Nibble while you cook?

Do you nibble, nibble while you are preparing dinner? One can eat enough food nibbling while cooking to equal dinner. Then either one is too full for dinner, or eats dinner anyway and suffers the discomfort.

This casual picking and tossing food into your mouth is mindless eating. Before you know it, you’ve consumed a bunch of food (calories) that you had no intention of eating. It takes awareness to make a change. So how do you become aware of what you are doing? I have a couple of sure fire tips that will help you change this behavior into more mindful eating.

1. Chew sugar free peppermint gum. If you take the gum out of your mouth to “taste”, whatever you put in there won’t taste right because the peppermint takes over your taste buds.

2. Wear rubber gloves. If you’re like me, you wear your rubber gloves for cleaning. Do you want to pick up a piece of food to eat with rubber gloves that have cleaned parts of your house that have no connection to food? Yuck. If you take off your rubber gloves to “taste” you are making a conscious decision and that is mindful eating. You may eat it, but you will be aware of your decision.

You may not think that this nibbling has an effect on your weight management efforts, but it does. Instead of putting those nibbles in your mouth, put them on a plate and watch them pile up. ‘Nuf said.

Eat Smarter…
Vicki Bovee, MS, RDN, LD