If you want to lengthen your life, you have to shorten your meals.

The fastest way to kill yourself is by eating more.

Continuously eating much food exhausts your digestive system by giving it no rest and keeping the other organs of your body working.

Akin to machines, these organs also have their lifespan.

By wear and tear, they also deteriorate through time.

Therefore, consider these 8 ways on how to convince your body that it needs less food.

1. Start with your mind.

Everything is a matter of mindset.

This includes your eating habits.

Your body can always adjust to whatever you give it.

All you need is to convince your mind that you can do it.

Mind over matter.

This still works.

If you want to really taper down on the amount of food intake, you should speak with your mind, reason out with it and set it to do according to what you want to be done.

Possessing control over your mind makes it easier for you to attain your goal faster.

Make yourself believe that what you are doing is for the good of your body and nothing else.

2. Eat less, taste more.

Eat less food and taste more.

This is what Zen Wellness believes as zen eating.

One thing that you battle with when you are eating is greed.

How so?

This is because when you see the food you love on the table, your mind tends to condition itself to have more of that food.

More food makes you eat fast.

However, what you are satisfying when you eat is not really the mind, but the physiologic need of the body to sustain itself.

So when you eat, don’t put too much of everything on your plate.

Get less of what you want to try and savor it.

Let the flavor play and linger in your mouth.

3. Eat only when you are hungry.

Listen to your body.

Don’t just blindly follow that 3-meals-a-day tradition.

Your body is in the best state to determine when it needs food or not.

You see, that 3-meals-a-day tradition is another mind conditioning thing.

Therefore, you tend to eat even when you’re not hungry.

Hunger, in its real sense, is the body’s cry for more nutrients as its supply is not sufficient to sustain the physical activities anymore.

Don’t eat when your body does not need it yet.

Listen carefully and supply only when it is needed.

This way, you are answering based on your bodily needs, not based on what traditional eating habits dictate.

4. It’s a matter of hydration.

Do you know what the body does when cells need energy?

Don’t answer immediately and say, “It signals the brain to feel hungry.”

Well, that’s not what really happens, when your cells need energy, it uses up the energy stored in the excess fats of your body; thus, you can really last a day without food.

So when you think you are hungry shortly after eating, don’t grab a doughnut immediately.

That’s probably your hypothalamus telling you that you need to hydrate.

Therefore, drink water instead.

You will be surprised when your “hunger” feeling is satisfied.

So before you grab a bite, drink first.

You’ll be surprised because it does wonders.

5. Chew your food properly.

Have you ever heard about the Chewing Diet?

This was introduced by Horace Fletcher as a diet method by chewing food 32-80 times then spitting out the residue.

Myth or not, this could work.

However, you don’t need to spit out what’s left after chewing.

Chewing your food properly facilitates easier and faster digestion which enhances faster and easier absorption of nutrients by the body.

When this happens, the body signals the brain that what it needs is already given, leading the brain to feel satisfied.

Plus, chewing your food 32-80 times makes you eat slowly.

It can make you eat less as well.

6. Reason with your cravings.

Cravings are temporary.

Satisfying them also has temporary results especially if your cravings are for sweet snacks like chocolates and ice cream.

According to Eat Right Now, cravings are associated with food addiction which is a brain issue.

Every time you eat something sweet or salty, “feel good” chemicals are released by the brain.

Thus, you tend to long for it again.

Remember, the primary purpose of eating is not to satisfy the brain but to supply for the physiologic needs of the body.

So before you give in to your cravings, reason out first.

Is it really going to give your body what it needs?

7. Do what’s best for your body.

Eating is a health issue, not an addiction or feel good issue.

Therefore, eat what you need, not what you want.

Give in to hunger if your body really needs it to sustain itself, not just to satisfy temporary cravings that could cause you to store extra fats.

Listen carefully to what your body is telling you and respond accurately.

Your body has a built-in system of functioning.

Hunger, thirst, and others are just signals that some nutrients are needed inside that should be supplied by food or water.

Always choose to respond right when it comes to your health.

8. Choose to live a healthy lifestyle.

There are some absolutes in health that you just cannot break like eating nutritious food, brushing your teeth, exercising regularly and having enough sleep.

In short, you should always choose to live a healthy lifestyle if you want to live long.

Besides, you lose everything when you lose your health.

You endanger your life when you compromise on the basics of a healthy lifestyle.

It’s true that healthy foods are not that delicious as compared to your favorite sweets, but that’s what your body needs.

The good thing is that you eat lesser when you eat healthy “not delicious” food.

Conclusion

Your body does not survive only with food.

It only responds to how you condition it.

Condition it to eat less and you’ll survive with it.

You just need to convince your brain that you need less food than what you actually partake.

Besides, eating less is saving your life as you do not tire out your organs in digesting what you put inside.

So before eating today, talk to your mind.

You’ve got a conditioning to make.