One Healthy Lifestyle Change At a Time
from Our Lady of Weight Loss
As we move from summer to fall, into the new school season and new year, I am wondering if you would like to join with me as I recommit to my health, to better living! What better time than now!
28 days: 28 diet tips to living a fully baked life!
1. Fruit and Veggies Rule: They are ‘real food’ (as in not processed or filled with white sugar or white flour … duh!), they are loaded with fiber; they are ohhhh so satisfying. Add two servings to every meal and consider them for your snacks. The dietary guidelines say 5 to 9.
Half Baked: 5 servings or less
Fully Baked: 9 servings or more
2. Small Plates are Adorable: And you will be too, if you stop with the super-sizing nonsense. Go on a shopping spree (in person; not on-line – burns more calories!) and buy yourself some fabulous small plates. Statistics show that we are just as satisfied, as long as the plate is full!
Half Baked: Super-Sizing our 9 inch plates.
Fully Baked: Enjoying a full meal on a 5 incher!
3. Stay Conscious: I can’t say enough about practicing mindfulness when eating. Seriously, what is the point of eating if you are not even tasting it. One bite at a time! Roll it around on your tongue, chew it masterfully. Engage all your sense in the true pleasure of nourishing your body.
Half Baked: Globbing down your meal in a millisecond (diet or otherwise).
Fully Baked: Eating it with full conviction, fully present, fully enjoying each and every morsel.
4. Restaurant Sanity: Order a salad and an appetizer for your main meal. In 99.9% of restaurants in the U.S. of Obesity, restaurants are overloading your large size plates in order to dupe you into thinking you are getting value and returning. What is the value of stuffing yourself on high-calorie, fatty-foods and gaining weight? Huh!!! Tell me!
Half Baked: Ordering a salad, appetizer, main dish, side dish, dessert and drinks galore.
Fully Baked: Ordering small amounts, and hey – if you are seriously still hungry, you can always order more!
5. No Seat/No Eat: STOP eating over counters, on the go, on the street, in the car (although technically that’s a seat). Sit down at your kitchen or dining room table and eat with dignity, for goodness sake!
Half Baked: Eating on the go, sloppy, staining your clothes!
Fully Baked: Eating with class, style and dignity.
6. Give Up the Soda and Other Sugary Drinks: How many studies do you have to read before you realize the full impact of sugary drinks? You are adding a ridiculous amount of empty to calories to you day!
Half Baked: Eating healthfully for 90% of the day and then guzzling soda.
Fully Baked: Give it up! Again, is it really worth it?
7. Hidden Calories in Salad Dressing: Do you have any idea how many people think that eating a salad – with the dressing – is a low-cal, healthy meal? It’s NOT! Salad dressing can add hundreds of calories to your day.
Half Baked: Using copious amount of dressing on salad and duping yourself into thinking it’s healthy.
Fully Baked: Ordering salad dressing on the side and practicing the ‘fork trick.’
BONUS!!!! Fork Trick: Dip your fork into the dressing and then load it with greens (not the reserve! Do not load up fork with greens and then dip in salad.)
8. Sweet Potatoes Rock: The sweet potato (not related to the white potato -shocker!) is one of the healthiest foods ever, and simply baked with nothing on it, provides you with approximately 180 power-packed calories. Enjoy!
Half Baked: Making a healthy sweet potato and melting a stick of butter on it.
Fully Baked: Adding sweet potatoes to your healthy food plan (and letting go of that ridiculous idea that a real food such as this is a carb and can harm you).
9. Hate Veggies? FYI – a secret known by few. The big difference between a fruit and veggie is the calorie count. They are both loaded with vitamins and minerals and water! So, if veggies are something that you just cannot deal with, eat more fruit!
Half Baked: Saying “I hate veggies,” and then giving up.
Fully Baked: Seeking the fruit solution!
10. Keeping a Food Journal: Statistics show that those who keep food journals are way more successful at weighing less! If writing it down is a chore, make it fun. Be a foto-food journalist. Instructions in the fabulous book (Oprah approved!): Our Lady of Weight Loss!
Half Baked: Thinking that you can and will remember every morsel you’ve eaten through out the day.
Fully Baked: Tracking what you eat in a tangible way.
11. Read the Labels: At first glance. You might see that the label says “50 calories per serving,” but at second glance, you realize that a serving is one teaspoon and you’ve just added 3 tablespoons to your cereal. Take the time to do the math!
Half Baked: Glancing at the nutrition labels on your food and thinking you’ve done the job!
Fully Baked: Taking the time to really ingest all the info on said labels.
12. Smoothie My Eye: Are you drowning in smoothie calories? Once again, just because you ordered a strawberry and banana smoothie, don’t dupe yourself into thinking, great … healthy and low-cal. Did they add honey? Full fat milk? Sugar? What else!!!
Half Baked: Drinking smoothies morning, noon and night and thinking that it’s a smooth move!
Fully Baked: Realizing that smoothies can be a trap; another bump on the road to Sveltesville.
13. Do NOT Skip Breakfast: If you think that skipping breakfast means that you are eliminating 300 or even 400 calories from your day, think again! Studies show that those who skip breakfast more than make up for it later in the day. And breakfast kick starts your metabolism.
Half Baked: Skipping breakfast and moving through your day like sludge.
