Watch Out For Evening Temptations

It gets tough to make it through evenings without snacking. You’re watching TV and it’s constantly tempting us with commercials for food. I think you get more aware of those when you’re dieting. But remember, we’re not really “dieting” we’re changing our eating habits. If you give in and go for high calorie low value foods in the evening you’re on a slippery slope. Go for some veggies if you really must eat something, but don’t just bring a tub of the ones you’ve cut up earlier. Measure out how many you eat. That way you’re not mindlessly putting it in your mouth.

Remember you may not actually be hungry. The brain can confuse thirst with hunger. Try a glass of water first. If you can avoid eating anything and suppress the cravings, you will have achieved a small victory. After all if you can push through and not eat anything, you’ll be going to bed soon anyway. You’re never hungry when you sleep. I know when I do that, I actually feel slimmer in the morning. Even if it’s only a little bit.

TODAY: AVOID EATING A SNACK IN THE EVENING.

Don’t STOP Eating Today

The holidays are winding down. The resolutions have been made. But this is NOT the day to go on a hard core diet. You’ll fail and give up entirely by mid week. Sure you rip of the Band Aid and dive into the cold pool, but you need to make a lifestyle change or one year from today you’ll be reading this and starting over again. (Like you have before.) I’m not giving you justification to eat as much of whatever you want. Today you start reducing your food intake and purging your house of bad stuff.

Here’s today’s plan: Use up the snacks, cookies, candy and high calorie foods. If you have guests around, send them home with a goodie bag. If you have unopened snack foods, return them to the store. (Yes they take returns too.) Don’t binge on the stuff! Just don’t replenish the pantry.

Oh… GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND TAKE A WALK!

TODAY: WEIGH YOURSELF AND MEASURE YOUR WAIST. IT WILL GIVE YOU A BENCHMARK STARTING POINT FOR THE YEAR TO COME.

There Is No Bad Food, Just Bad Portions

Dietary researchers have just made one of those findings that just make you say “duh”! They have found that it doesn’t matter if you follow a low fat, low carb, low meat, low starch, or low mein diet. All that matters is whether you eat more calories than you use up. So we’re on the right track with our eat less exercise more plan. We’ll continue to try each of the varieties of diets. It keeps things interesting while encouraging you to pay attention to what you eat.

TODAY: EAT WHAT YOU WANT… JUST EAT LESS THAN YOU DID THE LAST TIME!

The Pantry Diet

If you really want to keep yourself on track to lose weight, you need to reduce the temptations. Start by putting your pantry on a diet. Do a quick inventory of the high calorie temptations that are there waiting for you to indulge.

TODAY: ELIMINATE THE HIGH CALORIE SNACKS IN THE PANTRY.

Can You Afford to Diet?

A calorie reduction diet doesn’t involve buying anything special. Replace those bags of snacks with more fruits and vegetables and you have spent the same amount for better nutrition.

Then invest. Invest time for your walking exercise. Just a half hour a day is all it takes.

The big return will be a smaller you and significant savings in medical bills.

Can you afford to diet? Can you afford not to?

TODAY: BANK ON BETTER HEALTH.

Breakfast May Be The Best Meal Of The day

British scientists have found that women who skipped breakfast ate more calories during the rest of the day and also had higher fasting levels of LDL (bad cholesterol) and total cholesterol compared with the women in the breakfast-eating group. The researchers found that skipping breakfast could lead to weight gain. So get your metabolism revved up and quell those hunger pangs early. Just make sure breakfast isn’t the famous British “bangers and mash”.

TODAY: EAT A SMALL PROTEIN FILLED BREAKFAST AND TAKE A WALK.

Eat More, Eat Less

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition recently talked about a team of nutrition researchers that concluded that whether you are eating the “three” or “six” meals daily, weight loss ultimately comes down to “how much energy (or calories) is consumed as opposed to how often or how regularly one eats.”

Okay I’ve talked about tis before, It’s the same equation for weight loss and maintenance: Calories “in” = Calories “out”. So this means that eating five or six small meals a day helps us to:

• Burn more total calories by the end of the day
• Eat fewer total calories at the end of the day

So keep the “meals” small and frequent.

TODAY: CONTINUE GRAZING THROUGH YOUR DAY.