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Reading and implementing what I learned from the book Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink was a real turning point in my weight loss journey.

6 Week Mindless Eating Challenge

It was the tipping point that led to achieving the peace with food I’d been seeking while maintaining the Weight Watchers goal weight I’d set back in my late 20s.

Table of Contents

6-Week Mindless Eating Challenge Background

Now seven years later, as I settle in at the scene of this healthy exploration (Land O’ Lakes, WI), I thought it would be fun to create a 6-week Mindless Eating Challenge to help others experience what I discovered.

While Weight Watchers friendly recipes are important, they are only one part of the equation. Learning how to manage our environment and develop healthy habits are the critical elements of lasting weight loss success.

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (affiliate link) helped me see this.

But it’s not enough to just read a book. You have to practice what you discover. Which is what this challenge is all about.

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
~ Confucius

For this challenge, we will all read Mindless Eating and share our awarenesses and experiences. Every week for six weeks, from July 10 – August 14, we’ll read two chapters a week and share what we learn.

I’ll kick things off every Monday with a post, which will give provide participants a place to comment with their discoveries, if they’d like.

It seems like a perfect summer project: A virtual book club, but with homework 🙂

To be most effective, this challenge is best undertaken in a low key “let’s just see what we discover” manner. No pressure. No way to fail.

But it does provide a bit of accountability if you find it helpful in propelling you into action.

All you need to do to take part is buy the book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (affiliate link), by Brian Wansink (or borrow it from your library).

Here’s the basic schedule:

6-Week Mindless Eating Challenge Schedule

Week #2: My Notes and Thoughts on Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think Chapters 3 & 4

The Bottom Line: We all consume more from big packages, whatever the product. The more food variety the more we eat. We are all subject to the “See Food” Diet. The more food we see, the more we will eat. The more convenient/easy a food is to get, the more we will eat.

Weight Loss Strategies:

  • Minimize your boxes and dishes.
  • Re-package jumbo boxes into smaller containers.
  • Shrink your plates, bowls and serving utensils.
  • Use tall slender glasses if you want to drink less.
  • Eat with chopsticks at Chinese restaurants
  • Limit the variety of food you allow yourself during any meal.
  • Make healthy foods easy to see and less healthy foods hard to see.
  • Leave serving dishes in the kitchen, not on the table where they are easy to reach.
  • De-convenience tempting foods. Put them in hard to reach cabinets. Hide tempting leftovers under aluminum foil in the back of the fridge.
  • Snack only at the table and on a clean plate.
  • Don’t keep impulse foods in the house.

Notes from Chapter 3 of the Book Mindless Eating: Why You Eat More Than You think

Our huge American kitchens filled with huge packages of food are a danger to our waistline because they cause us to make bigger meals and eat more food.

People eat 20-25% more from large packages. With snacks it’s even worse. People given 1-pound bags of M&Ms ate twice as many as those given 1/2-pound bags.

You may save money with larger sizes, but it will cost you in excess weight.

The smaller the package, the less you make and the less you eat.

The smaller the serving dish the less you take and the less you eat.

Shrink your plates and bowls. Use an 8-inch or 9-inch plate.

Small Plates Lose Weight


Image Source: Food Psychology, Cornell University

To drink less, use tall slender glasses. You will pour 30% more into a wide glass than a tall one.

At parties on in situations with lots of food choices, never let yourself have more than two items on a plate at a time. Go back if you are still hungry, but the lack of variety will slow you down. (I needed to apply this at a recent 4th of July party where I got carried away with the dessert buffet and loaded up a plate with several options that I, of course, devoured.)

Mindless Eating: Use Tall Slender Glasses to Drink Less


Image Source: Food Psychology, Cornell University

Notes from Chapter 4 of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think

Just seeing food can lead us to want to devour it.

Candy dish experiment: secretaries with see-though candy dishes ate 77 more calories a day than those with an opaque one.

Simply thinking about food can make us hungry. Just like Pavlov’s dogs we salivate when we hear, see or smell something we associate with food.

The more you think about a food before eating it the more you are likely to eat.

The more hassle a food is to eat, the less we eat. (The Almond Experiment, Chopstick, Cafeteria Ice Cream Cooler Experiments all illustrate this.)

Here’s a video with Dr. Wansink explaining the power of clearing your counters for weight loss success:

Out of Sight for Weight Loss Success

Image Source: Food Psychology, Cornell University

Questions to Consider:

  1. What were your biggest takeaways from Chapters 3 & 4 of Mindless Eating?
  2. What strategies have you implemented? What have you discovered?  (We now use salad plates instead of dinner plates and small 1-cup bowls instead of the jumbo ones that came with our set of dishes.)
  3.  Did you test out the optical drinking illusions?
  4. Did the “See-Food” Diet inspire you to make any changes? If so, which ones? (I now keep the chips in a bag in the pantry so I don’t see them when I open the door. I’ve also cleared away all food except a fruit bowl from the kitchen counters.)

I’ll be back next week with my notes from Chapters 5 & 6.

Have a great week!

Warmly,
Martha

PS: If you want some support eating better and losing weight this summer, my 28-Day Smart Start Weight Loss Challenge may be just what you’re looking for! Many of the tips and suggestions are based on what I learned by applying Dr. Wansink’s Mindless Eating concepts.

