Are you a chronic snacker? I totally am. I eat little bites all day long. And if I’m not careful, I eat big bites/small meals all day long, which is not so good, because I certainly don’t skip the traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Sometimes, the problem is in the presentation. For example, if you get out a large bowl for your ice cream, only intending to eat a small bowl as a snack, it’s kind of hard to actually succeed with this plan, as the serving just looks so tiny! Likewise, it’s probably hard to eat a very small serving of cake on a large plate. I know this from experience!

Today I’m highlighting a very cool product based on a simple concept: portion control made easy! Check out the Yum Yum dish. It is a 4 oz ceramic dish that is absolutely perfect for anyone out there who loves to snack but needs a bit of help knowing when snack time needs to be over.

When you want a snack during the day, use your Yum Yum dish to get the appropriate serving amount (I’ll be honest, it’s probably smaller than what you are normally getting). What I love about the dish is that written along the inside is, “Yum Yum time is……” and at the bottom it says, “over!”

Now, clearly this method will not be effective if you just go refill it with more ice cream every 20 minutes throughout the day. But I think you’ll find that if you give your body time to start digesting your snack, your craving will subside. Your body will be satisfied, and you will not have over-indulged!

The Yum Yum dish actually beautifully demonstrates the one concept I learned in my Economics class in college: diminishing marginal utility. When applying this concept to food, it basically means this: the very best bite of any dish is the first one. All bites after that will diminish in how much you enjoy them. You can consume so much of a food or drink that there will be a point where you don’t want to consume it any more, even if it is your favorite thing in the whole entire world.

So by using the Yum Yum dish, and eating 4 oz of ice cream, or potato chips, or whatever snacky food you are eating, you are maximizing your enjoyment, and minimizing how much of it you are going to eat at a lower level of enjoyment. Make sense?

Buy it!: The Yum Yum dish comes in a set of 4 for $22.00. They are adorable! Plus, for the next 2 weeks, Stuff Parents Need readers can get a $5 discount on their purchase of as many sets as you like! Woo hoo! Just use code PARENTS at checkout!

To learn more about great tips on healthy eating, sign up for the Tip of the Week from Lisa Mosley, a contestant on Season 10 of The Biggest Loser! It’s on the bottom right of the linked page.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.