50 Diet Tips Every Woman Should Know
Source : Women's Weekly
Month : June 2012
With so many types of diets to choose from, you'd be forgiven for thinking that losing weight is complicated. But shifting excess kilos is as easy as making changes to eating habits and food mind-set. Try these tips to get into great shape...
1) Accept the truth. Your expanding waistline is unlikely to be due to a slow metabbolism or a gland problem and more likely to be down to what and how much you eat! Come to terms with this and you'll find it easier to get motivated.
2) Don't delay, start today. It's easy to say you'll go to the gym tomorrow or start eating healthily on Monday. But you want to lose weight now, don't you?
3) Focus on changing your eating habits for life rather than dieting. Going on a diet implies you to start on a particular day, finish on a particular day and only change what you eat in between. Once your 'diet' is finished, you return to the eating habits that made you pile on the kilos in the first place.
4) Avoid 'all or nothing' thinking. One small over-indulgence doesn't mean you've blown your diet and can now go on a food feast. Simply put the indulgence behind you and move on and away from the fridge.
5) Keep an honest food diary to identify how much you eat and when. Once you se an accurate picture of your eating habits, it's easier to make changes.
6) Stop blaming special occasions for poor eating habits. There will always to birthday in the office, a dinner at the weekend or a family Sunday lunch! Accept these situations as a normal part of life and incorporate the food and drink that's on offer into your healthy eating plan, rather than using them as an excuse to constantly overindulge.
7) Stay away from the diet foods you don't actually enjoy eating. Food should be pleasurable, not painful!
8) Don't assume all salads are healthy. They might be laden with mayo, oily dressing, cheese or nuts, making them higher in calories than a chicken burger.
9) Watch the way slim women eat. For example, they might order a gin and slimline tonic (50 calories), rather than a glass of wine (100 calories), skip dessert and the cheese board, and only occasionally succumb to the daily chocolate run at work.
10) Focus on eating more of the good things rather than less of the bad things. For example, eat more fruit and veggies and you'll automatically eat less fatty and sugary foods because you'll feel fuller.
NIBBLING SOLUTIONS
11) Keep your hands busy if you nibble on sweets, chocolate and crisps while watching TV. Try knitting, sewing or even giving yourself a pampering manicure.
12) Chew sugar-free gum while you're cooking. It'll stop you picking on slices of cheese, nuts or anything else you can get your hands on. Nibbling adds up - cut out a daily slither of cheese and you could lose five kilos in a year.
13) If you always eat when you drink, change your drinking habits. For example, if you normally have a couple of biscuits with your afternoon cup of tea, swap your tea for a low-cal cup a-soup.
14) Clean your teeth when you fancy nibbling
15) Swap your cooking oil for spray oil. Just one tbsp of oil contains 100 calories whereas ten squirts of spray oil contain 10 calories. Make this daily change alone and you'll lose four kilos in a year.
16) Don't eat from jars, packets or tubs. It's easy to scoff half a tube of crisps or an entire tub of ice-cream when you can't see how much you're eating. Put food into bowls or on to plates instead.
17) Think about how you eat your favourite high-calorie foods and find lower cal alternatives that you eat in the same way. For example, instead of having a packet of crisps, go for a small bag of baby carrots. You'll still have to open the packet and frequently put your hand into the bag and then to your mouth. The only thing that's different is the food itself!
18) Have a glass of water whenever you feel hungry to make sure you haven't mistaken thirst for hunger.
19) Remember that healthy foods such as muesli, brown rice, fruit juice and bread still contain calories and so you need to control portion sizes. For example, just 2 tbsps of muesli contains 110 calories.
20) Make food tastier by adding seasonings such as galic, herbs and spices rather than fat such as butter or oil. You'll keep your taste buds happy without having the calories.
21) Buy small packets of foods such as biscuits, crisps and nuts rather than large packets that you have to divide yourself. You'll be less tempted to eat the whole lot in one sitting.
22) Swap fizzy drinks for diet versions or sparkling water. Someone with a can-a-day habit can lose up to seven kilos in a year simply by opting for the diet drink.
23) Clear out fatty and sugary foods from your kitchen. By having less choice, you'll eat less. Not sure? Imagine a buffet full of cheese sandwiches. You'd soon get bored of them and eat fewer than if there were lots of variety.
24) Always serve vegetable or salad first when putting food on to plates. That way you can make sure they cover half your plate. Then fill a quater with rice, pasta, couscous, noodles, bread or potatoes and the last quarter of the plate with meat, fish, chicken, eggs or beans.
25) Always take notice of the serving size suggestions on ready-made foods, especially for pasta and rice. Be sure to follow the advice.
