Helen, a 52 year old woman, has battled the increasingly higher numbers on her bathroom scale over the past 20 years. She has tried diets and exercise without success, and she is now feeling discouraged to the point of just giving up. What Helen doesn’t realize is that by simply breaking her habitual eating patterns, she would cut out 300-500 calories a day, and without any more effort, lose 1.5-2 lbs per week.

Habitual eating patterns, or “mindless eating,” are repeated environmental or emotional cued incentives to snack, resulting in weight gain. Everyone has these patterns, and most of us are not aware of them. Let’s use Helen as a case example:

Helen eats lunch, breakfast and dinner everyday. She also takes a snack before she leaves the house, and as soon as she returns. If anyone goes into the kitchen for a snack, she wanders in and eats also. Helen also has a snack whenever she feeds her dog. If she has a couple of glasses of wine for dinner, she takes additional servings of food, and picks at the leftovers as she is putting them away.

Can you see Helen’s patterns of mindless eating? There isn’t any need for Helen to eat every time she leaves or returns to the house. She also does not need to eat just because someone else is eating, including the dog. Finally, alcohol plays a significant role in decreasing Helen’s self control not to over eat at meals.

Other mindless eating patterns include: eating while watching television, having a snack before bed, having a snack in the middle of the night, eating the leftovers on other people’s plates (very common with mothers of young children), eating while talking on the phone, snacking while preparing dinner, etc. Most people are not fully aware of their mindless eating patterns –obviously they know they are eating when they are doing it, but they are not aware of how often it occurs.

Anyone who wants to lose weight, but can’t seem to, or who wants to stop gaining weight, must eliminate their mindless eating patterns.

To identify your habits, it is best to ask anyone who lives with you to write down their observations about what they see you doing. You can analyze yourself too by keeping a detailed food journal, but if you really want a candid view, it is best to ask someone else –just don’t hold it against them when you are presented with the list! You might be surprised to see the number of habits you have developed.

Second, pick one habit to break –i.e. eating before leaving the house. Then, for the next 30 days, focus on breaking that habit. After 30 days, pick another habit to break, and work on that for 30 days. Why only one habit at a time for 30 days? Habits are difficult to break, especially mindless ones. You will be more successful in stopping yourself from eating before leaving the house every time if you only have to concentrate on that one habit. Also, it is well known that it takes at least three weeks of consistency to break an old habit, so the 30 days allows you to fully break one habit before working on another one. Finally, since you will be cutting out calories for every habit you do eliminate, by working on only one at a time you body will be able to adjust to the reduced number of calories without making you feeling hungry.

Even by only focusing on one habit, you may still have trouble…therefore, don’t hesitate to leave reminders. For example, you can leave a note on the refrigerator handle saying “No eating before leaving” or a “No Food!” note on the T.V. You can also make a list of alternatives to do instead of eating. For example, you can chew sugarless gum while preparing dinner to avoid too much “tasting”, or keep a couple snacks in the car if you are worried about getting to hungry if you don’t eat before leaving the house. You can drink a cup of herbal tea before bed instead of a snack. The alternatives to mindless eating are endless.

Be aware that mindless eating habits can occur in the workplace too, so do not to forget to assess this area as well. Also, remember that mindless drinking counts too if it is caloric (i.e. regular soda, beer, juice, etc).

The best part about breaking mindless eating habits is that it will make you naturally more aware of your eating patterns long term, and that is the most important part of weight management success.