How Do I Stop Overeating? The 10-Minute Solution

One of the most common questions I get goes like this -

"Once I get started eating something I like, I never want to stop until it's too late and I have eaten too much and I feel horrible. It has NOTHING to do with hunger.

How Do I STOP eating once I start?

Being able to disengage from food is certainly a learned skill.

The problem, of course, is that your stomach doesn't give you the signal to stop eating right away -- especially with carbohydrates.

AND the food can look and taste so good, that you choose to ignore the signals even if you notice them.
So it's EASY to overeat.

Start by being really, really honest with yourself.

The truth is . . . even if you are very hungry, it doesn't take a lot of food to satisfy physiological hunger.

The goal is to get a perfect match between:

1. your hunger level

2. what you are hungry for and

3. what you actually eat.

Sometimes I feel disappointed when my hunger goes away so quickly :-) Darn!

I was looking forward to eating more . . . but I have also learned to let go.

The ideal behavior is to stop eating when the hunger signal goes away.

To do this,

1.) You have to be tuned into your hunger/satiety signals. Many people have ignored them for so long, they don't even think they have them anymore.

2.) You have to be WILLING to stop eating at this point.

So how do you do that?

Here's something to try . . . I call it the 10-Minute Solution.

1. Serve yourself a small portion on a small plate (tell yourself you can ALWAYS have more) OR serve yourself a larger portion and be WILLING to toss it in the middle.

2. Eat mindfully (the goal is to TASTE every bite) and assess your hunger after every forkful.

3. When you no longer feel hungry, put down your fork, put the plate away and LEAVE the kitchen.

4. Distract yourself -- read a book, watch TV, call a friend, take a walk, etc. and wait 10 minutes.
By then, you should be receiving more signals from your stomach that reflect your true fullness.

Remember, you don't have to feel FULL, just pleasantly satisfied.

And remember, no food is leaving the planet . . .