Do you really need fancy diets or diet pills to lose weight? They are certainly big on promises, but they come up a little short on results. How short?
Actually, they do not usually work, and even if they did, it is not a healthy way to lose weight. What is healthy weight loss?
While there is more than one theory on this subject, healthy weight loss could be defined as eating healthy.
Trust me; if you are overweight, when you begin making gradual but better food choices, it is hard not to start losing at least some weight. And speaking of eating healthy, it does not have to boring.
Here are some tips and tricks you may want to try:
1. Try cutting down on the amount of sandwich or filling. For instance, make a 2-ounce hamburger patty instead of a 3-ounce one, or share a large sandwich with a friend.
2. How about a vegetable sandwich? Fill whole-wheat pocket bread with sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, green pepper rings, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and watercress moistened with plain yogurt seasoned with curry or garlic for a light, crunchy meal.
3. Did you realize that catsup, sweet pickles, and most other condiments add on calories (and sodium, too)? So go easy. One tablespoon of catsup plus a tablespoon of sweet pickle relish contain 40 calories.
4. Use different types of vegetables to make flavorful vegetable soups. For instance, try a soup adventure with a combination of zucchini, leeks, tomatoes, red beans, turnips, escarole, and green beans.
5. A hearty soup containing meat, poultry, fish and/or beans combined with vegetables can be a meal-in-a-bowl.
6. Mayonnaise, butter, or margarine – at 100 to 105 calories per tablespoon – ups the calories. To moisten your sandwich, use a crisp leaf of lettuce. Or to bind ingredients, spread a slice of avocado.
7. Use a variety of ingredients in your salads to avoid monotony. For a change from the old standbys of lettuce, cucumber, and tomato – why not fill a bowl full of chicory, spinach leaves, and broccoli florets?
Experiment. Add crisp apple slices, some raisins and nuts.
8. Mix vegetables and fruits for different flavor combinations – endive, spinach, and escarole with orange and grapefruit sections of shredded carrots brightened with chunks of unsweetened pineapple.
9. Lend variety to fruit salads, too. For example, substitute pears for apples in Waldorf salad.
10. Try lamb or veal shish kabobs cooked outdoors on a grill. Alternate well-trimmed meat cubes on a skewer with fresh vegetables – cherry tomatoes, green pepper pieces, small onions, and mushrooms.
Baste with a mixture of lemon juice and hears, such as marjoram and oregano or ginger and coriander. [source: American Dietetic Association]