Close your eyes and think back to your childhood.  Think about a smaller, shorter you, sitting at the dinner table with a plate full of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and a dinner roll.  You start to eat, and maybe 15 minutes later, you’re full, and you say so, only to be told that you need to finish what’s on your plate.  So you do.  You eat every piece of broccoli, all the chicken, and top it off with a huge cup of juice or milk.  How stuffed do you feel right now?  Now open your eyes and think about whether you still follow your parent’s advice and clean your plate.  Old habits die hard, especially ones engrained in us by our parents, so you most likely do.  How many of you heard these mantras growing up?

“Clean your plate!”

“Don’t waste food; there are starving children in X Third World Country that would love to have your food!”

“Don’t get up from this table until you’ve eaten everything on your plate.”

If so, then you are apart of the clean plate club.  Isn’t it ironic that we spend our childhood being encouraged to eat more and most of our adult life trying to eat less?    Did you know that 92% of us eat EVERYTHING that is on our plate?  92%!  Do you think it’s because we’re addicted to food or have we overridden our hunger set points since childhood and need help to gain control over it again?   I think for most of us it may be the latter.  It’s time you shed this unhealthy behavior and empower yourself to meet your weight loss goals.  Here are a few tips to help you get out of the clean plate club and lose weight for good!

1. Shrink your plate to shrink your waist-There is a direct correlation between how big your plate is and how much you serve yourself.  Think about it…a 1 cup serving on
   

   Picture courtesy of smallplatemovement.org

   a12 in. looks comparatively smaller than on a 10 in. plate, where it would look about average.    Chose a 10” plate instead of a 12” plate and shave 22% off your caloric intake from that meal.  Chose a tall narrow glass instead of a short wide glass and reduce the amount of liquid calories you ingest.  Cut calories without even thinking about it by joining the Small Plate Challenge.  Just use an 8-10” plate for the largest meal of the day for a mo nth and watch your waist shrink without even thinking about it.  *“If a typical dinner has 800 calories, a smaller plate would lead to a weight loss of around 18 pounds per year for an average size adult.”  I like the sound of that math!

2. Fill your plate with veggies- All of us were told how important eating all the vegetable of your plate was when we were growing up, but for some reason, that particular part of the “clean your plate” message was lost on many adults, which tells me that you CAN override your parent’s voice in your head if you really want to!  According to an article in New York Times, “Only 26 percent of the nation’s adults eat vegetables three or more times a day. (And no, that does not include French fries.)”  WTH!  We have to do better people.  It’s time to lead by example and teach our children to make veggies part of our daily consumption.  So, now that you have your smaller plate, you should proportion it like so:

Notice how the vegetables take up a considerably larger part than the protein and the recommended carbohydrate consists of whole grains instead of processed, refined carbs like white rice and macaroni with cheese.  If you must clean your plate, make sure it’s the veggies that go first!  Don’t roll your eyes; you may just be surprised with how creative you can get with your veggie options and places like Trader Joes and Fresh and Easy are making vegetables more affordable.  For yummy vegetable recipes, visit    http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Side-Dish/Vegetables/Top.aspx.

1. Old dogs can learn new tricks!- Unlearning decade’s worth of bad behavior may seem hard but not impossible, it’s all about mindset and self control.  Will power and mind control and are like muscles.  The more you use them, the stronger they become.  Adopt little tips and tricks to help yourself succeed daily. When you go out to eat, automatically have half of your plate bagged so you won’t be tempted to eat everything on your plate.  Sprinkle SENSA® on the remaining portion of your meal, eat slow, and stop eating when you’re full.  If you don’t know when that is yet, stop eating after 20 minutes and gage how you feel before you have more.  Drink lots of water, aim for 16 oz every 2 hours.  Learn to listen to your body and you will eventually overcome all those bad childhood habits.

I know this is a subject many people struggle with but there comes a time when we have to accept personal responsibility for our lot in life and stop blaming other people.  Take control of your life and your health.  Use what you leave on your plate as motivation…”I just saved myself 300 calories!”  Most importantly, if you find that you are leaving a lot on your plate, then try not to fill your plate up so much in the first place.  I’m here along with you all in the weight loss journey and I know you WILL meet your weight loss goals with SENSA®!

As a thank you for reading my blog, I’m giving away SENSA® QUENCH to the first 5 people to leave me a comment and what they are doing to get out of the Clean Your Plate Club.  QUENCH is available online at http://www.trysensa.com/order-sensa.htm#top.

Good luck!

Yolanda

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Posted in Main at March 3rd, 2011 by Yolanda

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