Most diets leave a person battling with hunger yet the most effective way to lose weight should not involve any struggle with hunger.

The body needs food to survive and one of the ways the body makes sure that it gets this fuel is through the feeling of hunger. For most people in developed countries, not having enough food is not a problem. Instead, people are more concerned with losing weight and controlling their eating. The body has a fine balance, however, and eating too little by ignoring hunger can lead to gaining weight rather than losing it. This is often what is behind the yo-yo pattern of weight loss and regaining typical of most dieters. Successful weight loss is not a matter of how little a person can eat, but how they balance their eating.

Not only does the body’s metabolism slow down if it’s not fed enough (leading to a body that stores fat readily and burns it more slowly), but ignoring hunger to the point of excess leads to out of control eating. Almost everyone has experienced the feeling of ravenous hunger at one time or another and its resulting feeding frenzy. A slower metabolism and overeating spell weight gain, not loss. Clearly, careful care of hunger is important in any plan for losing weight.

The mind is an important part of behavior change especially when it comes to the complicated task of losing weight.

Ten Mind Tools For Successful Weight Loss

1. Keep track of hunger - When the body needs fuel the brain will push you to eat. The hungrier you are, the stronger the push making it difficult to control eating if you wait too long to eat. A simple mind tool is to use a hunger scale from 0-5, with 0 being no hunger and 5 being extremely hungry to the point that you can’t focus on anything else. The trick is to try to eat early, when you first start feeling hungry (2) and not going beyond a 3. The sooner you eat when hungry the sooner you will be satisfied and the less you will eat.
2. Slow down eating - Fast eaters tend to consume more food. Focus on slowing down eating by savoring food – chew it thoroughly, focus on appreciating all the flavors of the food, involve all the senses in savoring the food such as noticing the textures, the colors and the smells as well as the taste. Swallow before taking another bite, take a sip of water between bites, and take the time to look around and “smell the roses.” Too many people gobble down food without taking the time to appreciate it. There are few things people do more often than eat so we might as well enjoy it.
3. Keep nutritious foods in stock at all times – In our hectic culture, if food isn’t easily accessible we’re not likely to eat it. If the accessible foods are junk foods, that’s what will be reached for first. Instead, have plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain foods, and nutritious goodies available and the brain will go for those first instead of the junk
4. Brush teeth after eating - Brushing your teeth after eating eliminates the food taste from your mouth and the signals to the brain that encourage it to want to eat more. The fresh, minty taste from the toothpaste soon becomes a signal that the meal is over and you can go on to doing other things without urges for more food.
5. Think ahead when leaving the house - Consider whether you’ll be gone at meal time or when you’re likely to get hungry, and make a plan. Sometimes it means eating something before you go out or taking something for the road.
6. Don’t go to the grocery store hungry - It’s better to eat first or wait until after a meal when your brain will not be susceptible to the temptations.
7. Don’t try to eliminate favorite foods - This will only make you feel deprived and, sooner or later, the favorite food will be eaten anyway. This strategy only leads to compulsive eating of the same favorite foods that were being eliminated.
8. Never skip meals or go long periods without eating – These strategies only result in a slower metabolism and rabid hunger – both of which lead to weight gain.
9. Make health rather than weight loss the priority – If you strive for health, not weight, the weight will come off anyway, but you’ll find it to be an easier road.
10. Don’t take life too seriously - The more relaxed and happy a person is the easier it is for him to lose weight. Ironically, the more intensely a person tries to lose weight, the harder it will be.

By using the mind tools above and those from Ten Mind Tips for Losing Weight,the best foot is stepping forward toward health, weight loss, and fitness.

It can be frustrating to go on a diet and lose weight only to regain it. After all, 90% of dieting attempts fail. What can we do to improve our chances?

Despite being told that most diets fail, the public is still vulnerable to quick weight loss promises that won’t work in the long run. Most of these people have histories of going on and off diets, over and over again. It’s puzzling why they would try the same approaches that haven’t worked in the past. Perhaps it’s that little voice saying, “Maybe it will work this time.” “Maybe this diet will work.”

