Happy Thanksgiving, Fit Family!

Today is about family, friends, food, and football (okay, maybe not football–but it is in our family!) I hope you enjoy the day with those you love.

Based on a conversation I had with a gym member yesterday, I thought I would write to you briefly about four simple things you can do today (and always) to eat less and be full more:

1. Are you eating off of a plate?

Healthy people eat meals. And those meals don’t come in plastic bags through a window or air-tight packaging.

Healthy people eat food off of dinner plates.

2. How big are your plates?

Most Americans tend to have 11-inch plates. Many even have 13-inch plates. But you only need a 9-inch plate. If you don’t have any 9-inch plates, ask for them before Christmas. Here are the ones I own.

One of my mentors is a dietician who put away her 11-inch plates. She then pulled it back out last year for Thanksgiving. One of her family members said to her, “Every Thanksgiving, I can eat at least two plates full of food. But this year, I can’t even finish everything from my first plate! What is wrong with me?”

Nothing is actually wrong with them. Her family member’s metabolism simply changed from using smaller plates in the house.

3. What do you put on your plate first?

Rocks before pebbles. Pebbles before sand. Sand before water.

If you put a big piece of meat or mac-n-cheese on your plate first, you tend to grab too much. You also have less space for the other food you want.

Healthy people always start with a vegetable. At RxFIT, our nutrition coaches don’t even care if you put one tiny cucumber slice on first… you just need grab a vegetable before anything else.

Who knows? Maybe you’ll accidently grab too many vegetables!

4. What’s on the top half?

If you can successfully develop steps 1-3, then move on to this final habit. I don’t recommend being ambitious and trying to develop this habit before the others.

Cover the top half of your plate with vegetables. Salads, tomatoes, carrots… any vegetable on this list. Do it every day for lunch and dinner.

Don’t worry about breakfast for now.

Takeaway

What’s amazing about developing these habits is that you learn how to listen to your body’s satiety cues.

And if you can listen to your body, you’ll never have to count a calorie or macro again.

Tyler