To cut down on eating, we’re going to back off slowly, hour by hour, with “one easy trick”:

  1. Serve yourself your normal portions.
  2. Drink a huge glass of water.
  3. Only eat half. Stop as soon as you are about half done.
  4. Sit back, relax, and drink another huge glass of water.
  5. Let others finish eating. Let your stomach settle.
  6. Pack up your second half, and save it for later.
  7. Try to go for as long as you can without eating.
  8. Reward yourself with a snack, and eat your leftovers!

If you get into this habit, you can make a game out of seeing how long you can go without eating your leftovers. You might start out with just a few minutes (eat your second half instead of dessert!), but you should try to grow to an hour, then 2 hours, then 3, then 4. Eventually, you will be able to save half of your meal for the next meal, and you’ve officially won!

It’s obviously not quite this easy. At some point, you’re going to have to actually consume less calories. We have two key goals with this exercise:

  • Shrink your stomach: eating smaller proportions will cause your stomach to shrink, which helps make you fuller, faster!
  • Self control: setting small goals of ignoring food gets you in the right mindset to ignore food for longer periods. Ignore food, and don’t use it as an excuse for being stressed or bored!