Five Tips for Editing Your Diet

1. The CDC suggests ordering the smaller portion wherever possible (i.e. the pint vs the quart of Kung Pao chicken), sharing meals with a friend or wrapping up half your meal from the get-go. These strategies probably works best with higher quality meals that don’t excite your appetites like a Extra Value Meal from McD’s (see tip #5).

2. Try not ordering a meal for yourself the next time you go out to a restaurant. In order to avoid being branded a mooch, explain your experiment to your meal-mates and get their approval first. Offer to offset the bill. Oftentimes, people either leave a big portion on their plates or eat that extra amount because they don’t want it to go to waste. By taking a portion of their food, you are helping keep their portions sane as well.

3. Join the “Small Plate Movement.” Seriously, there’s a movement, which, as the name suggests, promotes using small plates to affect dietary habits. One challenge they offer is to eat off of a 10 inch plate for a month. One case study they cite found that people ate 53% more snack mix when their bowl was bigger.

4. You don’t need to be stuffed to be nourished. Many of us don’t consider a meal over until we feel uncomfortably full. Experiment with stopping short of that feeling. Eating fiber-rich foods like greens and other veggies help you feel fuller faster, without the bloat.

5. Cut out junk food. It’s kinda obvious, but poor quality food is worse than poor design. You just don’t need it.