AARP The Magazine - January/February 2011

FAST FIXES THAT WORK! Changing our environment is important, but unless we also change our eating habits— the habits that prompt us to mindlessly eat a whole bag of chips in one sitting (while watching our favorite show)—we won’t be celebrating our 20-pound weight loss at this time next year. Though it sounds counterintuitive, the solution to mindless eating is not mindful eating. Mindful eating is just too hard. Who wants to keep track of every bite you put in your mouth? The best strategy is to transform bad mindless eating habits into good mindless eating habits—so you eat less without really thinking about it. Here’s how. The best oo r o t k f y o transform bad mindless eating habits int s i a l t i n b . Her h

Identify
your
weakness

Most of us don’t eat poorly all
the time. There’s usually one
time of day—or one day during
the week—when we fall into what
I call a “dietary danger zone.”
ll
n
day during
n
e.”

Stuffers overeat at mealtimes, filling and refilling their plates, perhaps because they haven’t eaten much earlier in the day. MEAL STUFFING

Receptions and celebrations
are distracting environments for
party bingers, who can lose track—
or control—of how much they’ve
eaten or drunk.
PARTY BINGING

Both desktop diners and dashboard diners are speed eaters. They eat at work or on the go to save time—yet often don’t realize how much they’ve eaten, since they’re eating quickly. DESKTOP/ DASHBOARD DINING

The restaurant indulger eats out often, having dinner away from home at least three nights a week. Research shows that if you’re served more (as you usually are at restaurants), you’ll automatically eat more.

RESTAURANT INDULGING

u m

G

Grazers typically reach for food more from habit than hunger. Maybe it’s that 3 p.m. slump, when the offerings in the office vending machine actually look good.

SNACK GRAZING

l

FI TNESS FADS Take a fun look back at celebrity trainers and exercise fads through the decades at aarp.org/fitnessfads.

ta nd

44 AARP THE MAGAZINE

Focus on your biggest
dietary danger zone

Yes, you might have multiple danger zones, but which one is adding the most pounds? For homebodies, it might be meal stuffing or snack grazing. For social butterflies, it might be restaurant indulging or party binging. For workaholics, it might be desktop/dashboard dining.

Many of us aren’t sure which of the dietary danger zones is our biggest problem. One AARP member, Charles,

50, came to me wanting to control his party binging. When he was at a party, he said, no potato chip or cookie was safe. He was convinced this was the source of the 30 to 40 extra pounds he wanted to lose. When I asked him how many parties he attended each year, he said, “Usually every New Year’s Eve.” Clearly one party a year was not his 40-pound problem. (His real problem ended up being the snacking he did between