Ok so I am very interested in this..I am a creature of habit... All my life eating at the kitchen table was obsolete except during a holiday dinner. Dinner was made and us kids would get what we wanted and go to our room. Go back and get seconds if we wanted but always went back to our room and ate by ourselves...Could my childhood habits be sabotaging me????

Since moving on my own its the same way but instead we sit infront of the tv and eat dinner- its just my b/f and I....

I think when I sit infront of the tv I tend to loose track of what I am eating and tend to over-eat or graze. Maybe the couch is the wrong place to eat....maybe its my enemy....

Maybe sitting at the kitchen table would help this... You get your plate- sit and eat what you have and thats it...Get up and walk away... could it really be that simple???

Thoughts/ Opinions

SInce I moved into my own place last April, I have never bought a kitchen table. I always eat on the couch. I feel sitting at a table alone seems stupid for me. Though I do not think it is sabatoging me. I put my food on my plate and don't get up for anymore, just put my dish away. Though I still eat to fast, and I think that may have something to do with eating on the couch, but I am working on that.

nothing beats eating at a kitchen table surrounded by family having dinner together. It makes you pay attention to what your eating instead of watching tv you lose focus.

My kids want to eat in their rooms but I forbid it bedrooms are for sleeping and having sex in LOL...

SInce I moved into my own place last April, I have never bought a kitchen table. I always eat on the couch. I feel sitting at a table alone seems stupid for me. Though I do not think it is sabatoging me. I put my food on my plate and don't get up for anymore, just put my dish away. Though I still eat to fast, and I think that may have something to do with eating on the couch, but I am working on that.

I too have the issue with eating fast... and I really think it may be because of where I eat.

nothing beats eating at a kitchen table surrounded by family having dinner together. It makes you pay attention to what your eating instead of watching tv you lose focus.

My kids want to eat in their rooms but I forbid it bedrooms are for sleeping and having sex in LOL...

OMG... great post... you are so right.

dinner at the table was a requirement in our family and, even now that it's just my husband and I (the youngest still lives at home but he's an adult with his own life schedule), we still sit down to dinner. I always set the table as if we're having company...candles, place mats, etc. On the rare occasion when he has to work late and I sit in the living room and eat, I've noticed that I'm less content through the evening. Maybe because I don't have a conscious memory of eating? So I'm making an effort to eat at the dining room table even when it's just me. It actually seems quite festive with some music in the background and candles lit on the table.

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It is a rule of many diets to sit at the table for all meals. Another is to put your fork or spoon down between bites. It is best to have a clean table with no stacks of bills or newspapers or other clutter. Setting a pretty table and turning off the T.V. have also been proven to help. It sure wouldn't hurt to try some of these things.

For me it just seems like a lot of wasted effort to go to all that trouble when I can only eat 1/2 c of darn food. I think if I were still in the weightloss phase and needed help, these things would be worth a try. It may be a simple solution to getting out of bad habits and retraining yourself. The best thing about all of it is it's free!!! No therapy costs

I live alone and my kitchen table is full of mail etc. I eat on the couch but I also measure out my food and that's it. No seconds.

It does help - a lot for me. I like to make a "meal" of it, although we all eat at different times. I feed the kids earlier because DH never gets home until about 7.30 and i find they just snack snack snack if they're not fed. I tend to eat earlier too, I'm a bit the same. So weeknights are generally not family meals for us and I cant convince DH or kids to sit at a table, since our table is in a separate dining room away from the TV, lol. But I do!

I also find during the day now that I'm at home again at the moment and not working, I must absolutely avoid any downtime on the couch. The minute I sit to noodle on the computer or watch a movie or read, I get the munchies, so I just go out, potter, do bits and pieces, anything to avoid sitting down. If I stay busy, its like a workday and I dont have a problem going from one meal to the next without snacking. You need to create routines that are conducive to good eating habits, its a sensible approach. I am a firm believer in meal times being set times and I dont really believe in the grazing, five meals a day philosophy.

Living room, I don't have a dining table my place is too small

My mother forbade us to eat anywhere but the kitchen table and as soon as I moved out of the house I began to eat wherever I darn well pleased. When my sons were growing up, most of the time we ate in the car as they both had jobs (paper routes) and were both involved in sports but had different schedules (drop one off, get other dinner, drop him off, pick other up, get him dinner). We had our best conversations at those times, one on one in the car. When they didn't have practice, they ate where they wanted. Life is too hectic for kids, between school, homework, and sports to stress them out by demanding that they sit at the table, and everyone needs some daily alone time (kids included). After they grew up I was living alone and so I ate wherever. Sometimes in front of the TV or computer, sometimes in bed while reading a book, and every once in a while at the table while working a crossword puzzle. When it's just you, sitting at a table just to eat is, well, boring. I never found it to be a problem, really. I put my food on my plate, carried it to wherever, and ate what was on my plate. My problem wasn't where I was eating, it was that I was putting too much on my plate. Now I do the same thing, only with a smaller plate and less food.