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Make your Food More Appealing
Restaurants have long ago learned a simple fact: presentation makes food look more tasty and more appealing. This is why chefs take so much care with the way a dish is plated, adding garnish to wake up your eyes.
When going on a diet, you can take this piece of knowledge and use it to your advantage. What can you do to make your meals at home more appealing? Here are some tips.
Color
When preparing your food, consider the bright colors of fresh food. Consider blanching your vegetables to keep the color, or use lemon juice.
Try to be an artist with your food. Consider the contrasting colors of vegetables. Vegetables come in all colors. You can use red bell peppers or purple onions, green beans, or yellow corn. When shopping, pay attention to both color and smell. It will also improve your appetite for those foods.
When cooking, don't forget about the spices and herbs. Just because a dish is low in fat doesn't mean that it has to taste like cardboard. You should try to wake up your taste buds with every meal you have.
Hot peppers are a great way of doing this. You get a lot of bang for your buck when it comes to hot peppers. Usually they are very cheap and one will go a long ways. If you want flavor instead of heat, you can always add a little pinch of sugar. My secret ingredient is brown sugar. I add brown sugar to everything from chili to roast beef. Even though you're on a diet, a little bit of natural sugar won't hurt.
Texture
People tend to overlook this area. If it feels weird in your mouth, chances are you won't want to eat it. Ensure that you don't overcook your vegetables. Try to keep everything looking and tasting like it did when it was fresh.
Presentation
The way that you arrange your plate makes a difference as well. Try to make your plate look as full as possible. Don't push everything to one side. Spread things out a bit and make it look like as big of a meal as possible. Use all the room on your plate. Sometimes it helps to burn some incense or something while you are eating. Just don't do any of the fruit flavored ones or ones that will make you more hungry. Something that smells good will take your mind off your hunger.
Also, drink plenty of fluids while you eat. I have known many people who wait and drink their fluids after they are done eating. This will take more food to fill you up. Instead, sip on your drink as you eat. This will also help in digestion.
You see, when you are starting a diet you have to make sure that you are telling the brain that you aren't depriving it of the food that it loves. You have to make sure that you keep things exciting and try new things. If you can do this, you will have more success with your diet.