10-Day Smart Tips Countdown: Separate Value from Appetite

There are just 10 days left in the year, and (not coincidentally) 10 days until Smart Chefs Stay Slim comes out as a paperback, with a delicious new cover. Every day between now and then, I'll be blogging a favorite tip from the book -- some of the best wisdom I learned from the more than three dozen chefs I interviewed.

Today? #52: Separate value from appetite.

Have you been watching the Food Network's Next Iron Chef: Redemption? I've been cheering some of the chefs who appeared in my book -- two are going to final on Sunday. You might not guess that one of them, the very fit chef Nate Appleman used to be very overweight.

Nate shares a lot in the book about how he did it. One important change he made was looking at restaurant meals differently, particularly those that he knows offer more food than he needs to eat.

images from Bon Appetit

"Your first instinct is 'I just paid eight dollars for this burrito, so I'm going to eat the whole thing," Appleman told me. "How many times have you finished a meal because you were 'paying good money'? Now I don't do that."

One solution: Take the extra food home. Even in a fine dining restaurant, several chefs assured me that it's perfectly okay to ask for half a dish wrapped "to go." Another plus? Great leftovers make for a great lunch the next day.