As the weeks wore on, along with keeping a food journal, I added a new monitoring habit: No seconds. When people preplate their food and eat just one helping, they eat about 14 percent less than when they take smaller servings and return for more helpings. I’d often pulled this trick myself: I’d give myself a small serving, then go back for more. The need to monitor exactly what I’d eaten, in order to record it, forced me to stop this little game.
