Lean and Strong in 2009

Eat Your Meals and Snacks at the Table

Only Eat at the Table

Whenever you eat and drink, sit at the table. You shouldn't be standing, watching TV or in the car. Eating at the table will make you eat less impulsively and force you to pay more attention to your food.

Watching TV and Eating Adds Extra Calories

TV=Overweight

Eating in front of the TV will make you overweight. Television programs are designed to entertain you. These shows hold your interest, allowing you to mindlessly eat snacks. Before you know it, hundreds of calories have gone into your body. Never eat in front of the TV.

Do Nothing But Eat During Meals and Snacks

No Multitasking

Multitasking while eating diverts your attention from your food, leading you to eat more than you should. Make a firm rule that you will not talk on the phone, read a newspaper, watch TV or do anything other than eat when you're eating.

Eat Less by Sitting Next to Flowers

Confuse Your Nose

Reduce the amount of food that you eat by confusing your senses. If you are eating a steak but smell a pungent odor of cinnamon, your senses won't enjoy it as much. If you need to lose weight, try producing strong aromas that are unrelated to the foods you are eating. Vary the odors since you can get accustomed to smells quickly.

Convince Yourself That Unhealthy Food Tastes Bad

Expect Unhealthy Food to Taste Bad

Force yourself to expect that unhealthy foods will taste bad and leave you feeling heavy, bloated and unwell. The more you create unpleasant expectations about unhealthy foods, the less you will crave them. Visualize the foods in your bloodstream, clogging your arteries. Imagine the unhealthy foods weighing you down, forcing you to take a nap and lose time in your day.

Avoid Using Food as Reward, Punishment, or Comfort

No Food Rewards

Respect food. Use it to nourish your body. Do not reward yourself with candy bars, chocolates or anything else. Find other ways to reward and relax yourself.

Leave Food on Your Plate

No Clean Plate

Your "clean plate club" membership will make you overweight. Those 3 or 4 'last bites' to just finish up equal hundreds of calories everyday. Never clean your plate; always leave at least one bite of food. It may be difficult to throw away food, but that extra food is better in the garbage than in your body.

Iced Drinks Burn 1 cal/oz Extra

Drink Cold Drinks

Drinking cold beverages actually burns a few calories. The body uses heat to warm up cold beverages, equaling about 1 calorie per ounce. You might be able to burn 64 ounces a day simply by drinking 8 cups of ice cold water. That can give you a few calories for a treat, like a piece of chocolate.

Taste Your Craving, Then Pause

Set a Pause Point for Cravings

Saying 'no' to cravings just makes you want them more. The trick is to learn to stop after a few bites. Next time you get a craving, allow yourself a certain small number of bites of the food that you desire. This is your 'pause point.' Once your reach your 'pause point,' stop eating and assess whether you are still craving the food or are just mindlessly eating it. Take this time to put the snack away and see if you can stop the impulse.

Drink No Calories

Reduce Liquid Calories

About 22 percent of calories consumed by Americans are from liquids. Switching to water, tea or calorie-free sodas could save hundreds of calories a day. This may be the easiest way to lose weight if you are currently getting many of your calories from liquids.

Here's how: Every day switch one drink that has calories with one that doesn't. If you drink 3 sodas a day, make one iced tea on the first day. If you drink orange juice each morning, switch to hot tea or water. Keep making these switches until you are drinking no calories. Try this for one week. You may reduce your daily calories without even changing anything what you eat.

Control Food Decisions

Pre-Decide Your Food

The average person makes about 200 food decisions a day. Thinking about food constantly and deciding what we want to eat makes us hungry. Plan your daily meals, drinks and snacks ahead of time. If you spend less time thinking about food, you will make fewer bad decisions.

Make a point to make all your food decisions in advance. Don't let yourself wander through the cafeteria, pantry or menu asking, "What sounds good?" For one week, make all the decisions at least a day ahead and stick to them.

Avoid Diets and Make Real Change

Don't Diet - Change

Ninety five percent of people who diet regain the weight when they stop. It's not only discouraging, but bad for your health. Instead of starting a diet that requires you to alter what, how much and how you eat all at once, make small (but permanent) changes everyday.

Ask yourself each morning, "What is one thing I can do today to be healthier?" and then do it. Some goals will stick and others won't, but you'll see progress.

Hide All Your Food

See No Snacks

If you can see it, you'll eat it. Do not leave snacks out on the counter. Do not have clear cookie jars or storage containers. Store all food in the pantry, refrigerator or freezer. Make your house visually "food free."

Stop When You Are No Longer Hungry

Don't Eat Until Full

Don't eat until you are full. If you get to 'full,' you have eaten at least 20 percent too many calories. Stop eating when you are no longer hungry. You can always come back and eat more later. You will have to practice this, so start by eating less for one meal a day.

Serve Yourself a Little Less Each Meal

Dish Out 20 Percent Less

Put 20 percent less food on your plate than you think you need. Too often we eat until the plate is clear, so putting less on the plate can really save some calories. You likely won't miss 20 percent less and will still feel satisfied. Remember, if you get hungry later, you can always eat more.

One Extra Spoonful of Veggies Each Meal

20 Percent More Veggies

Whenever you serve vegetables, put about 20 percent more on your plate than normal. You will eat these, fill up and get some extra nutrition.

Note: This tip does not apply to vegetables covered in cheese sauce or prepared with bacon. Sorry.