What do People Really Want in a Weight Loss Plan?

People want to lose weight, they want to lose weight fast, and they want to lose weight permanently. There are a million things that will cause weight loss. Any diet, fast, or exercise program where one burns more energy than one takes in, is going to result in weight loss. There are also many things that produce quick weight loss if you’re not talking just fat loss (such as water loss or muscle loss).

The problem is that people usually confuse fat loss with weight loss. Just because there is weight loss doesn’t mean that there is a loss of an equal amount of fat. Actually, the faster the weight is lost, the more likely it is that the weight lost is more water or muscle, than fat. But it’s fat that people want to lose and they want to lose it for good – not to gain it all back and have to start dieting all over again.

How Can One Avoid the Pitfalls of Dieting?

The first thing to do before embarking on a weight loss program is to be honest with yourself. If you are a person with a long history of on-and-off dieting it’s time to face the fact that the types of diets you’ve been on don’t work. Those diets weren’t different from each other just because they had different names (i.e. The Low Carb Diet, The Blood Type Diet, The Grapefruit Diet). Look at what was similar about them. For example, were they stringent diets, did they eliminate particular foods completely, did they not include exercise?

If you are a first time dieter, learn through the experience of others. To date, a lot of research has been done showing that most dieting attempts fail and that fad diets show particularly dismal results. Don’t go down the same road that many others have found to be the wrong road.

Want Your Efforts to Lose Weight to be Permanent?

Consider this Advice:

1. Focus on the behaviors (portion control, increased activity, better nutrition) that help you lose fat, rather than a weight goal number .
2. Make sure that you include consistent aerobic exercise in your plan.
3. Don’t set a time limit for your goal.
4. Don’t go on a rigid, stringent, fad diet of any kind.
5. Make sure that the eating and exercise plan you go on is one that you can follow for the rest of your life.
6. Your body has genetic limits. You don’t know if your body will be able to reach the ultimate goal you have in mind. Instead, keep doing what will make you leaner and healthier and let your body take care of the weight. It will show you how low it can go.

By following these steps, you will keep from falling into the yo-yo trap. You don’t want to put all that effort into losing weight only to regain it and more like most people who go on “diets.”

Being active and eating right are essential for losing weight successfully but there are also other simple things a person can do to make the job easier.
Losing weight successfully involves a lifestyle change. Getting on a diet that can’t be followed for the rest of one’s life is not only not going to do anything to change lifestyle, but because most diets fail, it wastes time that could be better used doing things that work.

There are hundreds of simple and easy things a person can do that add to weight loss success and that work at changing a person’s lifestyle to one that is fat burning.

Ten Easy Gems For a Fat-Burning Lifestyle

1. Make gradual changes – People who use a gradual approach to making weight and lifestyle changes tend to be more successful at making the changes permanent. Rapid weight loss as well as taking steps that are too big with other behaviors can set a person up for failure by making them feel overwhelmed.
2. Keep the big picture in mind - People who aim at making lifetime changes instead of just going on a “diet” have been shown to keep the weight off more permanently. Striving for a healthy way of life rather than just to lose weight insures consistent, progressive, fat-burning changes.
3. Don’t fall for unrealistic diet plans and aids – There are plenty of “diets” to choose from. Wise people learn to bypass those that promise things that are impossible or improbable. “Diets” that have quirky names and advertise large amounts of weight loss in short periods of time are the type of diets that are best passed up.
4. Make lifestyle changes a priority - People who consider their weight loss and exercise goals important and make the behaviors that will accomplish these goals a priority, achieve their goals more quickly.
5. Don’t take advice from yo-yo dieters, instead seek advice from experts – Taking advice from people that are frequently going on and off diets and losing and regaining weight, is not a good idea. It’s better to observe someone who has been thin and fit for many years and seek expert advice.
6. Strive to eat more nutritiously – Feeding the body what it needs is not only good for health but also prevents overeating.
7. Eat enough calories and eat frequently – Under-eating slows metabolism resulting in a body that stores fat easily. People tend to get hungry about every three hours. That’s because the body performs best when given fuel frequently throughout the day so it’s best to listen to the body. If the body is hungry it needs to be fed.
8. Don’t eliminate carbohydrates - The body needs carbohydrates to function effectively. Diets that eliminate carbohydrates usually end in compulsively eating the same carbohydrates that were eliminated and ultimately, regaining the lost weight.
9. Eat the last meal of the day at least 3-4 hours before bedtime - Metabolism slows down later in the day. By eating the last meal early more of the calories consumed are burned off.
10. Increase activity and exercise – The most fat-burning weight loss tool available to everyone is exercise and general movement. People who exercise on a regular basis and are active tend to be more successful with weight loss than those that don’t use exercise as part of their weight loss plan.

