We all know that eating healthy is super important, but what exactly does this mean? There is often a lot of emphases placed on what we eat, and in fact rather what not to eat. Whether it’s carbs, sugar, junk food, fried food, or fats, there’s a diet or article or someone somewhere who has taken the effort to (hopefully) research and explain why that specific food group should be avoided. However, there is very little out there that focuses on how we eat.

There’s a lot of information out there about how long it takes for our brain to register that we’re full, it falls somewhere around the 20 minutes mark. This means that we often tend to end up eating more than we need because we still feel hungry. The first way to combat this is to eat without any distractions. It might seem boring, or lonely, but research has shown that focusing on eating while we eat, helps us to feel full quicker. This means no TV, social media, books, newspapers, even no talking. The amount we eat is extremely important. Because it takes us time to realize we’re full, we might go back for more, even when we don’t really need it. A good trick to apply is to put a timer on it, if you’re still feeling hungry after 15 minutes, then you can take more. You’ll be surprised by how easily you might forget, or simply realize you’re actually full.

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Taking care to eat the right portion sizes can be a bit tricky at first, but once you start practicing, you’ll learn to eye it more easily. The number of portions a day we need of carbs, proteins, and all the food groups vary based on sex, height, weight, and lifestyle. Once you know what is recommended for you, you can easily find out how to measure each of these. Psychologically, it’s better to eat off of smaller plates, because we tend to want to pile more food onto bigger plates, just to fill them. Keep all of this in mind, and hopefully, you’ll begin to eat in a healthier manner than before.