Lunch Habits That Cause Weight Gain

You could be doing some very simple things are are causing you to gain weight, or even preventing you from losing weight. This comes courtesy of Oprah.com. Here are some ways to prevent having your lunch become detrimental to your diet.

1. Place your lunch order early - If you wait until it's almost your break time, chances are you are significantly more hungry than you were the hour before. And if you've ever gone grocery shopping while hungry, you know that usually doesn't end well.
2. If you have a meeting scheduled right before lunch, have a small snack before the meeting - This has to do with stress eating. Lots of meetings can tend to be stressful, and if you go in hungry, you're leaving hungry, and are more likely to stress eat at lunch.
3. Avoid having a large lunch, it can lead to a large dinner - If you have yourself a big lunch, it is priming your brain for a larger dinner, which of course, is not good if you're trying to lose weight.
4. Don't wear headphones while you eat - The sounds you make while you eat actually reduces the amount of food you eat during the meal. Headphones cover up those sounds.
5. It's okay, and probably beneficial to eat alone - This is especially if you eat with someone who has a larger appetite than you do, because you tend to match how much they eat. And in case you're wondering, when Buzz and I go to lunch, I'm actually the one that eats more.
6. Take to-go food out of the container and put it on a plate - This helps you portion your food better since it's not all crammed into a container.
7. Even if you're eating "healthy" foods, monitor how much you eat - Studies have shown that a lot of people who have healthy foods for lunch, tend to eat more. This contradicts the whole point of eating healthy.