If you want to change your habits for the long run it is important that you pay attention to the amount of food you are eating. Your body is always giving you feedback and learning to pay attention to the signals your body is giving you will help you determine what you need. 
Your body has a natural intelligence that is built in to guide you in your life. It is always guiding you towards your perfect weight and health by giving you signs of comfort and discomfort. According to Deepak Chopra, if you are feeling comfort emotionally, physically and spiritually you are headed in the right direction. Learn to pay attention to the signals you are getting.
Many of us reach for food to ease stress, because of our social situation or out of habit. Deepak Chopra gives us a very important and not always so easy assignment, "eat only when you are hungry"
By practicing paying attention to the signals of hunger and satisfaction and training ourselves to follow the cues our body is giving, us we can develop new lifestyle habits that will lead us to achieve our long term goals.
This scale is from Deepak Chopra’s book Perfect Weight.
Level 0-1 Your stomach feels completely empty. You are not starving but there is a genuine need that requires satisfaction. You should eat at this level.
Level 2,3 or 4 describes how you feel when you are eating or after you have eaten and you sense the presence of food in your stomach. There is no sensation of hunger present.
Level 5 you start to feel satisfied
Level 6 is the point of maximum comfort. This is where you should stop eating.
Level 7 or 8 is when you feel uncomfortably full
Level F is when you are so full that when you think of food it makes you sick. This is where you cannot eat another bite. This level should be completely avoided.
Level E is when the stomach is completely empty and the feeling of starvation is present. You should eat before you get to this level
Deepak Chopra suggests that you eat to about 3/4 of your stomachs capacity. You should practice stopping at level 6
Try taking on this practice and eating only when you are hungry! Pay attention. Your body is your best friend and your best guide. Let is help you learn to feed it well. Instead of trying to follow someone else’s rules and ideas about what is best for you, learn to listen to yourself, trust yourself and empower yourself to make small but consistent changes! You can do it, one day at a time!
Love
Patricia
Check out Deepak Chopra’s book "Perfect Weight"
The Okinawans, who are the among the longest-living ethnic group in the world, live by the 80% rule–you should never eat beyond the 80% limit. Good advice!
Thanks for the post!
Its really interesting the way we can either heal or hurt ourselves with food.