1. Steam, boil, broil, or microwave vegetables, or stir-fry them in a small amount of vegetable oil.
2. Season vegetables with herbs and spices rather than sauces, butter, or margarine.
3. Try lemon juice or fat-free dressing on salad, or use a yogurt based dressing instead of mayonnaise or sour cream dressing.
4. To reduce saturated fat, use vegetable oil or tub margarine instead of butter or stick margarine when possible.
5. Replace whole milk with skim or low-fat milk in puddings, soups, and baked products. Substitute plain nonfat yogurt, blender-whipped cottage cheese, low-fat sour cream, or buttermilk in recipes that call for sour cream.
6. Choose lean cuts of meat, and trim any visible fat from meat before and after cooking. Remove skin from poultry before or after cooking. Monitor portion sizes. (Lean meats end in "loin".)
7. Roast, bake, or broil meat, poultry, or fish, so that fat drains away as the food cooks.
8. Use a nonstick pan for cooking so added fat will be unnecessary, use a vegetable spray for frying.
9. Chill broths from meat or poultry until the fat becomes solid. Spoon off the fat before using the broth.
10. Eat a low-fat vegetarian main dish at least once a week.
Kathy Thompson, is a writer and speaker, with over 25 years of researching nutrition and fitness. Kathy provides coaching, classes, workshops, articles, reports, columns. For help with losing weight, cleaning up your diet, or improving health, contact Kathy at: healthyu@words4-u.com. Check out the FREE report "The Secret To Permanent Weight Loss" at: www.words4u.com/health.html
About the author: Writer, Speaker, Coach, Kathy Thompson has been studying health & nutrition for over 25 years, and given workshops and classes around the country.
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Diet & Exercise Tips
Make your New Healthy Diet a LIFE STYLE!
Stop going on and off your diet! View it as a complete life style change. That way you'll never yo yo diet ever again. And there will be no diet to go off of. And remember it only takes 21 days to develop a habit. Even if you have developed a habit of over eating or eating all the wrong foods for the last 50 years. It only takes 21 days to change it!
Plan the Details
Since the first day will be the hardest, plan every detail possible the day before. For example: outline exactly what your going to eat, where your going to be, and what activities you have planned, for every hour of the day. Keep this outline with you and stick to the plan 100%.
EAT!
Many people make the mistake of thinking they have to stop eating to lose weight. Nothing could be further from the truth. Your body is programmed to speed up your metabolism and burn calories when you eat. The key is to eat healthier and drink plenty of water.
Eat Early!
When you do eat, do it as early in the day as possible. First, eating right when you get up gets your digestive system going. Second, your metabolism slows down as the day goes on. You don't want food sitting in your stomach overnight.
Breakfast
Doctors say that your metabolism doesn't really kick into gear until you eat your first meal of the day. Make it a point to have a good nutritional breakfast to start the day.
The Importance of Exercise
Many dieters mistakenly fail to include exercise as part of their diet plan. Losing weight involves two parts: eating less and exercising more. Make sure you properly plan exercise into your daily life and you will see fast weight-loss results.
Gain Muscle, Lose Fat!
Everyone thinks of Cardio exercise when they think of losing weight, but lifting weights should be part of your program too. Weight lifting builds muscles which makes you look more firm and helps you burn more calories! You don't have to lift heavy or long, just enough to start tiring out your muscles to get good results.
More Than Weight
Don't just use the scale to measure your success, there may be reasons you are gaining weight and still losing fat (such as gaining muscle or retaining water)
Vitamins
Taking a multi-vitamin can help supplement some of the nutrients your body misses, now that your not eating as much.
Cleanup Your Life!
Although they appear unrelated: clean out your car, your home, your desk, etc. As you diet, you are cleansing your body and getting healthy and right along with that comes cleaning out your entire life. From a mental standpoint, you are eliminating all that is dirty and impure and change your lifestyle completely.
And Last but Not Least, Water, Water and Water!!!
You've heard it before and you'll hear it again. Water is the best way to keep your metabolism going and keep your body healthy. Don't underestimate drinking water!
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"Self delusion is pulling in your stomach when you step on the scale."
- Paul Sweeney
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