A few weeks ago I asked one of my thin friends for her best weight loss tip. She said “don’t eat.” Ha, ha. Wasn’t she funny? (not!) I told her that her advice would work all fine and great until I pass out from weakness, which, with my luck would happen right as I’m crossing the street while a bus is heading my way at full speed.
Since I obviously couldn’t count on my friend for helpful weight loss tips, I had to actually think about the tips I use in my everyday life to help me lose weight (wonder how many calories I burn while thinking).
Here are 13 of them (and unlike those superstitious elevator numbering people who will not make a 13th floor button although there is obviously a 13th floor in a 20 story building, I do not think the number 13 is unlucky).
1) Write Down What You Eat
Why? Have you ever gone to the ATM machine, taken out $100 and then looked in your wallet the next day to find only a few singles left and then wondered what happened to the rest of the money?
Not writing down what you eat is kind of the same. It’s hard to remember everything you ate. Our brains only hold so much information plus sometimes our minds hardly register what we’ve eaten (those bites consumed while standing in front of the fridge door, the nuts and chips shoveled in while watching television, etc).
For me, writing down what I eat during the day is especially helpful when it comes to dinnertime because I can easily see if I have enough calories left for a nice plate of pasta or if I’ve already indulged enough during the day and should stick to some lean protein and vegetables.
2) Drink Before You Chew
I’m talking about drinking water. Why? Because that’s what a large portion of our bodies consist of (about 60-70 percent although it varies somewhat with each individual person), and that liquid needs to be replenished.
Many people (me for instance) tend to mistake thirst for hunger and eat something instead of drinking water. I now take a drink of water before I eat something to make sure that I’m actually hungry and not just thirsty. I often find the water is what my body really wanted and that I don’t need to eat anything right that second.
3) Pop Some Popcorn
Many of us love our crunchy, salty snacks. If you’re not convinced of this take a stroll through your local grocery store. Mine has two entire aisles full of the stuff.
To help with my weight loss efforts, I’ve swapped the greasy potato chips and cheese snacks for popcorn whether it’s microwave or air popped (but not the butter drenched movie theater stuff).
It’s a lot lower in calories, satisfies my craving for crunchy and salty food, and it’s a good source of fiber.
Try it air popped with a drizzle of good quality olive oil and freshly grated Parmesan cheese (yum!).
4) Eat What You Really Want
Have you ever really wanted a chocolate candy bar or piece of cake (or whatever your favorite indulgences are) but didn’t have them because you were (sigh) dieting and didn’t want to ruin your diet?
But instead you drank some sugar free cocoa, then had a high fiber granola bar, then ate some low fat chips, and then a handful of almonds because they are supposed to help fill you up; but still weren’t satisfied and ended up eating more calories than if you would have just let yourself have the food you really wanted but in a reasonable portion instead of a piece large enough to feed a family of six? Yep, I’ve done this too many times to count.
Now I no longer make any food forbidden or deny myself something I really want. But, I work it into my weight loss plan and make sure my other food choices that day are a little lighter to make up for it or get in some extra exercise.
5) Make A List of Your Favorite Fast Foods
No matter how diligent we are about planning our meals and snacks to make sure they are healthy and within the weight loss plan we’re on, almost all of us are going to have times where we are really hungry but don’t have any food with us and need to have a quick bite.
Hello, fast food drive-through. Yes, almost everything you’ve heard about the high-fat and high calorie choices at fast food restaurants is probably true. But not everything is completely horrible. There are some decent choices at most places and some are even downright healthy.
I’ve made a list of the foods I enjoy most at my favorite fast food places (some are fairly healthy choices and others “not so much”). Next to each item I’ve written how many Weight Watchers points that item will cost me because that’s the weight loss plan I’m on (you may be just counting calories so you’d just write down how many calories each of your favorite items are).
That way when I need to stop for a quick bite, I can look at my list and decide how many points (or calories) I’m willing to spend on the fast food meal. It helps keep me from overeating.
6) Stop Acting Like It’s Your Last Meal
For most of us, we know that we can easily find more food for our next meal so it’s not necessary to eat the current meal like it’s the last one we are going to have, and as a result stuff ourselves to the point of it being painful (yep, I’ve done that too which is why I used to have a bottle of Tums with me at all times).
Slow down, enjoy your food, and eat to the point of satisfaction – not to the point of busting out the seams on your pants!
Then, in a couple of hours, when you’re hungry again, have a little more to eat.
7) Go To The Bathroom In The Middle Of Your Meal
Sounds kind of crazy, but a couple months ago someone told me they always stop halfway through their meal at a restaurant (a place where it’s so easy to overeat) and go to the bathroom.
Besides using that time for the obvious, this person takes an extra minute or two to think about how she feels; as in she purposely thinks about whether or not she is still hungry or if her tummy is happy and satisfied.
She said she usually finds she is satisfied and doesn’t need more to eat so she goes back to her table and asks the server to box up the rest of her food.
This tip works really well for me. When I’m at a restaurant it’s usually with other people so I’m not always paying attention to what I’m eating. I’m just shoveling the food in my mouth in between snippets of conversation and not paying attention to how much I’m eating or whether I’m getting full. Stopping midway to go to the bathroom is now a reminder to myself to gauge how my tummy is feeling because I want to keep losing weight and don’t want to have to go back to carrying antacid pills with me everywhere I go because I’ve overly stuffed myself.
