- No desserts when dining out because dinner portions always are larger than normal portions.
- Designate small bowls or plates for desserts at home, and always limit the serving size to what fits.
- Replace normal lunches on weekends with a lower calorie meal replacement supplement, protein supplement, or other lean protein source.
- Don’t eat off your children’s plates.
- Know, or at least make an educated guess of, the calorie content of any food BEFORE you eat it.
- Have a daily meal schedule and avoid deviation from it.
- Plan meals ahead / Do not eat on the fly.
- IF counting calories is not your thing, dedicate your focus to portion control. Stick to one serving of any food item.
- When dining out, only look at salad and fish dishes. If you need to switch it up, look for chicken and vegetables. Remember to get salad dressing on the side! That is where most of the calories lie.)Dip your fork in the dressing before taking a bite.
- For breakfast meals out, stick to egg white omelets and substitute turkey OR fresh fruit for hash browns and fatty meat (bacon, sausage, ham).
- When it comes to alcohol, try to eliminate the calories from mixers. Flavor drinks with diet soda or fresh lemon/ lime. Ask for a zero-calorie mixer (yes, the bartenders have them!)
- Alternate alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Don’t get caught up on drinking alcohol in every drink during your night out. Have one alcoholic beverage of your choice followed by one beverage (of your choice) with no alcohol and zero calories.
- Drink a glass of water with every meal to help fill you up.
- If you’re a chocolate lover, try to stick to dark chocolate….but still limit those serving sizes!
- Eat what you want AS LONG as you can 1.) Save up the calories, or 2.) Make up for the calories.
- Never leave for a road trip without packing some healthy snacks. Gas stations and fast food treats are too tempting when you’re hungry on the road.
- Eat only when hungry.
- Eat mindfully rather than mindlessly.
- Eat small portions of a VARIETY of foods rather than sticking to one thing.
- Don’t eat something just because it is ”healthy”. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.
- Don’t deprive yourself of foods you love. Budget calories for them. For example, I love dark chocolate so I budget for a piece of Dove dark chocolate every day at lunch.
- Never eat more than one serving of anything in one sitting.
- If you’re going out in the evening, aim to have a fairly high protein breakfast and lunch. This rule has helped some people in two ways: (1) When you leave the house you are generally not starving or wanting to eat everything in sight, and(2) You’ve set yourself up for a pretty good day, even when you are unable to control all aspects of the foods you end up eating.
- Don’t let one bad food choice ruin the rest of your day! Get right back on track and use it as motivation to improve.
- Mix up your foods. Everyone gets sick of having the same thing day after day, week after week. Take a few minutes to plan. If you have time to look at Facebook, you have time to prepare your food. Preparing healthy food makes it easier to make good choices.
- Don’t let others guilt you into eating food that they are eating. Maybe you can be a good influence on them, and you can help them to start make good choices.
- If you know you will have something like pizza for dinner, start off the meal with a lower calorie food like salad and end with the pizza. Try to “fill up” with lower calories first.
- When eating out, decide how much you are going to eat before the wait staff sets the plate on the table Separate that portion, push the rest to the side, and take home the leftovers
- When you go out to dinner with others, split a meal. You can enjoy the meal out and not be tempted by the leftovers.
- Limit yourself to one serving of a sweet treat each day.
- Educate yourself. Making food logging part of your daily routine educates you on what you should or shouldn’t eat. What a difference it makes!
- If food logging becomes stressful, food log during the week, and take the weekend off but continue to make smart choices.
- Exercise 20 – 50 minutes per day, and record your exercise on a calendar where you’ll see it.Put a picture of yourself that you absolutely hate (when you were overweight) on the refrigerator. Every time you go to snack, it will serve as a reminder to be mindful of your choices.Aim for 3-4 refills of a 24 oz. water bottle to curb hunger levels.
- Limit alcohol to 6 glasses per week.
- Choose alcohol OR dessert. Not both!
- If your problem is the junk food brought into the house by other people, dedicate an area for only YOUR food and stick to it. If it is not in your cupboard/area, it is not an option.
- Log all of the food you have planned out for that day in the morning or the night before. Log snacks, serving sizes, food choices, etc., and stick to those choices. Anything outside of what has been logged is off limits.
- Ignore the rules and limitations of fad diets. Stick with foods that fit your personal preference and tolerance. Limit yourself to one serving.
- Put your fork down between every bite at dinner. Allow yourself to chew and swallow your food without another bite “on deck”.
- On busy days when you’re absolutely sure you cannot fit in some exercise, food log! The one thing you do have control over that day is what you put in your body.
- Choose two days per week to prepare food. Schedule it just like any event is scheduled. Make your health a priority.
- Your meal is not what your children are eating. Make yourself food at the same time you are preparing the children’s food so you are not “forced” into eating what they have for dinner (mac and cheese, hamburgers, spaghetti, etc.)
- Limit yourself to one meal out per week. All other meals must be prepared at home.
- If you struggle at work, ONLY EAT what you BRING with you. Make the candy dish, break room treats, birthday cake and soda non-options.
- Do not drink any calories until after dinner. Avoid soda, juice, alcohol or any other liquid calories before dinner time.
- Set aside $20 cash for your “treat” budget for the week. Anything outside of your planned diet must be purchased with this cash. When you run out of money, no more treats.. Choose wisely! Put money left over at the end of the week into a “goal” jar (e.g., vacation, car, new dress, anything you want!)
- Do not let one bad day turn into one bad week. Do not let one bad week turn into one bad month. You will have bad days; as long as you get back on track right away, there is only so much damage you can do!
- Find yourself an accountability partner, and send each other a food log every day. Whoever does not send a food log gets penalized. Set your own rules but keep it clean and safe!
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