EatingWell.com Featured One of My Eat Smart Easy Weight Loss Tips

One of my Eat Smart tips recently appeared on the EatingWell.com website in an article by Lainey Younkin entitled 5 Things You Should Never Do After 5 P.M. If You're Trying to Lose Weight, According to a Dietitian.

It was also featured in Eating Well’s newsletter Nourish: Eating Well for Weight Loss the last week of December.

My tip, which was # Tip 2, appeared as follows:

Eating straight out of the bag

"Don't snack straight out of the bag or box," says Ruth Houston, author of the upcoming book Eat Smart and Lose Weight: Scientifically Proven Ways to Lose Weight without Diets or Exercise. "You risk losing track of how much you've eaten. Measure out one portion for yourself (maybe two). And put the box or bag away and let that be it."

I contributed this tip because this is something we’ve all probably experienced at least once, if not several times:

Enjoying a snack in front of the TV, you put your hand in the package for more and you’re shocked to find that it’s empty. 

You unknowingly ate the whole thing.  

That’s why you should never eat right out of the box or bag.  You can easily lose track of how much you've eaten – something you can’t afford to do if you're trying to lose weight.

Here’s what to do instead.: 

As I mentioned in the tip above, instead of eating directly from the box or bag, take out one serving. Put the package away and enjoy your snack – preferably in another room where it won’t be so easy to go back for more. 

This is one of over 300 easy weight loss tips in my upcoming book Eat Smart and Lose Weight: Scientifically Proven Ways to Lose Weight without Diets or Exercise.