I don’t know about you, but some days it feels like I could eat and eat and eat! When I was flipping through Bob Greene’s Best Life Diet Book, he offered some suggestions on different things you could do to curb your appetite. You know who Bob Greene is, right? He’s best known as Oprah’s personal trainer, and appears on The Oprah Winfrey show quite often offering fitness advice and weight-loss tips. I’ve followed some of these suggestions, and I’ve found that most of them really do help to curb my appetite.

1. Eat every three to four hours  – this helps keep your blood sugar at steady levels so you won’t feel the urge to pig-out. This is one of those tips I regularly follow. I usually eat about every three hours.
2. Load up on foods high in fiber and water – Fiber keeps you feeling full!
3. Make every meal and snack a combination of protein, fiber-rich carbs and fat – This is one of those I need to continue working on. It’s not always easy for me to get protein into every meal and snack, but I do it the best I can.
4. Wait 20 minutes before having seconds or another course – Your brain needs time for it to realize that you’re full! 20 minutes isn’t much of a wait, and chances are, you’ll realize you’re full and you don’t need that second helping or dessert.
5. Avoid being around food when it’s not time to eat – If there’s food in front of your face, in particular, unhealthy foods, you’ll be tempted to eat it.
6. Get some exercise – Chronic overeaters are believed to have less pleasure receptors. This means it’ll take more food for them to be satisfied. Exercise fits in the picture because research has found that physical activity can actually increase those receptors in the brain.
7. Resolve emotion issues that trigger you to eat – I’ve mentioned it before… often times I’m one of those emotional eaters. If you find that you are too, find ways to cope when you’re emotional like listening to music, going for a walk, talking to a friend, etc.
8. Go to bed – You need sleep! Not getting enough sleep has been linked to being overweight. Make sure you are getting adequate sleep!

Out of all those suggestions to curb your appetite, the ones that I follow regularly include eating every three to four hours, getting exercise, resolving emotional issues that trigger me to eat, and getting adequate sleep. What do you do to curb your appetite?