26) Identify the obstacles that might stop you from losing weight, and then decide what you can do about each one. Typical obstacles might include Friday night takeaways, a lack of time to cook, a hatred of the gym or a family who loves snacking. Put together a plan that combats each obstacle. For example, a lack of healthy meals at the work canteen or nearby hawker centre or buying high-cal ready-made meals can be overcome by taking your own lunch to work.
28) Go for quality rather than quantity. Pay more (but buy less!) for good quality ingredients as they are packed with flavours and are just as tasty.
29) Serve your food on a smaller plate. It's the oldest trick in the book but it really does work, especially if you like having seconds - two servings on a small plate is still only the equivalent to one normal-sized portion!
30) Beware of low-fat foods - it doesn't mean they're low in calories. Sweet, low-fat foods such as biscuits and muffins are usually the worst offenders. While they're low in fat, the extra sugar keeps the calorie count high.
31) Don't read or watch TV at mealtimes. Being distracted when your're eating will leave you shovelling food into your mouth, regardless of whether you really want it.
32) Find substitutes for comfort eating. Instead of seeking solace in a bar of chocolate or bag of chips, get a hug from your partner, listen to your favourite music, have a bubble bath, or phone a friend to chat.
33) Eat regularly and don't skip meals, especially breakfast. Studies show that breakfast skippers tend to be fatter than people who eat this meal because they over compensate and eat more later in the day.
34) Identify habits that sabotage your good intentions and swap them for new, healthier ones. So instead of going straight to the fridge when you get home, go to the fruit bowl instead; or if you always buy a bar of chocolate when you walk past the newsagent, take a different route.
35) Get enough sleep. Constantly being tired can lead to weight gain - plus an extra couple of hours in bed each night means more time away from the biscuit tin.
FAST FOOD KNOW - HOW
36) Keep a supply of microwaveable low-fat ready meals in your freezer and serve them with salad or vegetables.
37) Serve scrambled eggs and fresh tomato on toast or make an omelette and serve with salad and a microwaved jacket potato or crusty bread.
38) Throw together a salad using bags of pre-prepared leaves, cherry tomatoes, canned sweet corn, canned tuna or salmon, grated reduced-fat cheese and a little balsamic vinegar.
39) Cook a handful of whole-wheat pasta and frozen veggies in the same pan. Drain and add half a jar of low-fat tomato sauce. Heat through, top with parmesan cheese and serve with a mixed salad.
40) Always choose the smallest portion available. Studies show that the more food people are given, the more thy'll eat, regardless of whether or not they're hungry. Worse still, they don't compensate for this by eating less later in the day.
41) Don't drink your calories. A large glass of fruit juice contains 120 calories and a can of fizzy drink, 140 calories. If you're thirsty, choose water - it's completely calorie-free!
42) Hide your deep fat fryer or chip panso you don't eat deep-fry food. Use an oil-free fryer instead; Try an air fryer that uses air technology to give you the crisp results of a deep-fry but with less fat.
43) Use chopsticks to help you eat meals slowly and wait a while before deciding whether you want seconds or a dessert. The brain needs 20 minutes to receive the "full" signal, so no matter how much you eat during that time, your signal won't come any sooner.
44) Prepare most of your meals yourself rather than relying on eating out, ready meals or takeaways. It makes it much easier to control your intake of fat, sugar and salt.
45) Banish the bathroom scales. Your weight fluctuates naturally throughout the day and from day to day, so constantly jumping on and off the scales is guaranteed to send your moods up and down like a yo-yo. If you can't stay off the scales altogether, just weigh yourself once a week.
46) Don't cut out major groups of foods such as carbs or diary products in an effort to lose weight. Sure, they'll shift the pounds because you'll be taking in fewer calories than normal. But can you really carry on eating like this for life? The eating habits you develop to lose weight should be sustainable forever.
EASY TRICKS TO BEAT HUNGER
47) Start every main meal with a large bowl of salad and little balsamic vinegar or fat-free dressing.
48) Choose foods with a low glycaemic index - in other words which give you a long-term energy boost - as they'll help keep blood sugar levels steady so you'll be less likely to feel hungry and snack. Good choices include whole-wheat pasta, noodles, porridge, whole grain cereals, pulsed and most fruits and vegetables.
49) Try these tasty, low-calorie snacks if you're hungry :
♣ Cup of low-fat soup ♣ Bowl of fresh fruit salad ♣ Prawn cocktail with a a fat-free seafood dressing ♣ A simple cocktail made from juicy grapefruit and orange segments.
♣ Cup of low-fat soup ♣ Bowl of fresh fruit salad ♣ Prawn cocktail with a a fat-free seafood dressing ♣ A simple cocktail made from juicy grapefruit and orange segments.
50) Keep a bowl of chopped vegetables in your fridge so you always have healthy snacks on hand. Serve them with salsa or homemade tzatziki made from fat-free natural yogurt, mint sauce, lemon juice and garlic.
♥ Aku WAJIB KURUS... ♥
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