004. Be Your Own Yoda

Quite possibly one of my favorite eating tips of all time is self-taught: trick yourself. Why do I love it so much? Because it works!

Here's an example. I babysit every Thursday, and every Thursday, like clockwork, the parents end up ordering pizza to the house (thinking it's a great idea, despite my best efforts). I love the entire family, but they love pizza wayyyy too much. Now, this could very easily completely derail any diet. As much as I love pizza, I could totally turn it down if I had the opportunity. However, cooking my own meals while babysitting is probably not the best idea in the world.

Therefore, I've learned some good "coping strategies." First of all, I set my brain and I tell myself before the pizza arrives that I WILL be good about this. I won't eat the entire pie (lets be real--the opportunity's there, the kids eat a maximum of 1 slice each!), and I will eat slowly. Then, when the pizza actually shows up at the house, I serve the kids first--and I do exactly with them as I will end up doing with myself: cutting their slices in half, and giving them half a slice at a time (keeping the second half out of sight until they're finished with their first). Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Not so much. Tons of people end up giving small children full slices of pizza and expect them to finish the whole thing, and so many of them do end up finishing it! I learned the hard way--each week, the 4 year old would only eat half her piece of pizza, even though she would cry about wanting "the big piece" every week. (Knowing that she wouldn't even come close to finishing half of it was my solace, so I didn't feel guilty giving in to her every now and then.)

Like I said, what started with them then trickled down to me. I now always cut my pizza slice in half. Why do I do this? I used to always be a firm and definite two-slicer. Never more, never less. If I ever had less, people thought I was sick. With this thought in mind, 1/2 slice + 1/2 slice = "2" slices! And what do you know--after I'm done with those two half slices, my brain thinks I've had two full slices! In fact, most times it doesn't even WANT that extra half! It really is a miracle technique.

I always tell my friends, "if it's there, I'll eat it; if it's not there, I won't eat it." Again, seems like a no-brainer. However, when something is "only 50-cents more than the half order!," it's harder to resist ordering that full-size order of potato skins. If I don't buy it, I won't want it. I apply this to dessert as well. Luckily for me, at my school, we have the ice cream freezer. It's stocked with tons and tons of really bad things, including HFCS-laden "healthy" ice pops. (HFCS stands for High Fructose Corn Syrup, AKA public enemy #1 of the food world.) While I understand that Haagen-Dazs ice cream is not necessarily the healthiest choice in the world, sometimes my devilish, fruit-won't-cure-me sweet tooth strikes and I don't have a choice but to succumb to it once every three months or so. Therefore, I go for the teeeeny-tiny container. It's about the size of a half-dollar in diameter, and shorter than the length of my thumb. I know that if this is all that's in front of me, I won't want more, and I'll stop myself after I'm done.

Speaking of sweet tooth, my absolute FAVORITE way to combat a sweet tooth while somewhat "giving in" - bite sized candies. Andes Candies are my faaaaaavorite thing in the world. They're individually wrapped, 25 calories each, miniscule amount of saturated fat. Have two, and your craving for sweets is gone!

*climbs off soap box*

And that's Wednesday ;)

<3 Jillian