Losing weight is about changing your behavior towards food. The type of foods you eat is only a small part of the story. Everyone wants an easy to digest diet pill because it doesn't require any mental or physical effort on the individual. If you really want to lose weight, you need make it a lifestyle and make the behavioral changes now.

The digestive process works in steps and if the first steps don't do their jobs, the other steps get clogged up and work that much harder and less efficiently. By chewing your food, you release more enzymes that break down the food, helping your stomach break it down further. It might sound like a novel process but make sure to chew at least 20 times before you swallow. You end up losing weight because you'll feel satisfied and your jaw might get tired. This also has an added effect of slowing down your eating and limiting the chances of you choking on food. If the food isn't mush by the time it enters your stomach, be prepared for a buildup of acid to break them down. 

Water helps your digestion and aids in breaking down food in your stomach. And no, it doesn't interfere with your stomach acids. Your body functions better with water. Your skin will look better. You will look younger. For this topic of losing weight, drinking water fills up your stomach and creates that fullness feeling. You end up eating less but feeling satisfied. If you don't like unflavored water, add a tiny bit of lemon and honey, and that will spice things up.  

Small meals will keep your metabolism in a constant state of burning calories. This doesn't mean you have to eat peanuts or tiny hamster food. You can make a whole sandwich, split it in half, and eat a half for each meal. The body is an excellent machine for storing fat and large meals will trigger the fat storage. Small meals tell the body that food is plenty and it doesn't need to store any fat.

I never understood why people ate till they were stuffed. I could do without the pressure from my stomach expanding. Eat till you are satisfied and if you get hungry later, have another small meal. Being completely full from a meal also makes you lethargic. All the blood in your body is moving towards your stomach because it needs to work harder in digesting all the food. In the meanwhile, you're too full to do anything. All this adds to inactivity and weight gain.

No one likes to burn their tongue on food. Use this pain intolerance as a way to slow down your eating habits. Eat hot foods like hearty soup or a hot pasta bowl. It usually takes me 30 - 45 minutes to eat a steaming hot bowl of soup because I have to cool the soup by blowing every few seconds. When you eat slower, you give your body time to tell your brain, that it's satisfied. 

This advice will go against your mom but you should never finish your plate if you are already satisfied. There is nothing wrong with leftovers even if it's a small amount. What I do is mix all the leftovers together into a meal. All this requires is meal planning. Make a pasta dish one night and a meat dish the next night. If you have leftovers, now you have a meat and pasta dish.