Make Unhealthy Food Look Bigger

Make Food Look Big

Your brain plays tricks on you. It decides that you are full based on your normal eating habits and how the food looks on the plate. You can fool your brain into thinking you've eaten more by making the food on the plate appear bigger.

Make your food look bigger by using small plates, spreading the food around and using vegetables to fill in any spaces. You will eat less and not even know it.

Use a BIG Salad Bowl

Make Healthy Food Look Smaller

The tricks the brain plays work both ways -- if making food look bigger helps us eat less, then making food look smaller helps us eat more. Serve your salad in a HUGE salad bowl, it won't seem like as much food. Put your vegetables on a big plate and your entree on a small one. You'll be satisfied with the entree and not overwhelmed by the salad.

Keep the Serving Dishes in the Kitchen

No Serving Dishes

Serve food away from the table and leave the serving dishes in the kitchen. Having serving dishes on the table makes it too easy to take seconds. That "one more little scoop" adds up. Make yourself get up and go to the kitchen for more and you'll find yourself going back for seconds less often.

Count Your Fries and Chips

Count When Snacking

We can mindlessly eat dozens of chips, candies and other junk foods. Be sure to count as you eat snacks. A serving size is often much less than what is in the package. Just knowing how many you have eaten will help you eat less.

Avoid Bags and the Chip Bowl

No Bag Eating

Always eat from a plate. First, put the chips or other finger food from the communal bowl or bag onto a plate. This way you have a better sense of how much you have eaten and won't mindlessly munch chips. Once you put your snack on a plate, put the bag away. Don't leave the bag sitting on the counter for a quick refill. If you are determined to get more, make yourself get up, go to the pantry, refill your plate and return the bag to its cabinet.

Don't Reuse Dishes

New Plate or Glass

If you refill your plate or glass, you will not have as good a sense about how much you are eating and drinking. Each time you add food, use a new plate or glass and leave the old one on the table. You may be surprised how much soda you drink during a meal and how many times you spoon out a little bit more rice. Hand wash all your dishes to burn some extra calories.

Eat First, Then Drink

Don't Drink and Eat

We can mindlessly drink 2 or 3 sodas, beers or glasses of wine or juice over the course of a meal. This adds hundreds of calories to your daily intake. Drink about 4 ounces of water during a meal and enjoy your other beverage before or after your meals. Now you'll be more aware of how much you are actually drinking.

Don't Buy in Bulk

Small Packages

When you buy in bulk, you eat in bulk. Buy smaller packages. Huge boxes and bags make a serving size look small, making it easy to inaccurately estimate how much you are eating. When you have a 3-month supply of a food, you tend to think you can eat as much as you want. Buy small packages and make yourself restock what you eat regularly.

Avoid Short, Wide Glasses

Use Tall Skinny Glasses

Tall, skinny glasses deceive the eyes and make you think there is more in the glass than there really is. You will drink less and feel more satisfied than if you use wide glasses. Try for yourself. Pour what you think looks like an equal amount of water into a short, wide glass and a tall, skinny glass and then measure. Did you estimate wrong? I bet you did. So pour your morning orange juice into a tall, skinny glass.

Trick Your Brain By Chewing More

Chew More to Feel Full

Researchers have found that feeling full is a complex equation of time, thinking about food, number of chews, number of swallows, and a visual estimate of how much you have eaten. Feel full on less food by chewing more, thinking about the food as you eat it and taking longer to eat.

Put Your Fork Down Between Bites

Slow Down Your Eating

It takes at least 20 minutes after eating for your stomach to tell your brain that it is full. But most of us finish a meal in 10 minutes. Give your stomach time to catch up to your brain by slowing down your eating. After putting food in your mouth, put your fork on the table and let go. Do not touch the fork until your mouth is empty. Repeat through the entire meal. Try this at least once a day.

Only Eat One or Two Things Each Meal

Reduce the Variety of Unhealthy Foods

When there is variety on the plate, we tend to eat more. You sample each food, have another bite, which leads to another and another. You're less bored by the different foods, so you keep eating more. Reduce the number of foods at each meal (or when snacking) and you'll eat less.

Increase the Variety of Healthy Foods

Eat More Kinds of Healthy Food

Having more than one vegetable at the table will increase the amount of veggies that you eat. You will "tour" and sample different ones. It is a lot easier to eat 2 or 3 bites of 3 different vegetables than 9 bites of the same vegetable.

Make It a Challenge to Get to Your Food

Make Food Inconvenient

Make it challenging to get to the cookie jar. Store it in a high place using a step stool. Make it hard to find those snacks. Every obstacle you place between you and food gives you time to reconsider your cravings.

Move Your Food Around to Remind You About Your Goals

Rearrange Your Pantry

Move your food around. Change shelves for snacks and other "naughty" foods. When you habitually reach for food and it's not there, use that moment to assess your hunger and need for the snack. Rearrange often.

Food Thoughts Make You Hungry

Don't Think About Food

When you think about food, your pancreas releases insulin to prepare your body for food. The extra insulin lowers your blood sugar, making you feel hungry. Try not to think about food. Whenever you do, try this simple breathing exercise.

Slow Down and Pay Attention By Using Chopsticks

Eat with Chopsticks

Not only will eating with chopsticks slow down your eating, giving your stomach a chance to feel full, they will also make you contemplate your food more. When you eat with chopsticks, you have to pay attention to your food and carefully select each piece. Try chopsticks for a week and see if you eat less and more mindfully.