Smell Your Way To Weight Loss

That's right.  Your nose knows.  The stronger the flavor of the food, the stronger its power to satisfy your hunger.  It's true and has been researched and proven.  There are ways to trick your body that will help you lose weight.  For instance...

• Sniff your food 5 times quickly before you begin to eat.  This will signal food messages to the brain and decrease your hunger.  This will help satisfy the appetite and should keep you from consuming a lot of excess calories.
• When you eat hot food.  The heat and steam from your food sends flavor molecules up the back of the throat and into the brain faster than cold foods.  Resulting in a quicker relief from your hunger allowing you to eat less.
  
• The odor from fresh cut strawberries travels directly to the part of the brain which is involved in emotional behavior.  From there, the odor molecules activate the brain's satiety center and trick it into believing that you've eaten more than you have.  You'll feel full faster and eat less.

(notice a pattern here, I've got one more for you.)

• Keep a bar of dark chocolate with you.  When the urge hits for a snack, sniff the chocolate bar, but don't eat it.  Just the smell can trick your body into thinking you've eaten it already.  Why dark chocolate?  In case you eat it.  It's better for you.  I'm kidding silly.  Because of the stronger smell, of course.

Here's a few more ideas that won't hurt or take much effort on your part but will prove helpful for losing weight.  

• Studies suggest that people who suppressed their mid-morning hunger pangs by eating 1 tablespoon of peanut butter everyday lost nearly twice as much weight as those people who didn't eat some peanut butter.  Daily peanut butter eaters actually tend to eat fewer calories a day on average.
• Have a mochaccino without the cost and without the calories.  Mix 1 packet of sugar free hot cocoa mix with 1 teaspoon of instant coffee.  Add your hot water according to the directions and stir.  A dollop of Cool Whip Lite (2 tablespoons) contains only 20 calories and 1 gram of fat.
• Did you know drinking 1/2 gallon of water over the course of the day will burn up to 100 calories. Most people will burn even more calories drinking cold water because the body has to work harder to bring the water up to body temperature.
• If your gonna sit around watching TV make it funny TV.  Laughing burns about 50 calories for every 10 to 15 minutes of doing so.
• Become aware of what a serving size really means:                                                 

                                         1 serving of bread = a cassette tape

            

                                                    2 Tbsp peanut butter = a ping pong ball

                                    1 1/2 ounces of cheese = 4 dice

                           1 cup cereal = a closed fist

                                                

                                                3 oz of cooked meat =  deck of cards

                                                                             3-4 oz grilled/baked fish = a checkbook                                                                           

                               1/2 cup fruit - a tennis ball

                                         1 teaspoon of butter = a thumb up