5 Ways To Think Yourself Thinner

These are the five ways Lauren Conrad suggests to think yourself thinner:

1. Out of site, Out of mind: Clean out your kitchen and get rid of the junk food to eliminate temptations
2. Portion Control: Trick the mind into thinking you are eating more by putting meals on smaller plates
3. Drink up!: Sip on water in between meals when you think you might be hungry. Chances are you are just thirsty
4. Eat until 80% full: Taking smaller bites, eating slower, and avoiding distraction like TV will make a difference and help you slim down faster.
5. Take a hike: When you're bored and want a snack, get and take a walk instead.

Soup Portion Control Experiment

 Brian Wansink who has been called the Sherlock Holmes of food carried out a study which we call 'Soup Portion Control'. What he proved was that at our eyes are indeed bigger than our stomachs. He did this by giving 60 people a bowl of soup, half the people had a normal bowl of soup. the other half had a special bowl designed to refill itself with out them knowing.

The purpose of the study was to see if we listened our body and it's message that we have had enough food or do we listen to the bowl or plate. The answer was clear from the results when the group with the self filling bowl group ate a staggering 73% more than the people with a normal bowl.

This clearly shows the power of mindful eating and listening to your body and following the Hara Hachi Bu model of stop eating when you are 80% full because your stomach takes around 20 minutes to register as full.

I hope you found this interesting and helpful and I believe that if you use the mindful eating method it will help you loads with your weight loss.

Kind regards
Mindful Mark

Meal Sizes and Portion Control

I found this quote which really made me think as it fits in nicely with what I read about Buddhist weight loss.

"Eat Breakfast like a king, Lunch like a prince and Dinner like a Pauper"
Source - Work Out Box

The reason behind this is best illustrated in the picture above. but also a quote from a post entitled 'The Five Contemplations While Eating' suggests why it is better to eat more in the morning according to Buddhist monks:

"I have read an interesting way Buddhist Monks eat only in the morning and why. The theory goes something like this; In the morning one hour before and one hour after sunrise the large intestine are at the most productive. The technique the monks use is to not eat until there is enough sunlight for them to see the lines on the palms of their hands. They will eat as much as they like at this point up until the sun is at its highest point (midday). The rest of the day the can drink as much water as they wish. They say that water is a great way to plug the hunger should they have any, however if they are hungry at any point through out that day, the next morning they will have more appreciation for the food and the people who supplied it."
Source - www.mindbodyweightloss.info

We would love to hear from you if this method of eating alot for breakfast, alittle less for lunch and a small dinner is something you have tried yourself and if so what results you got.

Kind regards
Mindful Mark

Weight Loss Psychology of Colour

Today I was watching a fascinating video which discussed the Weight Loss Psychology of Colour. We touched upon this in a previous post on our blog called 'Portion Control for Weight Loss' as well as one on our website titled the 'Psychology of Portion Control'. They stated the power of the subconscious mind people eat less from a blue plate.

In the video the first suggestion is to change the light bulb in you fridge to a blue light bulb. The reason behind this is really interesting and it goes something like this:

"It makes everything in the fridge unappetizing because we unconsciously associate blue with moldy food"
Source - HowCast Video

The Weight Loss Psychology of Colour then continues with the following statement:

"Red, Yellow and Orange stimulate the appetite"
Source - HowCast Video

This is why most fast food establishments use these colours, it is not an accident, it is done on purpose to sell more food and make us eat more unhealthy food. However the reason behind this Psychology of Weight Loss is that in nature foods of this colour are generally really good for us.

I hope you found this post helpful and whilst you checkout the video on youTube please subscribe to the MBWLtv channel to get the all the latest information for Weight Loss.

Kind regards

Mindful Mark

Portion Control for Weight Loss

There are some great techniques to help with weight loss one that we have looked in to recently is portion control.

It the above audio we have some great tips and techniques for you to listen to, alternatively you can read the transcript at our Mind Body Weight Loss website.