Losing Weight

Here are a few tips for weight management I would like to share:

• Don’t diet. Diets assume that in a month or six months you can ‘go back to normal eating’. And ‘normal eating’ made you … ? Accept the fact that the way you have been eating has made you the way you are, which is neither as healthy nor as attractive as you can be, and a temporary fix is not a solution. However, with a reasonable change here, an adjustment there, you can change your health and appearance forever.
• Food is for energy and taste. Food does not cure loneliness, fear, anxiety, depression or anger. For stress and depression related feelings – take a walk, touch your toes ten times, rotate your head in circles, call a friend, read a joke, volunteer to visit sick children or a nursing home, or organize a party. Chocolate and all comfort foods will make you feel worse (in an hour or so, you‘ll hate yourself).
• Drink water. Add lemon or orange slices, a teaspoon of vinegar, unsweetened cranberry juice (available at most health food stores). All have excellent health benefits. Drink lots of water. Hot, iced, or at room temperature.
• Give up soft drink. As food/beverage, they are totally worthless. In fact, they are awful for your teeth and body. Three sodas a day at 150 calories each equals 47 pounds in one year. Diet sodas make you crave sweets, so don’t go there.
• Give up fried food
• Order entrées or order from the kid’s menu. The portions are sedentary adult size.
• Start your meal with a broth based soup and consume 25 – 30% fewer calories at the meal. Clear (liquid you can see through) soups are filling, low calorie and take time to eat, which gives you time for your ‘full-stat’ to register.
• Don’t do other things while you are eating. (No TV, especially. News is bad for your digestion, your blood pressure, and your sense of well-being.) Pay attention to your food. Eat slowly. Pick the most perfect bite first (The first bite tastes the best). Put down your fork between bites. Savor every morsel.
• For a sweet tooth, keep the fruit basket full. Try exotic or different fruits. Keep pure unsugared frozen blueberries and strawberries on hand. (Great anti-oxidants and standard in grocery’s frozen food department.) Sprinkle them on sorbet or yogurt or eat them straight from the bag.
• Buy half a dozen inexpensive plastic bracelets at the dollar store. Put them on your left wrist each morning. After you eat one vegetable serving (½ cup or about a handful chopped, raw or cooked) or fruit (one small apple, kiwi, banana, etc), move a bracelet to your right arm. (Fat free dressing and sugar free yogurt is okay for dipping in limited amounts.) When you have moved all the bracelets, you will have consumed a healthy amount of fruits and vegetables and you will probably be too satisfied to pig out.
• Leave the table, or at least remove your plate, as soon as you have finished eating.
• Get physical. Anything is good. Something you like to do is even better. Can you commit to five minutes of exercise a day? Actually, a half hour would make a world of difference, but five minutes is a start. Your body will love you for it and reward you greatly. Remember, thinking about exercising does not count and burns zero calories. Guilt, self-abuse, and excuses also burn zero calories.
• Always eat breakfast. If you don’t, your body thinks you are short of food and goes into the ‘conservation’ mode, slowing your metabolism. (Your body still thinks you are a cave person who has to go catch your food every day.)
• Eat the largest meals and most calories early in the day. Stop eating at least four hours before bedtime. Not only will you store fewer calories as fat, you will sleep better too.
• Reward yourself with activities instead of food. Or, at least make your rewards something that is still identifiable (hairdo, book, jewelery) twenty-four hours later.?
• Avoid alcohol. It stimulates the appetite and provides a lot of empty calories.
• Limit your intake of pasta, bread, rice, and potatoes. When you eat them, remember, brown is better.
• If you feel you must clean your plate, use a smaller plate. You fool your subconscious and feel just as satisfied when you put smaller portions on a smaller plate so that the plate looks full.
• Portion control: measure how much you can hold in the palm of your hand by filling your palm with something edible – vegetables, mashed potatoes, or whatever (You might prefer to practice this at home rather than in public.) and pouring it into a measuring cup. Then pour the ‘handful’ onto a plate. Chances are, unless you have a really big hand, it holds approximately one serving which is ½ cup of most foods. And the palm of your hand (without the fingers) is the recommended size for a serving of meat. Do this several times with several different products and you will quickly be able to ‘eyeball’ a serving size. (It’s rather difficult to eat out and leave your hand at home, so cupping your hand beside the serving is an easy way to remind yourself how much you should be consuming. Ask for a take-out container and put the extras in before you eat.) Use ‘butter buds’ or ‘molly butter’ (spice section of the grocery store) for flavoring your steamed vegetables if spices leave you wanting something more. These products are made from butter with the fat removed.
• Just say ‘no’. Don’t allow yourself to be pressured into eating if you aren‘t hungry. Anyone who cares about you won’t push. Anyone who pushes is trying to satisfy their needs, not yours. Except for breakfast, never eat when you are not hungry. Never.
• Treat yourself, at least once a week, to a small serving of one of your favourite formerly ‘forbidden’ foods. (And pay attention to whether it tastes as good as you expected. People often discover that they were taught that certain things were supposed to be special treats, but when they actually analyse the taste, cheesecake tastes rather bland and leaves this coating on the tongue …) Feeling deprived is a guarantee for rebellion. Eating is pleasurable, and should be. In moderation.
• Put a picture of your slender self on the refrigerator, in the bathroom, and, most important – in your mind. Imagine yourself slender and your mind will make it happen. Smile and enjoy the healthy good-looking person you were born to be.