Summary: Five Secret Tricks to Regain Control Over Your Eating Habits<br> Let’s start with the beginning. Most people are overweight in the US. Recent studies show more than 60% of people 12 and older are overweight, and about half are clinically obese. It’s not getting better over time, it is getting worse.<br> But everyone already knows that, or if you don’t know that, I’m not sure where you are living. The US is big. Not just the size of the country, but also its citizens.<br> That concern was the origin of my blog and podcast. I wanted to help people reach their goals—any and all goals—including weight management. And my constant refrain is “calorie counting and move more than you used to.”<br> I still believe that to be the foundation of any successful weight management program. I use the <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=448499&U=938564&M=43482&urllink=">LoseIt</a> app on my smartphone to easily count my calories and wear my <a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=635241&U=938564&M=31379&urllink=">Fitbit One</a> to keep reminding me to walk more.<br> But, that is not enough. Or rather, maybe that is too much, at least in the beginning. Learning to eat the correct number of calories, and then log them all, and then create a new habit of walking more are three very large goals. They are worthy goals, but it is possible they are too large, too aggressive, and too monumental to talk all at once.<br> I am working with a weight loss client. Let’s call him “John”. We connect about three times a week with email, video mail and Skype calls. Last weekend we were talking about his strategy, and while we chatted on Skype, a phrase came to me. I told him that while his goal is large, we are going to focus on Simple Small Successes. Small goals that can build on each other, creating a succession of successful actions. We are going to set John up for success, because each goal has a very simple threshold. Success breeds success. As we move further into his program, the goals will continue to be simple, but eventually they will result in very large changes to his eating and living habits.<br> I started to think about how I can help more people. I’d love to be able to meet with all of my readers and listeners as I do with John (and it is possible for some) but until I am able to become a fulltime consultant and coach, I will give your advice here.<br> There are five areas that affect our eating habits, five locations that we can make very small changes to help you make better choices.<br> But take note. With these five small changes, you will not:<br> <br> * Buy different food<br> * Cook differently<br> * Eat at strange restaurant<br> * Stop eating at restaurants<br> * Count calories<br> * Weight and measure your food<br> * Perform exhausting exercises<br> * Attend meetings<br> * Buy special “fat burning, metabolism-revving, appetite suppressing” pills<br> <br> In fact, there is only one thing you will need to purchase, and it will cost you only some spare change! But we will get to that in a bit.<br> But before I give you my ideas, I want to give full credit to Dr. Brian Wansinck. He is the author of two books about the habit of eating. “Mindless Eating” is an excellent discussion of our bad habits while eating. And we all have them. His newest book, “Slim By Design” takes his first book and adds many actions that will help the reader change their life. So to be clear, none of these ideas are mine. I am using his ideas. My words. His ideas. (By the way, you can buy those books using my Amazon affiliate links.)<br> <br><br> <br><br> These two books are my weight management bibles!<br> We encounter food in four general places: home, the grocery store, the work place and restaurants. I am going to give you specific steps for each of those places. Remember, I am focusing on Simple Small Successes and each one of these ideas are free,
