50 Small Eating Changes to Help You Lose Big

As everyone knows, I've just started going back to Weight Watchers. Being at the beach last week probably set me back, but I'm back to using my food journal and counting points. I was looking thru my "Diet/ Exercise Ideas" notebook and came across an article I cut out years ago. It would take too long to post all 50 at once so I'll do ten at a time:

1. Eat enough to lose. Eating too few calories can mess up your metabolism. So make sure your daily caloric intake is at least 1200 calories. Otherwise, your body may go into "starvation" mode, actually slowing the burning of calories and the digestive process.

2. Picture a portion. You can really overeat if your don't have a clear sense of what makes a reasonable serving size. Use these visual guidelines: Meat, fish, chicken (3-4 oz) looks like a deck of cards. Chopped vegetables (1 cup) are about the size of a tennis ball. Picture half a tennis ball for pasta and other grains (1/2 cup). For cheese (1 oz) think of a standard domino.

3. Give yourself a break. It's hard to include something from all the food groups in every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Concentrate on choosing items from only three food groups at a time. As long as you get a balanced variety of foods during the day, that's what counts.

4. Remember the color rule. Fill your plate with colorful foods--especially greens, reds, and yellows. The more colors on your plate, the more nutrients and the less fat and calories you're probably getting.

5. Get fat in the afternoon. Don't restrict your fat calories at lunch, since this is the natural time for your body to crave fat. If you deny your desire, you'll just eat more later.

6. Follow the 3-gram rule. Your goal should be to eat meals that have no more than 30 percent of calories coming from fat. An easy way to figure this out: Choose foods that have 3 grams of fat or less per every 100 calories (read labels).

7. Limit fat-free products. Fat-free foods are less satisfying than the real thing, so we tend to eat more of them. Many of these products have just as many calories as their full-fat product.

8. Don't overeat protein. Since your body only utilizes the amount of protein it needs, the rest is just extra fat and calories. Limit your daily protein intake to 6 or 7 ounces.

9. Fill up on fiber. Eat foods high in soluble fiber and you'll feel fuller longer. Most fruits, vegetables, oats, brown rice and beans are good sources. So are packaged foods with at least 2.5 grams of fiber per serving. Add a few tablespoons of wheat bran to yogurt, cereal and salads.

10. Don't drink all of your fruit. Opt for fresh fruit rather than juice. A piece of fruit gives you the satisfaction of chewing, takes longer to consume, and helps you feel fuller because it's loaded with fiber. Plus, it's lower in calories than fruit juice.