These are only a few of the many easy tips that help people be successful at losing weight. Since gradual progress is more effective than quick weight-loss goals, starting with the ten weight loss gems above is a good place to start. More weight loss gems follow.

Copyright Lavinia Rodriguez. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

There are effective and simple ways to make the body burn more fat and boost metabolism.

Burning fat effectively requires an efficient metabolism (the calories required for the body to perform all the bodily functions, including burning fat). Most people know that metabolism is something that varies among individuals, but they think there is nothing that can be done about changing it.

“I have a slow metabolism,” is a statement that some people make as an explanation for the difficulty they have managing their weight. However, everyone can boost their metabolism! Problem is few people know the simple steps they can take to achieve it.

The Best Formula to Boost Metabolism

* Engage in Aerobic Exercise-Aerobic exercise is any exercise that uses oxygen efficiently and lasts for about 30 minutes. A person is exercising aerobically if they are breathing deeply during the exercise but able to have a comfortable conversation with someone at the same time. There should not be any gasping for air. While this type of exercise uses calories, the real benefit of aerobic exercise is what it does to boost metabolism after the exercise is over. Metabolism is increased above a person’s baseline after they have finished exercising and it gradually slows back down to baseline hours later. By exercising aerobically every day or most days during the week, metabolism is boosted time after time creating an average level of metabolism higher than the original baseline. The end result is a net boost in metabolism rate.
* Build Muscle-The more muscle a person has, the more calories it takes to maintain that muscle. Therefore, a person can achieve an increase in metabolism by building muscle. Muscle resistance exercise such as lifting weights is effective in building muscle.
* Eat Frequently-Each time a person eats, their metabolism is boosted temporarily. If a person eats 2000 calories in two meals one day and 2000 calories in 5 meals another day, all other things being equal, they will have burned more calories on the day they ate the 2000 calories in 5 meals. This is one reason why skipping meals is counterproductive to losing fat.
* Move Around-The more a person moves around generally in their lives – aside from formal exercise – the higher their metabolism. Two people may be watching a television show together but one is getting up during commercials to do something or is performing a task while watching while the other is just sitting the entire time. The active person is burning more. When it comes to boosting metabolism saving steps is not the smartest strategy.

Just as there are things people can do to boost their metabolism, there are things that can slow it down. Some of these things are usually done with the intent of becoming leaner but, in the long-run, have the opposite effect.

Things That Can Slow Metabolism

* Stringent Dieting-Typical diets that are too restrictive with calories can cause metabolism to slow down.
* Being Sedentary-If the body isn’t doing much it won’t take many calories to maintain the inactive lifestyle. This results in a slower metabolism.
* Losing muscle mass-This can happen because of strict dieting, a lack of exercise and/or inactivity.
* Skipping meals, fasting, or going long periods without eating-When the body isn’t fed properly it has to do whatever it takes to survive. One of the things it can do is to lower its metabolism to save calories for more important functions until the danger is over.
* Yo-yo dieting-This type of “feast-to-famine” approach to managing weight is also counterproductive and can lower metabolism.

