This Easy Trick Prevents Overeating at Buffets
One of my personal “tricks” is to use the smallest plate possible, or a napkin at buffets. The bigger the plate, the more I'll pile on and the more I'll mindlessly overeat and stuff myself. I'm an overeater and buffets are like Christmas to that “EAT ALL THE FOOD” drive inside me. Creating the boundary of a smaller plate—or a napkin---has been an integral tool in my path to a better balance.
It's one of Wansink's recommendations too, but he dishes up some other awesome gems in Slim By Design.
(I also had the good fortune of putting these insights to the test on a 14-day cruise recently—I confirm he's SPOT ON! I didn't just test it on myself, I sat and watched others, too!)
What do “slim” people do differently at an all-you-can-eat buffet?
Slim diners “scout” out the buffet before grabbing a plate.
When I started doing this, I started serving myself way less, even though I was already only walking around the salad bar.
Wansink says “Heavier diners were twice as likely to charge ahead to the nearest stack of plates, take one, and fill it up. They didn't skip to the foods they really liked. Instead they served themselves a bit of everything they didn't hate.”
This was a real eye-opener for me. When I see ALL the choices before me, I can decide exactly what it is that I want to eat and that's what I serve myself. Immediately after doing this, I started selecting all my top choices and not plating anything I didn't really want. This in and of itself practically curbed my overeating tendency on the cruise!