Do something Friday

Habits are interesting things. On one hands, they are the skills that allow us to get a lot of things done and free up brain space for other activities (think parking your car at work in the same place every day and so you can walk out to it without wondering where you left it). And other times, our habits keep us chained in situations we no longer want to be in (I am specifically talking about eating habit -- go figure :)

The key to having habits work for you is to once in a while take an objective look at what you do on autopilot.

Example: walking into the fast food restaurant and ordering a double or large anything.

If you are looking to lose weight, this might not be a helpful habit. What if you chose the kid's meal? Small cheeseburger, small fry, small drink. Would that be enough food to move you from hungry to no longer hungry? Quite possibly. Would it make you FULL? Probably not -- but do you want to be FULL on fast food? And last question -- are you going to save some calories with a kids meal compared to what you normally order? Absolutely!

Okay -- now your coffee drink.

Do you really need all of the size you currently order? Could you enjoy the next size smaller and not feel deprived?

(Now remember, I am the girl who LOVES 32 oz. fountain Cokes. There is something about the extravagance of having a ridiculous amount that makes my fountain Coke drinking a luxury because I can drink as much as I want and throw the rest away -- I don't want to drink all of the 20 oz Coke -- not the same experience.)

Look at your normal breakfast -- I just had a genius client tell me she realized she was fine eating only one piece of toast (instead of two) with her normal breakfast -- it didn't change how hungry she was throughout the day -- she just always made two pieces until she took a look at the behavior and realized it was modifiable.

I am not saying you have to do any of these things. I am asking you to take a look at a couple eating behaviors you do on autopilot and see if there are any changes you can make to them so you can save a few bites (or gulps) here and a few there.