A person could inadvertently lower their metabolism instead of increasing it based on the choices they make. The best formula for boosting metabolism involves exercising and eating in the right ways.

Copyright Lavinia Rodriguez. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

People tend to expect things from themselves they’d never expect from a family member or a friend. We can accept our loved ones and friends, regardless of what they look like. Yet, too many people don’t think twice about rejecting themselves for their own appearance.

Here’s an exercise I use with my clients: Picture your child or yourself as a child. Now say the things to that child that you repeatedly tell yourself about your weight and appearance. How do you imagine that child would feel? What would she think? How motivated would she be to change?

Would you say these things to a child you love: “You’re a fat pig. What’s the matter with you? You have no self-control. Why would anyone want to be with you the way you look?”

No, neither would my clients. When they think of their own children or other loved ones, they love them for who they are. They list what they love about them without hesitation. Yet, they don’t treat themselves with the same respect and love. Why is that?

Treasured imperfections

No rational person thinks the laws of physics apply to everyone in the world – except themselves.

Yet perfectly intelligent people forget that even when applied to oneself, the “laws of life” are consistent. Praise, reward, encouragement, kindness and compassion motivate. Rejection, criticism, cruelty and general negativity do not.

And here’s another puzzle: How can it be that another person’s imperfections are endearing? Do you remember the hanging skin on Grandma’s arms, or the fact that those arms were always open to you? Maybe thinking about Dad’s bowed legs brings up feelings of affection for him. You might have inherited his legs. Do you feel the same affection toward yourself that you feel when thinking of Dad’s legs? Why not?

One of the psychological barriers to successful weight loss is how we treat ourselves, and what we expect from ourselves. If the expectations are overwhelming it becomes extremely difficult to succeed. Many people come to me saying things like:

• “I can’t accept myself until I get all the weight off.”

• “I hate myself. I’m so fat.”

• “Look at my thighs! They’re huge. I’m gross.”

Would you say these things to anyone you love:

• “I can’t accept you until you get all the weight off.”

• “I hate you. You’re so fat.”

• “Look at your thighs! They’re huge. You’re gross.”

Then why would we think that treating ourselves like this would do any good? Rigid expectations lead to negative consequences. Weight-loss programs coupled with these types of statements don’t last long, and willpower has nothing to do with it.

Changing expectations

If this sounds familiar, here are some tips to try:

• Lower expectations to levels that make sense, such as, “I’m going to work at increasing my activity level gradually until I’m doing something active on a daily basis.”

• Praise all efforts along the way. “Wow. I got my exercise clothes on today and took a little walk. That’s more than I’ve done in months. That’s great!”

• Be a problem-solver, not a critic. “Well, it seems that my planning today didn’t allow enough time to shop for a nutritious meal. What can I do to prevent this next time?”

• Be accepting on a daily basis. “I’m doing this to change what I can realistically change and accept what I can’t. I may not be perfect, but no one is. I’m pretty swell just the way I am.”

Even if it feels awkward at first, practice becoming your own biggest fan. Cheer for yourself, with goals that make sense and are achievable. You’ll love yourself for it.

By Lavinia Rodriguez
Printed in St. Petersburg Times July 31, 2010

How a person uses her brain can be the difference between success or failure with any challenge, but especially with weight loss.

A positive thinker achieves more success in life than a negative thinker. This is especially true with weight loss and fitness. Most people aren’t aware of how much their thinking affects their feelings and behavior. It’s easy, however, to learn what thoughts are getting in the way of intentions to lose weight – they’re “negative thoughts”.

Negative thoughts are typically ones that are critical and illogical. For someone to say that she can’t do anything right just because she ate more than she planned is an example of a thought that is illogical. Where is the logic that just because of one event the person can’t do anything right? This type of all-or-nothing and punishing thinking only causes a person to make more mistakes, not less.

