Psychological tricks to eat less during the holidays

On these dates it is almost impossible not to consider the question of Christmas meals, company dinners, meetings with friends and family (almost always accompanied by meals or snacks) ... Therefore, we are going to see how our head can help us not to commit excesses of which we can later feel guilty or regret.

Psychologists can help you in many areas, starting with helping you realize that you have an eating problem (if you have one), improving adherence to a diet, with eating disorders ... but in this case we are going to try to simply give some tips for our head to win the battle to the stomach.

• • First of all I have to know Why do I want to control my food? and also Do I really need it? Answering these questions will help us to be motivated and aware of what we want to change and especially why..

• In second place What do i want to achieve? I need to have clear objectives, they have to be realistic but challenging, it is very important that I have an action plan to carry them out and organize different types of short, medium and long term objectives..

• I can consult a nutritionist or a professional to advise me which foods to eat and which to avoid if I don't know how to do it.

So far we have talked broadly and in general aspects of where we can start to take charge of this matter, but what many of us are looking for are short and simple answers to the questions we have, that is why we leave you these "tips" to the time to sit down at the table to improve our eating habits:

• The expression "it eats through the eyes”Is very true, since our brain is prepared to detect which foods are useful to us and which are not, and the easiest way is through the senses of sight and smell. We have to be aware of this so as not to get carried away by that irrepressible desire to eat when we see or smell something very good looking.

• Am I really hungry? One of the problems is that many times we eat "to do something", that is, since they have put that plate of potatoes on the table, well I am lame, but many times we eat and we don't even feel like eating.

• Derived from the previous point, comes the problem of pecking. When I eat something, do I really know how much I have eaten? In 90% of the cases not. In addition, the appetizers are not usually very healthy products, we tend to nibble fried or similar things with high caloric content. For all this it is very important to control what and how much "peck".

• When we serve food on our plates, we have to remember what we have said about eating with our eyes. If I put the plate up to the top, my head many times does not realize it and we eat all the contents without thinking, on the other hand if I serve myself half a plate and at the end I am hungry, I have the possibility to repeat it if I need to..

• Another little trick that we can use to trick our brain is use smaller plates, with what the portions that we serve will seem larger when compared to the plate and our brain will feel that it is easier to fill up.

• Finally, if I eat like a machine without processing what I'm eating, my head doesn't notice it and I won't feel as full. Thus, it is good to be aware of what I am eating, if I have served a certain amount of this or that, if I take overflowing or smaller tablespoons, if I swallow or chew things well ...

• This is another tip, If I chew well, I get at least 3 benefits, on the one hand I will later facilitate the digestion and absorption of nutrients, and on the other hand I become more aware of what I am eating, both of the amount and of the flavors, texture and other qualities. Finally, as I chew longer, it takes longer to put food back in my mouth and that leads to eating less since I am giving my system time to signal that it has already satiated and has eaten enough..

With all these tips, we can only start to put them into practice and learn to enjoy food without committing excesses of which we will later regret.