Healthy Eating Tips That
Do Not Involve a Trip to
the Grocery Store

Try these healthy eating tips that save time and are simple to do.

1. Use Small Plates

When my little children started eating table food, I brought plastic kid size plates to preserve my china. What I did not realize is that I would also eventually be eating on the adult version of the small plate.

Click here to hear about my trip to a tapas restaurant and why I now have four fewer friends.

2. Count with your Hands

I admire people who weigh and measure their food to ensure they have the right portions. If I had a food scale in my kitchen, my five year old would use it for a science experiment involving wooden blocks, a stuffed animal, and some maple syrup. I’m not the type of person who has the time, energy or inclination to measure food portions.

I learned how to understand a portion size by using my hands.

When my oldest child turned four, she started asking me for more and more food at meals. I think she liked seeing what else I could prepare after she had finished her regular meal. I can be very creative when it comes to food. My oldest daughter is fearless when it comes to my cooking.

Although I respect her courage in eating what I have prepared, I wanted to be sure she was truly hungry. In one of those “I hope I’m saying the right thing to my child” moments, I told her to ask her body if she was really full, and listen to its response. What she said changed the way I viewed the amount of food I ate.

4. Put That Fork Down

To slow down when you are eating, put your fork down on your plate between bites.

5. Are You Really Full? Take the Apple Test

Take the "apple test" to determine if you are full. When you think you might want more to eat, ask yourself if you want an apple (or some other appealing fruit of your choice). If the answer is yes, you are still hungry. If the answer is no, then you are probably done.

6. Find the Right Place to Eat at Home

After I married my husband and we purchased our first house, I continued my habit of eating in the kitchen, standing up over the sink. This enabled me to not only shovel food into my mouth faster, but eliminated most of my clean up time. I would eat at the card table (we didn’t have a real dining room table back then), in my bed, or in the study. Why didn’t I just eat in the shower?

The problem with eating in every room was that I left a trail of crumbs where ever I went. My husband always knew which part of the house I was in by following my trail. Find out what happened that kept my husband happy and gave me a new healthy eating tip.

7. Is Television Really Bad for the Body?

After we had our second and then third child, my husband and I were both tired at the end of the day. I convinced him that if I was really careful I could enjoy meals on the sofa while watching television. We began to park ourselves on the family room sofa and have dinner in front of the television.

But then the unthinkable happened.

8. Goodbye Soda, Hello Water

Eliminate all soda from your diet and replace it with water. Try plain water with lemon or sparkling water with fruit essence (not fruit juice). One of my favorite money saving healthy eating tips.

9. Use a Tall, Thin glass

An article published in the December 2003 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research showed people drink 25% to 30% less in a tall, skinny glass, than in a short wide tumbler. By nature, people have a tendency to focus on height instead of width.

10. Make It Minty!

Drink strong mint herbal tea or chew strong mint gum when you are preparing meals in the kitchen. The tea or gum will prevent you from snacking before you can sit and enjoy your meal. The strong mint flavor overpowers other food, so other food does not taste as good.

What are your favorite healthy eating tips? Let me know!

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