Fully Baked: Starting the day with a healthful meal that gets you burning on all cylinders.
14. Put It on a Plate: Do NOT eat out of jars, bags or containers. It’s rather distasteful and a sure way to pack on the pounds.
Half Baked: Grabbing the bag and chomping your way through it.
Fully Baked: Measuring a portion, putting it on a plate and eating, once again, with a modicum of dignity and awareness.
15. Eat Until Sated: You know, until you are ‘not hungry,’ vs. ‘full’ or ‘past full.’
Half Baked: Eating until you are so stuffed that you cannot breathe.
Fully Baked: Eating until you are comfortable (about 3/4 full or less), knowing that if you are hungry later, you can return. This isn’t your last supper, you know!
16. Gone Nuts? Nuts, although deemed a healthy food, are loaded with calories and sometimes dripping in extra fat, sugar and salt! If you are going to eat nuts, then measure them out and buy raw nuts.
Half Baked: Eating processed nuts.
Fully Baked: Eating raw nuts (nothing better than a raw cashew) in moderation!
17. Share a Dessert: Order one or two for the table, or serve one slice of something for all at home. It’s perfect because you are allowing yourself something sweet, but in moderation.
Half Baked: Ordering steamed vegetables and cheese cake!
Fully Baked: Sharing! Not only will you save calories, but you’ll enjoy the bonding over the share.
18. Remember the 4 Bite Rule: It has been written that you taste 100% of the first bite; 50% the second bite; 25% the third bite; and 0% the fourth bite. Therefore, there’s no point in going past 4 bites (really 3), particularly when eating chips, cookies, creamy substances.
Half Baked: Eating for the sake of eating.
Fully Baked: Indulging with awareness; setting limits and truly tasting your food.
19. Make Substitutions: Low fat milk vs. full fat milk; reduced mayo vs. full fat mayo; mustard vs. mayo; one slice of sprouted bread vs. two slices of processed bread.
Half Baked: Ordering a chicken salad with globs of mayo.
Fully Baked: Ordering grilled chicken and lightly spreading reduced mayo on the sprouted, healthy bread.
20. Make Healthy Snacks a Habit: I don’t know about you, but I always check my bag before I leave home. Do I have my keys, cell phone, money? AND … a piece of fruit, some melba toast, a health bar? Something to tide me over if I am out on the road for longer than expected.
Half Baked: Being unprepared.
Fully Baked: Being prepared!
21. Non-Stick Skillets Are a Must: By using a non-stick skillet vs. a regular skillet that is greased with oil and/or butter, you are saving hundreds of calories.
Half Baked: Greasing it up!
Fully Baked: Finding ways to limit the excess, thereby saving calories galore!
22. Chew Eat Bite 25 Times: Back in the day, before the food industry engineered the foods we eat, we naturally chewed each bite 25 times. We now, on average, chew 11 times per bite; thus eating twice the amount of food! Eat natural, masticate your food!
Half Baked: Three chews and swallowing.
Fully Baked: Taking the time to masticate your food well! Eating half the amount!
23. There Is No End in Site: Seriously, there is no end. Well, not until the living end. We are a work in progress, always. There is no getting there.
Half Baked: Thinking that you are going somewhere and then it will all be fine.
Fully Baked: Fully accepting and embracing the fact that you are changing and evolving and there is no ‘once I get there.’
24. Limit Your Alcohol: Alcohol is a gateway to eating drug. If you open the gate to food, you may find it nearly impossible to stay on the road to Sveltesville. Either say ‘no’ or limit it!
Half Baked: Drinking and opening up the gateway to excessive eating.
Fully Baked: Knowing your limits!
25. Do NOT Wear Sweats! Elastic waistbands are trouble. Never ever leave room for expansion.
Half Baked: Thinking that you’ll wait to buy clothes that fit. You’ll be waiting forever and a day!
Fully Baked: Looking great NOW. Dress up, buy a belt (and wear it)! It will energize you and help you to keep on moving forward.
26. The Buffet: When at a party, peruse the buffet table first, select a few appropriate choices. Hold tight to a glass of sparkling water in one hand. And then … move to the other side of the room.
Half Baked: Tell yourself that you lose control at parties and buffet tables trigger you into oblivion. A sure way to fail!
Fully Baked: Plan ahead of time, gain control, gain self-respect!
27. Making the Best Choice in the Moment: Let’s face it. Life is unpredictable and we’re not100% perfect 100% of the time … and who wants to be??? Not me. Sometimes we just have to make the best choice in the moment.
Half Baked: Life happens and it throws you off course with a thud!
Fully Baked: You make the best choice in the moment and that’s okay!
28. It’s Bigger than Losing Weight: What will losing weight give you that you wouldn’t otherwise have? More than likely you want to feel good about yourself. What else?
Half Baked: Losing weight for the sake of losing weight.
Fully Baked: Letting the real you out!
More Fully Baked Diet Tips:
Lose 9 lbs. in 9 minutes
Why are you keeping our fat clothes?
Fat Belly? Lose it!
For more information about Janice’s 4 week program, write her!
Spread the word (NOT the icing!),
Janice
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Required Reading:Our Lady of Weight Loss: Miraculous and Motivational Musings from the Patron Saint of Permanent Fat Removal an OPRAH BOOK CLUB pick: Summer 2009 – Buy NOW!
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