Slim Down By Eating Right

There are 2 important components in successful weight control. Diet and exercise are the keys to your reaching and maintaining your goal weight, but diet is the more important one for weight loss.

You can exercise your little(?) bum off and still not lose weight if you continue to overeat. Naturally if you exercise regularly, you can be overweight and quite fit, but that's not really what you are after.

So in regards to diet, you know that you have to wean yourself off the fatty, salty, sugary yummies if you are going to get what you want (a fit trim healthy new you, remember?).

But of course the treats you've been routinely inhaling throughout your day have become like second nature to you and there's the problem. You have to change your eating habits or you are simply not going to have a weight control diet except in your wildest dreams.

If you are in a really desperate mindset, you may be able to cut out the saturated fats and copious sugars and simple carbs that I suspect currently predominate your life from one day to the next. Wouldn't that be great?

That's actually how I gave up drinking 3 years ago. I just stopped and didn't start again. I did not expect to be able to do this and I certainly did not plan it as I was an every day heavy drinker till then.

I was just in the right mindset at the right time and even now I don't thing "I'll never drink again". I think "At the moment the benefits of not drinking far outweigh the drawbacks". You could apply this Spartan technique to diet, but it can be a hard decision to stick to if you go that way.

The easiest method to change your diet is to wean yourself off particular foods while re-introducing your taste buds to salads and fruit and nuts and veges and lean meats. A bit like putting a baby onto solids.

All right, I know it's not fast, but do you want to maintain a goal weight or not? The vast majority of people who lose weight rapidly stack it all back on and more, so if you want a lasting result it's going to take time. If you rush a miracle man, you'll get lousy miracles.

Anyway, along with retraining your taste buds eating-wise, here are a few pointers for eating right to slim down.

1. You are going to have to restrict your drinks to water, skim milk, tea, coffee and the occasional diet drink, light beer or watered down glass of wine. Green tea would be perfect if you could manage it. The caffeine is helpful with fat burning and energy.

If water is too boring, slice up a bit of orange, lime or lemon and drown it. Don't be tempted into a drop of sugary cordial or a full strength milk or soda style drink.

Whatever you do, do not fool yourself into thinking fruit juice to be an acceptable health drink if you want to lose weight. All the fibre has been chucked out with the pulp and the juice is just choked with sugar that if you don't exercise it off almost immediately, will settle quite gleefully onto your stomach, thighs and hips.

2. You are going to have to eat small meals often. Now when you are currently thinking meals, you are probably thinking steak and 3 veg plus desert. No, no, no. A meal could be as small as an apple or tub of low fat yoghurt. The big meals should be breakfast and lunch to get you through the demanding parts of the day.

3. Dinner should be a very low volume meal. Use small plates for a psychological advantage. Small night time meals will definitely take some attitude adjustment, but the results will please you. Don't be afraid to go to bed a little bit hungry.

You have probably gotten into the habit of eating mindlessly with your focus elsewhere than on your food. If your food is not the main subject of your attention when you eat, I can guarantee you will eat more than you mean to. Turn off the TV, sit down, look at your food and appreciate it. Eat slowly and taste everything you eat. It's going to work.

4. Stop eating before you get full. It takes a good 20 minutes for your dozy old tummy to register that you have fed it. Give it a chance by sending down a bit at a time. This is definitely an acquired technique but again one that will set you on the road to weight control diet success.

If you put a bit of thought into what you eat and drink and how and when you take your meals, you are going to slim down nicely.

Eat clean and prosper!

Rosie Peters gives common sense advice, encouragement and tips for weight loss, sensible diet and lifelong fitness. Sometimes it's not what you want to hear, but what you need to know. Visit Rosie at weight-control-diet-advice.com.

Rosie's e-Book Weight Loss is Simple may be what you're after. Check it out & get a free copy of her popular e-Book Fat No More, while you're there.