Is Your Home Making You Fat?
20.09.2016

Is Your Home Helping You Get Fat or Lose Weight? Take this Quiz to Find Out!

1. Do you have a candy dish handy within reach, maybe in the kitchen, living room table or on your office desk?
2. Do you serve yourself on a big plate or a small plate?
3. Do you serve breads at family dinners and if so do you put the bread basket on the table?
4. Do you serve dinner from the counter or stove top or place all the food dishes on the table for dinner?
5. If the food is served from the counters , do you sit at the table facing the food or facing away from the food?
6. Are your plates and bowls all 1 color or do you have a variety of colorful dishes?
7. Do you store your cereal on top of the fridge or tucked away in the pantry?
8. Is your pantry organized to have your healthy snacks or cooking ingredients at eye level?
9. Does your pantry or cupboards have a separate shelf for children’s snacks (if you have kids) away from adult snacks?
10. Do you buy snack foods in bulk at Sam’s or Costco?
11. Do you drink alcohol and if so, is it in short glass or a tall glass?
12. Do you serve salads and vegetables first before the entrees?
13. Do you eat with the TV turned off or on?
14. There are 2 or fewer cans of soda in your fridge right now?
15. Do you have some fresh produce in your fridge and typically something is always washed and pre-cut?
16. Are there at least 6 types of protein in your fridge or freezer right now? (eggs, nonfat yogurt, chicken, turkey, fish, low fat cheese, beans, tofu, cottage cheese, nonfat milk)

Tip #1:

Move the candy dish to a inconvenient location. Maybe on top of the cabinet or fridge, on the fireplace mantel, or across the office on the top shelf of the bookcase. The further or more inconvenient it is the less like you are to cheat and the fewer times you will return for candy. Also put a lid on it. Even if its visible if you have a lid on it you will eat less. One study conducted put a lid on a bowl of Hershey kisses and the subjects ate 33% less kisses simply because there was a lid on the candy dish. Maybe it’s inconvenient, maybe it’s out of sight, out of mind, but either way facts are facts and if it works, we need to do it.

Tip #2:

Always use a smaller plate or bowl to serve yourself. You will be less likely to overeat and having to return to get food several times will inconvenience you. Nobody wants to be the person getting a third or fourth helping of food.

Tip #3:

If serving breads at the family dinner try to limit the number of bread servings to exactly how many people will be eating. If you have a family of 5, only bake 5 dinner rolls. Not only will this help your grocery bill but it eliminates the opportunity to overeat. If you have a family that demands a lot of bread then simply put the bread basket at the end between your spouse and kids and you sit furthest away from it. If the bread basket comes back to your end, hand it to someone and ask them to hand you the veggie bowl instead. Also if you’re going to keep a bread basket on the table with dinner, always have a salad or green veggie bowl on the table as well. When everyone grabs the second roll, you grab a second helping of salad. Again, keep the salad bowl near you and the bread basket away! Always serve a salad or veggie first to prevent from overeating starches or fatty entrees.

Tip #4:

If you serve food family style on the table verses buffet style from the stove or counter top, you will easily overeat. One study showed that families who ate from the counter top consumed 19% less food than those who served food family style directly on the table. Also use the lid trick. If you have to serve food on the table, put a lid on it. Out of sight, out of mind. You will eat 33% less food if it’s not staring you in the face and its inconvenient to remove all the lids.

Tip #5:

If you serve food from the counters always make sure you take a seat at the table facing away from the food. Studies show that if you aren’t facing the food, you will eat less. Out of sight, out of mind again. Use this trick at restaurants or buffets also. If you are next to the kitchen, face away so you don’t have to watch every single steaming fajita plate or dessert that comes out of the kitchen.

Tip #6:

If you have all 1 solid color plates, think about getting a variety of colorful dishes. Studies show that if your food matches your plate you will consume 19% more food than if the plate is a different color than your food. One study tested white and red plates with marinara pasta (red) and Alfredo pasta (white). Every person who had a plate that matched their pasta color consumed over 18% more calories at this 1 meal alone.

Tip #7:

If you have your cereal on top of the fridge or visible on the kitchen counters please tuck it away in the pantry. A study conducted on woman who kept cereal on the fridge verses in the pantry and on average the women who kept cereal out weighed 21 pounds more than the woman who put their cereal away in cabinets or pantries.

Tip #8:

Clean out your pantry and toss all the junk. If you have to keep junk for kids then tuck it away in a inconvenient spot for you. Keep all of your healthy quality snacks at eye level.  If the chocolate chip granola bar is staring you in the face then it needs to be moved to the lowest shelf for the kids or in a separate cabinet. Again out of sight, out of mind. Inconvenience yourself. If its hard or inconvenient to get too, you will be less likely to eat it. Maybe even put a child lock on the cabinet door for YOURSELF. It’s inconvenient right? Also if buying snack foods, try not to buy them in bulk at wholesale stores like Sam’s and Costco. A study showed that most people who bought these snack foods in bulk are not only inclined to eat them but they at them twice as fast than if they did not buy them in bulk. Most of the bulk snack foods where almost completely eaten in the first week.

Tip #9:

Drinking alcohol is detrimental to weight loss but it can be controlled if we so choose to do so. Studies show that we pour 12% less wine into taller glasses than shorter glasses. Studies also show that we will pour 12% less wine when the glass is on the table verses holding it in our hands. Studies also show that we typically pour about 9% more red wine that white. When consuming hard liquors or mixed drinks studies have shown that we typically pour 30% more alcohol into short glasses than tall glasses.

Tip #10:

Always, always turn the TV off when eating.  Not only will you mindless eat but people who eat and watch TV are twice as likely to consume more fried foods than those who don’t watch TV while they eat.

Tip #11:

Use these tips at home or at the restaurant. Try to sit in a well light area by a window or door. A study showed that people who sit by windows eat healthier, are more likely to order salads. People who sit in tall chairs like bar tops order more salad and eat less dessert. People who sit 3 tables or more away from a bar will drink 3 or less drinks than those who are just 1 table closer. People who sit in darker areas like the living room or a dark booth in the restaurant ate the fewest salads and are 73% more likely to order desserts.

Does our environment or how we arrange our pantry or where we sit really determine how much spaghetti we will eat at dinner. No, we determine that, but it is those simple daily influences that can tempt us into making the wrong choice. If you have a choice to better control your environment to help you be more successful in your decision making, then we absolutely should do it. If you want to be healthy, then do what healthy people do. These are all things that healthy people do, so go ahead and do them, TODAY!

For more help on your health and fitness journey reach out to us for a free consultation www.befitkilleen.com

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