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 do pretty well at this portion control but do tend to eat some prepacked “treats” that don’t have any nutritional value & so I got rid of that type of food in the house today. I also like the post it note suggestion for my bag of shredded cheese, even though its lower fat I still use more than a serv.
I know I am a carb-a-holic and WARNING WARINING -this is a holdiay weekend. I will resolve to have one serving of bread a day, if any. I am hosting Easter this year, so this won’t be an impossible task. I am also celebrating Passover with my BFF, so I guess only one matzo ball tonight(I’ll live!). I would like to also stop grazing all night and stop eating by 7. This is where those sticky notes will come in handy. Tonight will be tough because dinner doesn’t start until 6, so perhaps holidays will have to be 8 pm (or at least one not in my home).
Evening snacks when the kids have gone to bed are a big trouble for me. I think I will leave around a glass of water to fill (me) up as a reminder. It is said that most of the times after drinking a glass of water you don’t really feel as snacking anymore.
I really like all these suggestions. Great to be reminded of tactics like smaller plates and less of things as opposed to all or nothing.
For this mission I am cutting down my coffee intake to just one cup per day. I will then drink tea if I feel like a hot beverage as I don’t add sugar to tea at all!
My group will make changes as follows:
We decided the only people who put syrup in their coffee are Australians.
Eggs are good for protein, Vitamin C, antioxidant and good cholesterol. Brown eggs are the best to eat.
These are healthy snacks: peanuts; carrots; wheat crackers and high grade cheese in small portions.
We will continue to bake or roast our food.
If you like butter, promise butter is cardiology approved. They have a 5 calorie or 80 calorie. I use it periodically and it doesn’t bother your heart.
I took a break over Easter, so only on day 4 – but already this programme has had such a positive effect on me– yesterday was the first day in years that I comfortably had NO ALCOHOL, NO SNACKS and it was easy. I had weighed in at my heaviest ever, and had ENOUGH! Thank you so much! The 10 minutes bits every day are really so achievable and not daunting or overwhelming… I cant wait to weigh in next week. PLUS : I put a big 10% LESS on my fridge- to also encourage my husband… TIP: I drink a bit of pink/ruby grapefruit juice when I feel like something sweet- It takes away the urge…..
Most of these things we are already doing. I don’t drink alcohol or soda, we drink fat-free milk, I use small plates, no butter, no refined sugar, very little processed food and our snacks are usually fruit, nuts or veggies. I’m thinking for this one I’m going to cut down to one cup of coffee a day and drink green tea if I’m worn down in the afternoon (sans honey) and I’m contemplating a juice cleanse.
My biggest obstacle is my psychological need for sweet after a meal. Now that I am eating less sugary foods my body isn’t gtting what it wants Most of the time I’m not even hungry. I just want sweet So starting today I m going to thank you making a cup of tea or chewing some sugarlss gum to get my weet fix after meals.
Got this one done!
HMmmmn..k got it!
The Plates have shrunk!
Challenge on! Checking in
My aim is to cut down on the portion of food on my plate and to cleanse my body by drinking water more.
Funny enough I gave up pop yesterday. No more Coke for me… how I miss you already my love… 🙁
Have been a bit slack lately with portion sizes. Will make sure I go back to getting out that little bowl/plate!
Smaller, measured portions for me. I am also packing up leftovers before I eat so seconds are not an option. I’m down three pounds already!
I am going for the smaller portions. No more big plates and bowls. Snack size zip locks are the perfect size for the snacks and no more mayo. Mustard is my new friend!
OK done – I am reducing bread and butter, and red wine. Actions: (a) forget I own a toaster and (b) buy an alternate sip for the evening. I’m going to try cranberry juice and soda.
Yes, it is time to reduce the amount of sugar and snacks I eat. Good-bye to Nutty Bars every evening.