If you can improve your awareness to eating and food you will give yourself a much greater chance of succeeding on any diet or weight loss plan.

By improving your eating awareness you will be more in tune with your body and have a greater understanding of the foods that you should and shouldn’t be eating if you want to lose weight.

One of the most important things that you can do is listen to the signals that your body sends you. There can be a delay of up to 20 minutes from the time you are full to the time you know you are full.

By eating food slowly you are more likely to hear these signals and prevent overeating. Mealtimes should be a relaxing occasion, turn off the TV and radio and eat at a table instead of off your lap.

Eat your food slowly and enjoy every mouthful and you will find yourself naturally eating less.

When looking to improve eating awareness it is important to look at behaviours and motivation for eating food. Ideally we should only eat when we are hungry and then only until we feel full.

However many people eat because they are bored or stressed or to reward themselves after a hard day at work. Comfort eating has caused many a diet to go off the rails. If you are eating not because you are hungry then you may need to try and change this behaviour.

When dieting it is crucial to know what is in your food and the effect that it will have on you. Think about how many calories are in the foods that you commonly eat and which ones you need to eat more of and which ones you need to eliminate from your diet.

Start label reading and try recipe modification and eating out.