5 easy, scientifically-proven tips for controlling your eating over the holidays:

1) Eating slowly allows more time for the “full” feeling to kick in.

2) Eat off a small plate. Without realizing it, we often judge whether we’re done by visual cues like an empty plate.

3) Keep the serving dishes in the kitchen. Merely having to get up to get more makes us less likely to keep eating.

4) Sit next to the people who are skinny and who never eat much. We’re influenced by those around us, even if we think we’re not.

5) If you do blow it and gorge yourself there’s still an upside: overeating on Thanksgiving can make you less likely to spend so much money on Black Friday.

For more tips from Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, click here.

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