Jennifer O’Connell: Could you con yourself into eating less?

This week we offer inspiration to put a spring in your step in time for that extra hour of daylight on Sunday 29th

I don’t believe in dieting. I do, however, believe in getting rid of that last stubborn half(ish) stone that has been clinging to my midsection since my third child was born 10 months ago. I believe in it fervently, but sadly that doesn’t seem to be getting me anywhere.

Neither does exercising a bit more, which I have tried. I have tried eating a bit less. I have tried protein shakes for lunch, smart watches, apps, seven-minute workouts and drinking more water. I tried strapping a 22lb baby to my chest and walking up hills in hot sunshine. I tried ignoring it and hoping it would go away all by itself.

Nothing, so far, has worked. But what if there were a simple set of psychological tricks I could employ to help me only eat what I need to fill my calorific requirements?

It turns out that there might just be. There is a growing body of research, much of it carried out by a team at the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, which suggests that what you weigh has less to do with what’s happening around your waistline, and more to do with what’s going on in your environment.

If you sit by a window in a restaurant, for example, studies suggest you’re 80 per cent more likely to order salad. Opt for a table near the back and you’re 73 per cent more likely to order dessert. Eat from a bigger plate and you’ll eat one-third more. But you won’t even notice – one-fifth of people in a Cornell study who ate more after they were given their food on bigger plates flat out denied it. Just imagining the exercise you might one day do makes you eat more. If you drink wine from a short, fat glass, you’ll drink 12 per cent more than if you drink from a tall, thin one. If you cook from scratch using recipes from Nigella and Jamie Oliver, you’re likely to weigh about 11 pounds more.

Much of this comes from Slim by Design, the new book by Cornell's Brian Wansink on mindless eating, but it may be slightly too particular to help you – or me – lose weight. The next part might though.

Ask yourself this: how often do you think about food? Three times a day? Five? Fourteen? One hundred? In fact, a study carried out among a small group, again at Cornell, revealed that the average person makes a food-related decision 224 times a day. Considering we’re asleep for up to eight hours, that’s roughly once every five minutes.

I tested this out on myself, keeping track of every morsel I ate and every time I thought about food for a day. I don’t consider myself obsessed with food. I drink protein shakes. I regularly leave meals unfinished on my plate. I cook from a repertoire of fewer than 10 dishes. And yet by lunch time, I had thought about food an impressive 22 times. But in the afternoon, sitting at my desk and then later in the supermarket and preparing food for dinner, I thought about it almost constantly: deciding what to cook, wondering if I should have a coffee or something sugary or some nuts or all three. I gave up trying to record every food-related decision, but it easily surpassed 100.

Something interesting happened that day. Lots of my diary entries read like this: “Spot unopened box of chocolate-chip cookies. Consider taking one. Resist.” Because I was stopping to record everything I did, I was more inclined to withstand the kind of dietary temptations to which I would no doubt normally fall prey. By 5.30pm, I was starving – and yet I hadn’t consciously eaten less than on any other day.

It isn’t realistic to suggest that busy individuals can sustain that kind of mindful eating long-term. But it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for most of us to try to be aware of why we eat and when we eat. And to sit near the door in restaurants.

(Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life by Brian Wansink PhD is available on Amazon )

Enda’s sticky wicket with Abbott

Was the Taoiseach right to publicly take umbrage at Tony Abbott’s St Patrick’s Day message for the Irish in Australia last week?

The Australian prime minister, who is not known for his tact or diplomacy, recorded a cringe-worthy video message to the Irish in which he referred to how the Irish “made the songs” while the English made the laws and the Scots made the money.

He said he’d like to share “a Guinness, or two, or even three”.

In response, Enda Kenny said it was time we moved on from that “stage Irish” perception.

“I think that it’s perfectly in order for so many Irish people in Australia to have a very enjoyable celebration of St Patrick’s Day and St Patrick’s Week and to do so in a thoroughly responsible fashion,” he added, more than a touch piously.

Erm, who was it again who was leader of the country when Barack Obama had a pint thrust at him practically as soon as he set foot on Irish soil in 2011?

Who brought the Queen of England to a brewery and saw to it someone poured a pint for Prince Philip? It’ll come back to me, I’m sure.