So it’s wise to become closely acquainted with thought patterns and statements frequently used in response to behaviors and events. The more relaxed and motivated a person feels the easier it is to follow through with what needs to be done to achieve a healthy weight. It’s positive thoughts, not negative thoughts, that lead to motivation.

How to Become Aware of Negative Thoughts That Interfere with Weight Loss

1. Make a decision to listen to the things that you say to yourself.
2. When feeling a negative emotion such as guilt, anger, or anxiety ask yourself, “What did I just say to myself about this situation?” Most likely you said something negative to yourself that led to that negative feeling. For example, you might be feeling badly after having overeaten. The thoughts preceding this feeling might have been something like, “I can’t believe you failed again. You can’t do anything right. I just know I’ll probably gain weight from this.” It’s easy to see how this type of thinking can lead to negative feelings of frustration, guilt, and a lower self-esteem.
3. Point out to yourself how the thoughts, not the situation, have lead to the feelings and ask yourself, “Is thinking like this going to help or hurt me in my attempts to lose weight?” It’s logical that this negative way of thinking can hurt goals to lose weight.
4. Now think about what thoughts would be more helpful considering the situation. The thoughts might sound something like this, “I overate but it’s not the end of the world. Let me look at what might have caused my overeating so that I can prevent it next time. It looks like I went too long without eating anything and I was too hungry. That lead to the overeating. Let me learn from my mistake and continue on. No one does this perfectly. I want to focus more on what I’ve done well instead of what hasn’t gone well.”
5. Use a journal to write down negative thoughts in order to become more aware of them and then immediately write down the more positive and rational thoughts. Writing down thoughts initially keeps the brain from being distracted so that we can learn more quickly. By being consistent with working on thoughts people can change their normal thinking patterns to ones that will help at losing weight.

Thoughts That Get in the Way of Losing Weight

Here are some typical thoughts that can get in the way of losing weight:

• “I messed up again. What’s the use! I might as well forget the whole thing.”
• “I can’t believe I ate that. I can never do anything right!”
• “I ate too much. I might as well finish the whole thing.”
• “I can’t believe I didn’t lose weight this week. I’m never going to lose it.”

Losing weight isn’t just about eating less. It’s also about thinking the right way.

Most people wouldn’t think so but good self-esteem leads to more success with weight loss.

Judgments that people make about their worth is what is called “self-esteem.”

Characteristics of High and Low Self-esteem

A person with high self-esteem believes they are worthwhile regardless of anything else including their looks and their actions. They accept themselves unconditionally as they are – understanding that they are fallible humans. While they may judge their behaviors, their worth as people does not change based on their behaviors, achievements, or lack thereof. For example, someone may be disappointed in their performance on a test but not go so far as judging themselves as inadequate based on this performance. They may wish they were more attractive in some way but not judge themselves as worthless because of it.

On the other hand, the person with low self-esteem continually bases their self-worth on the external such as how they look, what they do, how much money they have, or what they weigh. People with low self-esteem do not feel good about themselves unless they perceive themselves as having earned something such as having gotten to a desired weight or size. As one might imagine, the person with low self-esteem rides a roller coaster of self-worth – going up and down continually based on their judgment of their behavior.

How Self-esteem Can Interfere with or Facilitate Weight Loss

With respect to weight loss and fitness, self-esteem can mean the difference between success and failure. Why would the way a person judges themselves interfere with successful weight management? Here are some reasons:

• People tend to behave based on how they judge themselves.  If someone believes they are unacceptable they will behave accordingly.  If the person considers herself a failure, she will behave as one.  That’s how the human brain works psychologically.
• People with high self-esteem aren’t bogged down with mistakes.  They accept them and go on.  If they didn’t eat just right at a meal or gained some weight, they don’t bother to put themselves down but rather note the behavior and continue on to strive for something better.  People with low self-esteem will become preoccupied by mistakes and maybe even quit.
• People with high self-esteem are more likely to praise themselves for small achievements.  Frequent rewards for small steps lead to success.  Those with low self-esteem are more focused on punishment and reprimands than rewards, and feel they are not worth rewards unless the achievement is large. This interferes with weight loss goals.
• People with high self-esteem tend to talk to themselves more positively.  It is well known that positive thinking leads to positive feelings and positive results.

