Set Your Fork Down! Don’t get into the habit of shovelling food into your mouth. Put your fork down between bites, and chew your food slowly. By putting your fork down, you are going to slow the pace of your eating. When you eat more slowly, your brain has a chance to catch up with the signals being sent from your stomach, and will register when you are full.

This is a great tip for eating mindfully, and you will enjoy your food more when you take the time to really enjoy each bite.

Truly Savour the First Bit! Any time you eat, you are delighting your senses. Being mindful about eating means that you allow yourself to pay attention to the sensory experience that comes with eating delicious foods. When you pay attention to how that very first bite tastes and feels, you will start to differentiate the foods that you truly enjoy from the foods that are simply going into your mouth because they are in front of you.

Savouring the first bite can help you eat less of foods that add calories without adding enjoyment. Think about those first bites, and decide how much you are enjoying the food. Of course, you may not enjoy certain very healthy foods that you should eat anyway, but this will help you eat less of non-nutritious foods that you do not truly enjoy, and also help you avoid overindulging.

Slash Portions in Half! Chances are, you are serving portions much larger than you really need to meet your caloric and nutritional needs. Have you heard the phrase, “your eyes are bigger than your belly?” Most of the time, we are putting more food on our plates than we really need.

Start making it a habit of putting much smaller portions on your plate, and you will clean your plate and probably feel full at the end, without having the need to clean your plate (which probably contained much more than you need).

Avoid Watching Television While Eating! Eating in front of the television is one of the surest ways to overeat. You are distracted by what you are watching on television, and not paying attention to what you are eating.

When you are distracted from your meal, you are more likely to just keep eating, and not pay attention to the clues your body is sending to your brain that you are full, ultimately over-eating and consuming way too many calories.

Turn Your Fork Around! Europeans are known for their eating habits, and for being healthy without trying as hard. One thing that Europeans do that is less commonly observed in America is flipping over the fork while eating. This position requires one to actually use the fork to pierce food, rather than using it more like a shovel.

This can help control the amount of food that one consumes at a meal, as it takes more fork strokes to eat the same amount of food. You will also be paying more attention to your eating, and being more mindful while eating.

Form a Fist While Eating! Sure, this one sounds a little strange. But, isn’t it worth a shot? When we perform certain actions, we send certain messages to our brains. Making a clenched fist while we are eating causes our brains to receive a message that we want something to stop.

So, while you are eating, try sending the “stop” message to your brain by forming a fist with the hand you are not using, and see if this helps!

Drink a Glass of Water 30 Minutes Before You Eat! Most people have heard that thirst is often mistaken for hunger. Drinking a full glass of water about half an hour before you eat will help jumpstart your metabolism, make you feel fuller, keep you hydrated and help you eat less.