What's the Secret?

Jenny Craig.

Nutrisystem.

BistroMD.

What do these different "diet" plans have in common?  Lots of things actually, but one thing big similarity is that they sell pre-packaged food. And because it is pre-packaged, it comes in reasonably sized portions.

What can we learn from that?  If you eat less, you tend to lose weight. It's almost like, but not entirely the same as, magic!

I know for me personally, it's a lot easier to stop eating when I get to the bottom of a small bag of chips than if I take the big-bag-o-chips and sit down in the recliner.  In fact, I don't recommend EVER doing that.  If you only have the big-bag-o-chips, put some in a bowl and take the bowl to the recliner.

These days you can buy "100 calorie" bags of Oreos, Chip's Ahoy, etc. Again, it's easier to stop at the end of the bag than to limit yourself to only a few cookies. It's a much bigger mental hurdle (at least for me) to open that SECOND bag of chips or cookies.

So what have we learned? You don't have to join Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem to pre-portion your food. Buy it pre-portioned (small bags of snacks, etc.), or portion it yourself using Ziploc bags or your bag of choice.

This is not rocket science...you can do it! It works!