“We do not know how much we eat”. This is a factual statement. We all grossly underestimate the amount of food that enters our mouth. If you were to video record yourself for day or simply measure each morsel of food that you ate, you’d be surprised…. no shocked!

So, How does one combat it? Here are three simple tips you can put to use right away:

#1. Drink half a liter of water just before you start eating. If needed be add mint, lemon, cucumber… whatever it takes to like the flavor of water. Drinking this way, will immediately send a signal to your stomach that there is very little room in it. As a result, you will find eating more will be difficult because of your satiety.

#2. In the same vein, load up on veggies in your plate. Unless the veggies take up 60% of your plate, you are not eating enough of it. Yes, 60% of your plate. While they will provide very few calories, they will effectively signal your stomach that it is full. The other benefit of this is in terms of adding a lot of fiber to your diet which in turn helps reduce the bad cholesterol.

#3. The next tip has nothing to do with food, but rather, your perception of how much you eat. Use a smaller plate! Studies have consistently shown that using a smaller plate helps you get the feeling that you ate enough. We all tend to pile up our plate and really do not care how big or small the plate is! So, smaller plate equals less food.

Bonus tip: Related to the last one is something we routinely do in our house, particularly during dinner time. We serve ourselves as much as we want on *one* plate (usually a medium sized bowl) and then immediately, put the left overs away. We often allocate it for next day’s lunch so that it is already “spoken for”. This way, you’d be less tempted to go get a second helping.