Nice Looking Plate You Got There.

One thing I have noticed that I have started to do, maybe subconsciously at first, is to arrange my food nicely on the plate.

Smorrebrod Notice how nicely this is arranged.

Instead of tossing the burger on the plate, with the broccoli dumped next to it. I will take the time to rearrange my plate so it looks nice to me.

So not only am I thinking about how the food fits into my diet. I am also thinking about how nice it looks.

A good example of this was the day I made some cream spinach. Afterwards I thought, it would have been nice to add some red pepper to this, for some color.

This is helping me lose weight for 2 reasons:

1. I don't want to fill the plate.
I switched to salad plates a few years ago when I realize the dinner plates we were using were the same size as a meat platter I bought. Switching to smaller plates has helped. But you can stack food vertically.
Arranging the food on the plate so there is some plate showing, helps with the portioning. Plus, making it look appealing before I eat, makes me want to slow down when I eat.

2. I'm slowing down, because it looks attractive.
Every been to a restaurant and they bring out your entree, before you smell it, you say "My God, that looks great."?

You might have slowed down your eating to really enjoy the meal. It's almost sacriledge to shovel down a meal that looks as good as it tastes.

There are reasons "drunk foods" look the way they do. I have eaten garbage plates before. You almost want to finish it fast because you are embarrassed in eating something that looks like pig slop. I am not hating on garbage plates, they do taste great. But you have to admit, only a drunk person would think of that.

A Garbage Plate.

I know in the past, I have eaten a meal and NEVER LOOKED AT IT. Think about it. You have to get a fast food meal. You are driving, you are eating while you are driving. Do you ever look at what you are pulling out of the bag?

Or watching a game on TV, and having a pizza in front of you. Do you grab a slice without moving your eyes?

Or eating lunch, while working on something on the computer. Have you ever reached for your lunch and realized, it's gone, you ate it.

Granted, eating and driving, you have to not look at your food. And you shouldn't do that anyway (but we all have). The point is, most of us have gotten into the habit of eating while engaged in something else. And one of the reasons is, a lot of the food we buy or make for ourselves is not good to look at.

Just taking a minute to arrange the items on your plate. Then sitting down and arranging your eating space will help. You might feel like you did when you were in that restaurant. Why spoil this nice looking meal, by shoveling it into my face?