Week 3 of Simple Lifestyle Changes

This is the start of week 3 of making some simple lifestyle changes that can have a big payoff.

• Use the Food Pyramid or the Mediterranean Food Pyramid (my preference) to guide your food choices by eating from each food group.
• Choose a variety of whole grains per day to increase fiber which will fill you up. (Most people eat about 10 g fiber a day and you need around 35g.) Choices include 100% whole wheat, brown rice, oats, whole wheat couscous, and quinoa. Check out Trader Joe's Brown Rice Medley and Harvest Grains Blend both of which are great! Decrease white flour and white rice.
• Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables of different types and colors daily. Try and follow the half plate rule. It may take a few weeks before you can really follow the half plate rule.
• Use olive oil when possible and decrease eating fried foods.
• Do not drink calories when possible, especially sugar laden ones. Limit sugar and if you must have it, eat it with a meal so it will not spike your blood sugar as much.
• Cut down on all processed foods. This will decrease the salt in your diet. Add in new spices like curry, cumin, cilantro and basil. Use an entire bunch of chopped cilantro and 2 to 3 T of spices not the 1 t like most of us use. Food should be really tasty not bland.
• Drink alcohol in moderation as it provides calories but not much nutritional value. Wine is used on the Med. diet chart.
• Keep preplating all of your food at the beginning of the meal and also snacks so you can see the quantity you are eating. Remember your brain is visual. Do not eat from the bag!
• Keep reading labels until you have a good grasp of the calorie counts of most of the foods that you eat. The more you know, the more you can eat!
• No foods are forbidden but knowing your calorie counts allows you to recognize lower calorie options for the foods that you can't live without.

Keep track of what is going on in your life when you want to eat, and also look for things that seem to trigger your eating. Is it emotional eating? Did you smell food? Did a situation like a movie bring on the candy craving? Did the Jack in the Box Advertised special lure you in? Pay attention to these triggers because there are strategies you can use to overcome them. Remember that most of us gain weight at the same times, places, days of the week with the same foods over and over. Figure these out and make a plan!

Lifestyle Changes

Most of us with a weight problem have gained weight slowly over the years. If you gained 10 pounds this year, you have overeaten 100 calories per day. This is not a lot of food. The notion going around is that you must mindfully eat. Such a small error in your eating caused this weight gain so you must count your calories carefully each day. There are many websites set up to help you keep track of every single thing that you eat. You must not diet because we all know that dieting does not work, but somehow magically get all of your habits, emotional eating and overindulging under control. This is exhausting!

What if you looked at your ten pound yearly weight gain in a different light and thought, "I am only overeating 100 calories per day and this is not a lot of food. I do not need to change my entire life and count every single calorie that goes into my mouth." What if you chose 3 areas of your eating and cleaned them up a bit. Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating encourages people to do this. Choose three habits or areas in your eating life that you can clean up. You might substitute an Americano for your latte and save over 200 calories a day. You might use light margarine on your toast and save 100 calories per day. If you keep a food journal for a week, you will begin to see many areas where a few changes can be made that will result in many calorie savings.

If you can decrease 500 calories per day, you should lose one pound per week fairly effortlessly! That would be 50 lost pounds in a year. Wow!

A lifestyle change does not mean that you must mindfully eat all of the time. It means that you will clean up a few of your major trouble spots and add more healthy foods in their place. Does it mean you will not ever eat a dessert again. No, but you might cut your quantity in half. Those giant Costco pies are not meant to be cut into eighths but into sixteenths. Relearn your portions, make some simple personal changes daily, and add a few more veggies into your meals. You might be surprised that some simple changes can add up to a huge weight loss with little effort!!!