturday morning, and you had an early breakfast so you can go out and work in the yard. But at mid-morning you’re already hungry, so one doughnut will do just the trick. But it tastes so good, that just one more will really hit the spot. And then you eat and eat till the box is empty.

And how about at the office? Every time you walk by the receptionist’s desk on your way to accounting, you scoop up a hand-full of chocolate candies and pop them into your mouth. Before the commute home, you grab another handful to make it to dinner.

These are all examples of mindless eating. You just don’t think about it! Why should you? You’re busy; it’s a hectic day; your son just called and said the car won’t start. You deserve a little pick-me-up.

But this is the mistake we all make. We don’t think about it. Our mind is disconnected from our bellies. And your body takes the beating. These little actions each day add up to a lot of weight at the end of the year. It only seems like a few extra calories in that larger soda, but they add up. And that doughnut is yummy, but we all know where it’s going.

And every time we sit down at the restaurant, it can be a psychological battle between you and the chef you never see. Even if you ask for a smaller plate or smaller portions, he forgets your request because he’s cooking a dozen entrees at the same time. It’s up to you to push a little to the side of the plate and ask for a doggie-bag. That way you assure yourself that you are only eating what you need. And you get to enjoy the same meal the next day!

And when you’re at the picnic, make a decision before you go to stand away from the food table, or to place your chair facing in the opposite direction from the ice chests full of beer. Before every party or picnic, my friend tells her kids to “fill one plate and move away from the table. No one wants to see you stand there and graze like a cow.” Solid advice to teach good manners, but also healthy advice for us adults too.

Like her, it is our responsibility to think before we show up at these “eating events”. Keeping away from that extra cookie saves you a couple hundred calories. And when you sit down to pop in a DVD to watch with the kids next Saturday night, decide to put out a large plate of carrots instead of a bowl of chips and salsa.
Although we call it mindless eating, we are merely deflecting the decision about what we eat, and then looking sadly in the mirror at the result. Simple decisions make a large difference at your waistline. Those few extra calories each day at work can add up to 35 pounds at the end of the year!

So ignore that urge to nibble right before dinner, and don’t make a second trip to the buffet table. You’ll be so proud of the results. You’re learning how to stay conscious of your self care decisions. Your mindless eating will turn in to mindful mastery of your daily eating habits. That’s the goal.