The American (and global) waistline continues to grow. The State of Obesity reports that nearly 40% of American adults between the ages of 40 to 59 are obese. That means either you are one of the folks you regularly are in contact with (a friend, relative, colleague, etc.) is obese.

The symptoms of this epidemic vary. Not enough exercise. Too much junk and processed food. Medical conditions. Not enough natural foods.  And while the symptoms vary the cause weight gain is always the same, the body retains more calories than it burns.

The solution to obesity is simple, at least in concept. Doing it is the hard part.  Consume less calories than you burn and you will lose weight.  You can continue to each hamburgers and twinkies, just a lot less, and you will lose weight. You can skip exercise, as long as you still burn more calories than you consume and you will lose weight.

Understanding this simple formula of consuming less calories than you burn, applying a solution is radically simple: use smaller plates. By limiting the space available for your food portions, you will take in less calories, yet still be able to follow you normal pattern of filling up the plate and cleaning off the plate.  You don’t have to change you habits (fill up the plate and eat all that is on the plate), you just need to establish “guardrails” that limit the intake.

Money can (and should) be managed the same way. Our normal behavior is to consume all that is made available to us.  We have one big “plate”, our checking account, and always find a way to spend it all.