Successful Weight Managers Instinctively do This...

We’ve lost track of a structure around eating that had existed for generations. Your grandparents will confirm that until recently a simple structure to our eating activities was followed—and no one questioned or thought about it much.

We ate breakfast and dinner at home, and a lunch was packed to take to work. Meals were large enough that they provided the calories needed to fuel us until the next meal, without needing a snack. Snacking wasn’t the norm, and the vast majority of body weights were in the healthy range. An overweight child was unusual.

Those days—where there was a cultural norm around when we ate, and how much we ate—are long gone. Instead, it’s routine for people to skip breakfast or lunch, and graze throughout the day. That coupled with a food environment that offers almost anything hunger-driven-cravings bring to mind is a recipe for weight gain.

It’s pretty easy to know if you’re overeating when you eat three usual meals a day (properly sized to keep you going). On the other hand, when you’re skipping meals and grazing through the day it’s hard to know when you’ve surpassed your energy needs. That may be partly because your body signals—regarding hunger and satiety—are clearer when you feed yourself on a regular schedule in regular amounts.

Successful weight managers have instinctively put the basic 3-Meals-A-Day structure back in their lives. They might also have an afternoon snack, or a mid-morning and afternoon snack, but the key is that it’s a regular pattern of eating, and what they eat is planned (including snacks).

Implementing a 3-Meals-A-Day structure (and planned snacks as preferred) into your life will eliminate indiscriminate eating, reduce cravings, improve the quality of your diet, and will help you lose weight without counting a single calorie!

Structure gives you control, and control makes success seem easy.

All the best,
-Dorene

PS—This quick blog is an excerpt from a new section of the completely updated (4th) edition of my book, The NEW Healthy Eating & Weight Management Guide which will be available in July!