Lose weight Without Depriving Yourself

Do you really have to give up all your favorite foods to lose weight? No you don’t. It’s a known fact that if you just cut down on your portion sizes, you can still easily drop all the pounds you want.

In fact, when you attempt to eliminate all your favorite snacks, you end up craving them even more. In many instances the boredom from a highly restrictive diet takes over and you end up binging even more.

Variety is the key to long term weight loss.

Many people have found that highly restrictive diets do more harm than good because (a) they aren’t healthy for you and (b) they tend to cause boredom and intense cravings for foods.

But at the same time, you don’t want to overdo it with the junk food. Too much can not only hurt your weight loss efforts, but your overall health. So how do you cut down and possibly even eliminate bad foods altogether? Here are five tips to make it happen:

#1) Stay full
Many people find their cravings for junk food are the worst when they are hungry. Staying full is often times an effective way to eliminate this.

#2) Substitute a healthy alternative
This might be the most effective strategy of all. Let’s face it all of us get sweet cravings sometimes. But instead of eating that hot fudge sundae, consume either honey or dates. This is not only extremely healthy for you, but it will usually take away your desire for junk food.

#3) Eat slowly
This is very effective if you do cave in from time to time on your cravings. Chewing more will at least help you consume less of the bad stuff and limit the damage. This will help you feel fuller faster.

How many times should you chew each mouthful? Some experts say up to fifty, but let’s face it who is going to do that? In general, twenty five times or at least enough until you feel the food is completely liquefied is good enough.

#4) Have a “cheat day”
This is a popular dieting strategy to reduce the amount of junk food you eat, and it works. Getting it all out of your system in one day is often very effective. Just go nuts. Totally pigging out on your “cheat day” might make you want it far less the rest of the week. This way you get it all out of your system in one day, so your body doesn’t have to deal with it the rest of the week.

Also, it’s been said that once you go back to your more restricted diet the next day, the body will naturally burn more calories due to the change in eating patterns – in other words, you throw your body of keel and it revs up the metabolism.

#5) Eat more frequently.
In many instances eating smaller amounts throughout the day will cause you to be fuller. This will prevent you from snacking on junk food between meals. In many instances people who only eat 3 times a day get very hungry in between.

To sum up: Just try to avoid boredom in any long term diet. This tends to be one of the biggest causes of binging. When you have a healthy diet you enjoy, it will prevent a lot of the unnecessary splurging that is common with “fad diets”.

Low GI Pea Soup

Did you know that peas lower the GI of a dish!?

Ingredients:

1/2 ounce unsalted butter
2 leeks, chopped, washed and well drained
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 1/2 pints chicken or vegetable stock
10 ounces shelled or frozen peas
1 round lettuce, washed and chopped up
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint
Ground black pepper

Instructions:

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Cook leeks with thyme and garlic on low heat. Cook until soft but not yet brown. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Add peas and lettuce and continue cooking until the peas are tender. Be careful not to overcook them or they’ll end up mushy. Stir in the mint and add black pepper to your liking. Serve with croutons for added flavor.

Keeping a Close Eye on Portion Sizes

How much food should you eat to lose weight? That’s the hot-button question in the medical world.

There is literally so much information on this subject that you can easily get lost in a sea of information and never get started. Look up 10 different sites and you will get 10 different answers. Many people end up getting so confused they just give up.

So what’s the truth about “portion control”?

Obviously the amount you consume depends on your gender, age and activity level. The main key to losing weight is to intake less energy than you are putting out. So theoretically a very active person can intake a lot of calories and still be okay.

Do you need to track your food throughout the day?

At first this is a good idea. A lot of people are shocked at the quantities of calories they consume when they start keeping a food journal. As a quick example, many think they are getting what the label on the food says. But in a lot of instances they are getting FAR more because their “portion” size is much bigger than the “serving” size. Therefore, tracking this at first might be useful for seeing the actual amount you are consuming.

But let’s face it who’s going to measure their food all day? This is next to impossible when you are on the go.

Fortunately there is an easier way. You don’t have to measure everything, you can simply slightly restrict your portion size and still be full. Here are three things that work:

#1) Eat 50% of what you normally do
This way you can continue eating the foods you love—just not as much of them. And substitute another food in place of the rest of it.

An example would be eating a burger, but having a salad instead of the fries. It’s not ideal but eventually you want to eliminate the burger entirely. And this is a great place to start. Also ask for “lunch size” potions instead of dinner size. Many places offer this option, so consider doing this as well.

#2) Ask for a container
This is a very effective method when eating out. All you do is ask for a container before your meal gets there, and immediately put 50% of it in there to prevent overeating.

#3) Chew your food.
Many experts recommend fifty times, but in reality twenty is more than enough. This will help you feel full on a lesser amount.

#3) Eat without watching TV
This helps you become more aware of when you feel full. Often times you can get so engrossed in a TV show that you don’t notice yourself feeling full and you overeat.

Try one or all of these tips and you should see a reduction in how much you eat and a loss in weight.