This has been a wonderful challenge. Thank you for all of the support and encouragement. I have definitely made some positive changes that I plan to continue! – Bronwyn

About Martha McKinnon

Weight Watchers Lifetime Member, Yoga Practitioner and Blogger who loves to share her passion for trying to create a happy, healthy, balanced life in what often feels like an overwhelming out of control world.

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40 Comments

  2. This week it just hit me how I just need to be more aware! Aware of what is on my counter, what am I buying at Costco and how I must repackage, being aware of portions! Really made me see how much of what I do is just from habit, or lack of attention to the impact on my choices. As Bonnie noted above, putting myself in harms way! As the book title says—Mindless!

    Reply

  3. Oops, I just realized I’m a week behind.
    I’ve started using smaller plates for meals which usually results in my husband asking if there’s anymore to eat. Clearly he’s not on board YET.
    I don’t eat Chinese food out very often but I’m going to try using chopsticks for meals at home. It will definitely slow me down, couldn’t hurt right?

    Reply

    1. Hi Karen. I too like to play with chopsticks at home sometimes. It does slow me down – something I’m continuously working on.

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  4. I just got my book and have read the first 4 chapters. A few things we already do, I bought smaller plates at the thrift store for everyday. When we have a dish of ice cream in the evening we use 8 oz coffee cups. But boy do I need to clean my counter! Oh a tip I just heard at last weeks meeting–at a pot luck, fill your plate so no food touches, then you take less but still can enjoy some of the variety.

    Reply

    1. Hi Nancy, I agree that clearing away the counters is key! It certainly has been for me. Thanks for sharing the potluck strategy of filling your plate so that no foods touch each other!

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  5. I could relate to the “See It” article. I found that when I drove by a McDonalds my car wanted to turn in…even if I wasn’t hungry.

    My good intentions to get a kids meal when I drove in generally turned out to be a regular one. 2 cheeseburgers, medium fries and a diet coke. Of course, with the thought that I would only eat 1 of the cheeseburgers…ha, ha.

    Best bet – is avoid the drive by and take the other route…at least by home.

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    1. Hi Jan, I’ve been using smaller plates/bowls for my meals now for several years and feel that it has been a huge help. Hope it works its same magic for you.

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  8. I’ve tried several times using a smaller plate and a smaller bowl. It did make a difference and I still felt full when I got done with the meal. I am also realize that I am overeating at my meals. I am trying to take less, knowing that if I really am still hungry, I can have more.
    These first four chapters have been eye-openers!

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  9. Thank you for the great pointers from the book “Mindless Eating”. I find that sugar is my downfall so I put desserts in my basement freezer so I’ll not get to them easily. If I go to a buffet I have a very small piece of several desserts and enjoy a bite of each. I just can’t ignore desserts so I do indulge and fast the next day. That way I’m not so down on myself for giving into sugar. But at home I now put all the cookies, snacks etc. out of sight. It is amazing how much that helps. Also, I use smaller plates for dinner and keep the food in the kitchen — not on the table.

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    1. Hi Pamela, Happy to read that you have found the pointers from Mindless Eating helpful. It sounds like you really know yourself which is so important when working to change behavior. How smart of you to keep the desserts in the basement freezer and keep all the sweet treats at home out of sight! Isn’t it amazing how much using smaller plates for dinner and keeping the food in the kitchen – not on the table can help with overeating? I’ve been doing this for years now.

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  10. I really related to large boxes of items like Wheat Thins. If I eat from the large box (yes another bad habit) I eat more than I do when I eat from the small box. I think it has something to do with the weight of the box when I pick it up to take another handful.

    Another take away involved variety. Just last evening we had very healthy grilled vegetables for dinner. There were 3 colors of bell peppers, zucchini and summer squash, onions and mushrooms. I found myself taking some of each, even though it covered more than my large dinner plate and was more than I could eat. At least I ate slowly enough to feel full before I finished.

    Totally agree if there is food on the counter, I will eat it!

    Am working on eating only from a small/smaller than usual plate that has the amount I will have at that snack/meal and telling myself no more. I am consciously trying to slow down my pace as well. I grew up in a household where dinner had to be consumed in 15 minutes in order to eat as a family and honor tight schedules. I sometimes note that I have inhaled a meal, rather than eaten it. Little or no savoring or enjoyment.

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    1. Hi Mary, Thanks for sharing all your great insights and awarenesses. Yes, the issue of eating more when there’s more variety is something that I had forgotten from my reading of the book so many years ago. I find one dish meals – soups, stirfries, etc. help in this area. I’m still trying to slow down my eating too. It’s an ongoing practice!

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      1. Have been looking for smaller dishes. When I got married I had 12″ plates. Doesn’t sound so big, but I now realize just how HUGE they are. I started, this past week, to relugate some of my WW snacks to 1 shelf for myself. My hubby is a total freak in the way of desserts. (The other day he had 2 donuts=they were stuck together from the heat–his excuse-rice pudding, a chocolate candy bar and some popcorn. I’m diabetic, and really this isn’t my downfall. I usually say that I have $75 a pound prime fat because I eat good food, just too much of it. I have my days for chocolate, but not as much as a plate of pasta would call to me. Anyway, I am finding this book funny and very informative and fascinating. I am going to try to implement more of his suggestions. Already buying smaller boxes of things. Next week, I may just put snacks in little bags, even for my chocoholic hubby. He really is a doll and supportive….Only recently has he started to gain a few pounds. Also, I’m unable to exercise or walk well, have major problems in those areas….so have to rely on pool work. Anyway, glad to be reading this book!

        Reply