How to Get a Diet-Friendly Good Deal at Your Discount Store

So how can you take advantage of great prices at one of the big box wholesale stores without either packing on the pounds of belly fat or throwing out the food you don't use. Here are some basic principles of portion size that can help you avoid overeating without wasting bargain food.

When packages are smaller, we pour out less.

Repackage jumbo-sized packages of food into smaller plastic bags and Tupperware containers. The product will stay fresher, and you'll eat less.

Food that is out of sight is usually also out of mind.

Make a habit of hiding extra food. if you buy 144 boxes of Pop Tarts, put about 142 of them in a place in your kitchen cabinets where you won't see them every day. But be sure they are in a place you'll see them at least every few weeks so you don't buy another forklift-full of the same product the next time you go to the warehouse store.

The harder a package is to reseal, the less you will eat.

Mindless eating is usually convenience eating. If, for instance, you reseal a big bag of chips with tape instead of whith an alligator clip, you will be less likely to eat on impulse. You'll be just a little hungrier before you reach for the snack. As portion control expert Dr. Brian Wanskin puts it, make overeating a hassle, not a habit.

We eat smaller portions of "inconvenience" foods.

Make a habit of eating only at the dining table. Scarfing down snacks while watching TV or playing video games makes it too easy to overeat. Put especially tempting leftovers that you know you will eventually eat in inconvenient containers, resealing packages or wrapping leftoevers in aluminum foil and putting them at the back of the cupboard, the refrigerator, or the freezer.

What you don't buy, you won't eat.

Or even better, just don't buy huge amounts of food at the warehouse store. Go to Costco's, Sam's, BJ's, or the other discount food store with a shopping list, foods you know you want to have on hand for your family that you want to buy at the lowest possible price. Limit yourself to just one or two items that are not on the list you take with to the store. 

And always share the goodies. You'll eat less, particularly when you pace yourself to be the slowest eater in the group, and you make a point of being the last person to start eating and the first person to finish. Make a resolution not to go for seconds, and decided how much you are going to eat before you start eating.

Discount clubs can be a great way to save on food costs, or an insidious way to increase food costs at the same time you are gaining weight. Taking charge of your food before your food takes charge of you is the way to save money and save pounds at the same time.