An extra little tip: if you are seated in a booth, position yourself at the end so you don’t disrupt other people’s meals when you take your “break.”
Take Up An Activity To Keep Your Hands Busy While Watching Television
Mindless eating and watching television are deadly to weight loss and I used to be a huge offender. I’m one of those people that needs to keep my hands busy doing something and shoving food in my mouth has always been a handy and easy thing to do while watching television.
I could give up tv, but I don’t want to so I’ve taken up knitting and crocheting. I stink at it but it keeps my hands busy and helps me keep the food I don’t need and am not hungry for out of my mouth.
9) Think About Food More Often
Seems crazy for me to say to think about food more often when you are trying to lose weight and probably want to think about it as little as possible.
But when I don’t plan what I’m going to eat or when I eat mindlessly, that’s when I have problems staying on my weight loss plan and when I tend to pack the pounds back on.
I usually take a couple minutes every evening to plan what I’m going to eat the next day. It’s especially helpful if I’m going to be eating at a restaurant. Then I can hopefully find their menu online and pre-plan what I’m going to have and then plan the rest of my food choices for the day around it.
10) Act Like A Squirrel and Keep A Stash of Food
This tip seems counterproductive to losing weight just like the tip recommending that you think about food more often. But keeping a stash of “safe to eat” food handy can help you resist the fast food restaurant signs calling out your name, the dish of candy bars sitting on your co-workers desk, and the donuts in the break room.
I almost always have single serve packs of almonds (Emerald dry roasted almonds are super delicious), and an apple or banana with me. I also sometimes carry mini candy bars to help satisfy my chocolate cravings and 100 calorie packs of Cheetos or Sun Chips.
A friend of mine keeps Soup at Hand and a couple pieces of Dove chocolate in her desk drawer.
The trick is to not keep too much on hand though because then it can get too tempting to eat it all on the same day. Two or three things is plenty.
11) Find a Skinny Picture
If you have a picture from when you were thinner, put it where you can look at it every day to help keep you motivated. If you’re an avid Facebook or Twitter user, make it your profile picture so you can look at it every day; or make it the profile picture in your instant messaging program.
Don’t have a skinny picture? Find a picture of someone you’d like to look like, but be realistic. Those gorgeous pictures of supermodels and celebrities on the covers of magazines have been airbrushed and Photo-shopped like crazy!
12) Try New Fruits and Vegetables
I’m a Weight Watchers follower and go to weekly meetings. At those meetings I hear people say over and over again how they know they should eat more vegetables but just don’t like them.
They then go on to say that they either have carrots and celery every day (boring!) or that they’ve tried the old standbys of broccoli and cauliflower but can’t stand them. I’m not sure why almost every dieter tries to force themselves to eat broccoli and cauliflower. They are two very strong tasting vegetables so it’s no wonder that some people turn their nose up at them and then declare that they hate vegetables in general or are so sick of carrot and celery sticks that they would rather not eat at all.
Vegetables can be really tasty but not every person is going to like every one and not everyone likes them raw or likes them cooked and prepared the same way.
If you want to eat more fruits and vegetables, then make a pact with yourself to try one new one a week or to try one prepared a new way every week.
I used to hate broccoli but after I tried it roasted I found I love it (turn your oven to 400 degrees, toss the broccoli in a little olive oil or spray both the pan and the broccoli liberally with cooking spray, sprinkle on salt and pepper and then cook until it starts to brown around the edges). Roasting vegetables gives them a really different taste – kind of nutty.
Another way to get more vegetables in your meals is to use them to bulk up your main course. Single serve frozen meals can be really handy but the portion sizes tend to look snack size rather than meal size. Buy bags of single serve frozen vegetables to heat up with those frozen meals and use them like you would lettuce (place the vegetables on a plate first and top them with the single serve meal if it’s one that has sauce such as a frozen pasta meal).
13) Get Rid of Your “Fat” Clothes
When you move down a size (yeah for you!) don’t keep those too big “fat clothes” in your closet “just in case.” That’s a mistake I made for many years. Because I was keeping those fat clothes “just in case,” I always knew that I could just slip on a bigger pair of jeans “temporarily of course” if I overindulged for a week or two.
But when I decided that I had no intention of ever gaining the weight back, and as a result decided to get rid of my fat clothes, the weight has been staying off (for the most part). When I do start to gain a little and my jeans aren’t so comfortable anymore I know it’s time to pay attention to what I’m eating and to exercise more because I don’t have backup “fat clothes” in my closet.
For me, my fat clothes were a security blanket that I used to give myself permission to go off my weight loss plan.
The day it came time to take them to Goodwill though, I resisted. I suddenly lost my resolve to get rid of them because I was losing that security blanket. It took the prodding of my husband (meaning he told me about 100 times that I didn’t need them anymore – to the point of me wanting to tell him to “take a flying leap”) to get me to part with them. Then I rewarded myself the next day with some new, smaller sized clothes!
These 13 tips for losing weight are working for me. I hope you’ll give them a try and see if they help you too!
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