Tidy Tips For Your Waistline

I know it sounds cliche', but one of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to lose weight. I have been working toward that goal lately, and then with my Mother's recent health problems, I have been thinking a lot about what I am eating.

I have been doing fairly well with my weight loss goal, but I haven't been dieting. Diets don't work. Sure, they have short term results, but unless you think you will never eat a cupcake again, or you are willing to eat nothing but eggs for the rest of you life (I have a friend whose egg diet ruined eggs for her permanently), they don't work. For weight loss it comes down to a simple equation, calories in vs. calories out. I have been using the website loseit.com and have lost 7 pounds. I really like loseit, 2 of my friends, Cierra and Janey encouraged me to join, it is a free site, that helps you count calories. So I simply try to burn more than I am eating and try not to go over my budget.

I majored in Fitness & Nutrition in College, and one of my favorite classes was my Healthy Body Image class. I think everyone wants to be skinny, that is a given, but it is more than that, you need to be healthy and take care of your bodies by eating better and exercising. I have been working hard lately on improving what and how much I am eating. There were several helpful tips that I learned in that class like ordering a kids meal instead of a full meal and if you have to have sweets (I have a MAJOR sweet tooth!) try to choose lower calorie options, like licorice and Junior Mints. My teacher added the advice of eating your sweets earlier in the day, so you have more time to burn them off. She also suggested portioning them out to their serving size instead of sitting down with the bag/box. That last one really stuck with me and I now try to portion out what I buy from the store. This is what it looks like when I come home from grocery shopping.... The snack size bags are key, the smaller they are the less you put in them. I buy A LOT of snack bags. I come home, dump out the bag, and read what the serving size is. In the case of my dried fruit it is 1/3 cup. I then scoop a portion into the bag and that is it. The rule also is, ONE bag, you can't grab more than one for a snack!
Some of you may be thinking "UGH, that would take so much time, I just don't have the time to do that." I think of it a little differently though, I can either spend the time portioning out my food so I don't over eat, OR, I can spend the time on the treadmill. I really do enjoy exercise, but let's be honest, I would rather spend 45 minutes vs. an hour. I also use this trick to create my own 100 calorie packs, the ones in the store are WAY overpriced. It has worked well in my house, and I am feeling good about making healthier choice in other ways like hormone free milk & eggs, more organic foods, and less sugar. Same concept here, eating this way does cost a bit more, but I can pay more now, or with medical bills later in life.

Do you have any tricks to help you eat better or more healthy? I would love to hear them please share!