Calorie Rebel

Prove to Yourself that You Can Stop Overeating

Psychologist Dr. Judith Beck has a series of great "food experiments" everyone can do to learn essential healthy-lifestyle skills. They are in her book, "The Complete Beck Diet Solution."

In this world of "caloric superabundance" as I call it, we really do need skills to cope with all the tempting food we want to eat, but must pass up in order to maintain a healthy weight.

The truth is, there are enough calories in the food supply for every man, woman and child to become obese in America: 3900 calories per person, per day -- no matter how old, young or physically active they are. That's up from 3200 in the early 1980's.*

Not only that, but we are biologically hardwired to continue to eat if tempting food is available. The deck is stacked against us.

So what are we foodies supposed to do? We have to learn to stop eating, even when something is incredibly delicious.

The Experiment to Prove to Yourself that You Can Stop Eating

Step 1. Write this on an index card: "Extra food will always go to waste, either in the trash or on my body." Read it a few times. Read it out loud in funny and convincing voices.

Step 2.  Serve yourself an extra portion of whatever you're going to eat. In this picture, it's a piece of incredibly moist, warm, fresh cake with chocolate sauce and ripe peaches from the Whole Foods Dessert Bar. Just look at the moist crumb, the crispy top, the plump fruit. You are my arch-nemesis, you Whole Foods Dessert Bar!

Warm, moist cake with fresh peaches and chocolate sauce from Whole Foods' Dessert Bar

Step 3. Immediately portion off the extra amount.
Here I have divided the cake into two portions, although notice that all the fresh peaches are in one portion, ha! Keep in mind the portions do not have to be equal, the point is to only eat the amount you decide you will eat.

Fresh, moist warm cake divided into two portions, one for me...

 Step 4. Enjoy your portion slowly, savoring every bite. Guilt-free!
This picture shows the remainder of the cake, the portion that I have decided NOT to eat.

Extremely tempting leftover portion of warm, moist cake!

Step 5. Immediately get up and throw away the extra portion. Yes, you have to waste it. That's why you wrote the index card in the beginning that says, "Extra food will always go to waste, either in the trash or on my body." No, you cannot take it home and eat it later. The point of the experiment is to prove to yourself you can enjoy a certain amount of food, and you don't have to eat or save the rest. (This is really hard for some people to wrap their heads around. I'm not against taking home leftovers. But for the purpose of learning this SKILL, you have to learn how to leave it...forever.)

"Extra food will always go to waste, either in the trash or on my body."

(Yes, I asked the owner if doggie could have the cake instead of throwing it away. She said no, he is not allowed sweets either. Poor guy.)

Step 6. Yay! You did it! Give yourself lots of credit for completing this experiment and beginning to learn this very important skill. Note how long your desire to keep eating lasts after you throw away the food. My guess is you won't be tempted by the food once it is completely gone from your sight AND unobtainable.

That's another reason you throw it away. If you only just saved it, you might be tempted over and over again, to unwrap it and have it. It's a struggle you don't need!

Dr. Beck says it's worth doing this experiment over and over again until it's easy for you to only eat half of a typical portion of restaurant food, dessert, or anything else you would normally overeat. If you master this skill, no foods will be off-limits because you'll be able to taste as much or as little as you want without overconsuming calories. (Full disclosure: I have not yet mastered this skill, but am working on it!)

So, go ahead and try this experiment with your favorite food! And please report back in the comments section.

*(For more about the overabundance of calories in the American food supply, check out professor and food activist Dr. Marion Nestle being interviewed at Yale University in this fascinating podcast. "It's the elephant in the room," she says about calories and the obesity epidemic.)