Day 4: Tweak Your Diet | 30-Day Weight Loss-athon
Here we are at Day 4 of the 30-Day Weight Loss-athon. Today we turn to that dreaded downfall of wannabe-weight-losers everywhere – the diet.
Read the steps first, then take 10 minutes to complete them.
We only have 10 minutes, so move fast, act quickly and stop over-thinking. Just throw yourself in. Ready?
What You Need:
- Blank stickers, or post-its, or paper and sticky tape
- A pen.
Step 1
Most people with weight to lose are eating more food than they need. Or more of certain types of food.
So our first step is to choose a couple of ways we’re going to eat a bit less for the rest of the month.
You don’t need a strict diet that makes you crazy and is ultimately counter-productive in order to eat less. There are many smarter, saner and more achievable ways to do it – ways that don’t require psychological self-abuse.
For instance, you could:
- Reduce your portions by, say 10%
- Reduce your portions by using smaller plates
- Switch to low-fat milk/dairy
- Halve or cut out the sugar in your tea and coffee
- Skip the syrup in your coffee
- Cut down on desserts – skip it, skip on alternate days, share dessert, halve dessert
- Drink fewer alcoholic beverages – alternate with water, dilute with ice, substitute with lime and soda
- Find something you eat most days but could do without, and stop eating it
- Stop putting butter on sandwiches
- Add less (or no) mayonnaise, gravy and sauces to your food
- Cut down on snacks – skip them, skip on alternate days, share snacks, halve snacks
- Use less fat when you cook
- Switch to lower-fat cooking methods like baking and roasting versus frying
- Use less butter or a lower fat spread.
For some people, just giving up alcohol or desserts could make a huge difference to your daily calorie intake – and your weight.
For others, several smaller changes – like switching to low-fat dairy, cutting down on sugar and reducing portion sizes by just 10% – could combine to pack quite a weight-loss punch.
You need to find actions that you can make for the long term – so don’t go too drastic. Better to aim low, have some success and then use that to bolster your efforts, than to aim too high and give up because it’s too great a sacrifice. Pace yourself – you will get there.
So choose a couple of tweaks to your diet that you can live with for a month – tweaks that won’t drive you or the people you live with crazy.
Step 2
Depending on the tweaks you’ve chosen, now take whatever action you need to take to cement these tweaks in place.
For example:
- Find smaller plates and put the larger ones away
- Put a ‘10% Less’ sign in your kitchen
- Go buy low-fat dairy products
- Put ‘Use less’ stickers on your sugar, oil, butter, alcohol or whatever
- Find smaller bowls for your snacks or desserts and put them in front of the bigger bowls
- Cut your treats in half or portion them into baggies.
Check in!
And you’re done!
Be sure to leave your comment below to check in and stay accountable. If you’re reading this by email or in a reader then please click here to leave your comment.
See you tomorrow!
I discovered the proper balance for me. It’s time to make it a regular practice again.
My plan to eat 10% less! I will leave something on my plate!
Good luck everyone!
I already do most of it but I am committing to 10% less of everything everyday.
ok – decreasing portion sizes and increasing water consumption.
Smller portions and smaller plates should be a winning combination!
I think I missed getting Day 5. How do I access this mission?
My sticky note had “Filled with Joy” printed on it so added “and not so much food, use smaller plate”.
Thanks… I do all of that and more…. its the hidden calories / kilojules in the foods I like such as beetroot chips that do the damage for me!
My goal is to cut back on pasta and potatoes, switch to whole grains and really pay attention to my diabetic diet again.
I’ll stop going back for seconds and cut my desserts in half. I know better than to give up sweets all at once…I will never stic to it!
Got it! Cutting fat and halving snacks. I was kinda glad to see I’m on the right track with desserts, portions and not drinking! On a roll!!
Already using smaller plates, have cut dessert every night. Now just have to reduce portion size and stop after-dinner nibbling.
I love that it is a tweak you have us focusing on versus a drastic change or entire food group elimination. Thanks for motivating us so well!
Portion control is the strategy I need to work harder on. Proud that I have already made many of the other healthy choices suggested in today’s post.
My husband likes the sweets and I love the salty chips and between the two of us, we have quite a pantry full of temptation! Maybe the sticky notes will help me keep my focus.
Why does everything just come back to Good Old Common Sense? =) Today, I’m going to skip the Syrup in the coffee and buy 1% milk instead of 2%. Tomorrow I’ll add another small change!
Decided to cut portion sizes for me & DH, use less fat when cooking eg. grilling, boiling & spray fat in a non-stick pan, fruit or low fat yogurt IF I’m hungry between meals 🙂
I find when I am tired I crave more sugars and carbs, be sure to have a scheduled sleep pattern and don’t get dehydrated which makes you tired. I am still working on this advise for myself.
This is a tough one, cos I don’t have morning tea or dessert, live on a dry campus, am lactose intolerant( so no dairy) and I snack on 12 almonds or a piece of fruit( 1 portion a day). Ok I will switch to smaller plate and cut down carbs by 50%
I do all these things and cutting back farther only shifts my body into starvation mode. For me it’s really about exercise and building some muscle mass. @ Teresa, my MD put me on chromium and it really has had an effect.