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How To Change Your Eating to Lose Weight

How To Change Your Eating to Lose Weight

Change Your Eating to Lose Weight

The way you eat can have just as much to do with your weight gain or weight loss as what you eat. By changing a few things regarding how you eat, you can actually save calories and feel fuller. These techniques are easy to follow and will not draw a lot of attention to your weight loss process.

1. Chew your food slower. Many times you eat fast and hurriedly. This can cause you to eat more calories than you actually think you are eating. My chewing your food slower and taking smaller bites, you can make yourself feel fuller and lose more weight.

2. Eat off a dark colored plate. Yep, even the color of your plate can make you hungrier or fuller. Use a cool or dark colored plate to cause your mind to relax and enjoy the food better, hence causing you to eat less and slower.

3. Relax and de-stress before you eat. Many people are emotional eaters and stress will cause them to eat more. Relaxing will allow you to eat less and enjoy your food more.

4. Have some water with your meal. Feel free to drink water between bites and before your meal. This will make you feel fuller and be better hydrated.

5. Leave the room that you are eating in after eating. This way you can feel completely done eating. Dishes and leftovers can wait for a few minutes while you relax and begin to digest your food.

6. Focus on one thing at a time. Yes, it can be tempting to read the paper or watch television while eating, but this can distract you from your portion control and can even create a habit. This can cause you to want to eat every time you watch television, rather than watch television while you eat, causing you to eat more calories.

7. Designate areas of the house in which food is allowed. Not only will this keep the house cleaner, but it will also teach you to only want to eat while in those designated area. This can help to keep cravings and temptations at bay.

8. Buy salad plates and use these instead of dinner plates. These are smaller and will make whatever you put on them look bigger. This will trick your mind into thinking that you have eaten more and therefore are not hungry for more.

These little changes are simple and easy to implement but are also very effective for controlling your appetite. Such simple techniques can help you to retrain your brain and body, causing further weight loss. With such simple techniques, there is no reason not to be able to stick to your diet plan, provided it is balanced and reasonable.

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General Weight Loss Tips

Life Well Laughed

Breakfast held me over until about 2pm. For a split second I considered going out for lunch, but quickly realized that I could eat something a lot better from home. I’m glad I went home because I forgot about the two bags of croissants and Polinesian chicken salad in the refrigerator.

So that was lunch, and it was delicious. If you’re a fan of chicken salad, you can find the recipe here. I love chicken salad; top 20 favorite food item for sure. I estimated about 500-550 calories for the sandwich.

I recieved an email from the folks at Laughing Cow asking me if I’d mention their Life Well Laughed campaign and thought, why not? I knew I was going to the store this evening, so I decided to pick up a pack of their cheese wedges. Disclaimer: I was in no way compensated for this mention. I was hankering cheese and it sounded like a good cause.

The Life Well Laughed Project makes it easy for people to give back to their communities through delightful snacking. From April 1 through July 15, you can visit LifeWellLaughed.com, enter the UPC code found on the outside of the packaging of The Laughing Cow cheese wedges and/or Mini Babybel® cheese, and The Laughing Cow will make a $1 donation to support health and wellness programs. The Laughing Cow has committed a minimum donation of $250,000, but with enough people participating, the company hopes to realize a maximum donation of $500,000.

The Laughing Cow®’s mission is to make healthy living more delightful. Inspired by the First Lady’s Lets Move initiative, they’ve taken that one step further to create the Life Well Laughed Project, which seeks to motivate, educate and support communities across the nation to live healthier lifestyles for our kids.

I chose the queso fresco and chipotle cheese, a new one to me and it was pretty good. I enjoyed the creamy texture and smoky/spicy flavor. I’m already coming up with ideas for it. My snack was 100 calories- 35 for the cheese and and 65 for the rice and nut crackers.

I’m making an effort to drink lots of water today. I can’t seem to get enough.

Total calories so far today: 1,060-1,160

Going to do Insanity soon, today is pure cardio (one of the hardest sessions- hoping to burn 400-500 calories) and planning some steak stir-fry with peppers over rice and a salad for dinner.

What are you having for dinner?

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General Weight Loss Tips

Sticker Challenge

I really love a good challenge, even if I’m the only contender. I’m determined for April to be the month where food tracking and exercise get married and live harmoniously. Yes indeed. They’re gonna be friends and I’m going to be better for it.

And because a challenge needs a system, rules and reward. I made a spread sheet. To get one sticker each day this month I will need to do three things: track my calories, post all food consumed on blog, and exercise daily. I will only get my reward if I’ve done all of these things everyday for eight weeks. I will get another sticker for each pound that I lose. It’s going to be awesome.

Yes, I’m slightly neurotic, yes I love stickers. And yes, I love a good challenge. I live for challenges. Need further proof? When I clean I have to set my oven timer for 35 minutes. I like to challenge myself to clean as much as possible during that time. I cannot do anything else, but clean for 35 minutes. And you know what? It works and I love it. No email, no kitty petting, no gazing out the window. Just focused time.

I also get a small reward for each week that I get all of my stickers. I really thought about these rewards and the one thing I got consistently excited about was a new book/magazine. I’m going to have to buy a new bookcase when it’s all said and done. I love going to the book store on weekends and I’ve decided that I want to earn those books and magazines that I love so dearly. When I buy a new book, I want to say “you know what? you worked hard for that.” Not just for the money to buy it, but for taking care of myself.

**********

This morning I woke up feeling hung over from food. I overindulged this weekend with my parents visiting, hosting a bridal shower, and date night with Josh. I just wanted something substantial, not too heavy, and delicious. I decided on 1/2 cup walnut, date, and raisin oatmeal (a package from Tina!) with 1 T homemade almond, peanut and cashew honey nut butter, 1 T all-fruit strawberry jam, and 1/2 C whole milk.


Nut butter! So easy to make and delicious.


Not sure who Uncle Matt is, but this orange juice tasted very fresh.

Lillies left over from the bridal shower decided to finally open up.

Total calories: 460

PS: I am not a nutritionist. I do not recommend that you eat like me to lose weight. I do know that fruit is a natural sugar. I do know that I could have eaten about 100 other things that would satisfy a number of other people, theories, studies or guidelines.

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