How Do I Know if I'm Really Hungry or Just Mindlessly Eating?

​The acid test for mindless eating is wolfing down a food when we know we are not hungry.  How many times have we done this?  Most of us could start counting as recently as today.
 
Over coffee, a new friend commented that he had lost 30 pounds within the past year.[i]  When I asked him how, he explained he didn’t stop eating potato chips, pizza, or ice cream. He ate anything he wanted, but if he had a craving when he was not hungry he would say – out loud – “I’m not hungry but I’m going to eat this anyway.”  
 
Having to make that declaration – out loud – would often be enough to prevent him from mindlessly indulging.  Other times, he would take a nibble but be much more mindful of what he was doing. 



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Reference

[i]This person, Jay S. Walker, also supplemented this with lots and lots of exercise.