Improving Self-esteem and Weight Loss Success

1. Strive for unconditional self-acceptance – the view that all humans make mistakes and no one is perfect.
2. Practice evaluating behaviors such as frequency of exercise, quality of food eaten, and frequency of praise without judging self-worth in the process. If the behavior isn’t up to par evaluate how to improve it and go on.
3. Be willing to get help with improving self-esteem through reading and even getting professional support. It’s not easy to learn self-acceptance if a person has been in the habit of putting themselves down most of the time.
4. Don’t look for perfection in achieving self-acceptance – remember human beings are fallible.

Self-esteem can make or break a weight loss program. It’s worth the effort to achieve it.

Weight-loss talk is heard too often these days. If there’s a new fad diet going around, you hear about it and its so-called “successes.” • Weight-loss success ought to be defined not by how much weight has been lost, but by how long the weight loss is maintained. • People who have had long-term success with weight seem to be relatively quiet. You don’t usually hear, “I’m going on 10 years of managing my weight successfully,” or “I haven’t binged in 15 years!” • There are plenty of weight-loss myths that get in the way of weight-loss success. Here are some real-life examples, with names changed to protect patient privacy:

Myth 1: The Less You Eat, the More You Lose

Jeanie walked into my office sharing her frustration at a life filled with one diet after another. “I’ve tried every diet,” she told me. “You name it, I’ve tried it.” It quickly became clear that Jeanie subscribed to the myth that you have to keep eating less in order to lose more. Her diets became more restrictive through time. After years of such diets, her body had compensated for her starvation attempts by slowing its metabolism, making it more difficult for her body to burn fat and easier for it to store it. Without her realizing it, Jeanie’s diets were contributing to her weight problem.

With education, Jeanie was able to restructure her thinking and behavior. She started to eat more often, stopped skipping meals, and avoided long periods without eating. She focused on nutritious meals that were satisfying, preventing extreme hunger and feelings of deprivation.

She learned to allow time for her body to start burning more again. After all, she had been abusing it for a long time. Those kinds of physiological changes don’t happen overnight.

Once Jeanie understood how her body worked, she was able to give up the belief that the less you eat the more you lose. Then she started to gradually lose weight. By being consistent she made these changes part of her lifestyle and was able to manage her weight successfully.

Myth 2: If You Have a Busy Life, That’s Exercise

George was a busy guy. His work kept him on the move. Through the years, his body had put on an unattractive spare tire. “I don’t understand it,” he said. “I’m busy all the time at work. Why can’t I lose weight?”

George had confused busyness with fat-burning exercise. The type of exercise that burns fat is sustained activity that gets the heart pumping, creates deep but relaxed breathing, and lasts 30 minutes or more. Most of the busyness that George thought should be fat-burning exercise was stop-and-go activity.

George decided get up a half-hour earlier to get a run in each day. He started out slowly and worked up to running 30 minutes at a time. In addition, he used the run to decompress from the stress of work. Gradually, George’s body started to show the fat loss he was looking for.

Myth 3: Carbs Make You Fat

Leni was a believer in the no-carb craze. She was proud that carbs never touched her lips. Never, that is, except when she binged on carbs several nights per week. “Why can’t I control my eating?” she said. “I know I shouldn’t eat carbs, but I lose control!”

Leni didn’t realize that the reason she was bingeing was precisely because she was trying to eliminate carbs. Although some carbs are not very nutritious, they don’t, in and of themselves, make you fat. If they did, all people who eat bread and pasta would be fat.

Leni loved carbs. Her stringent rule of no carbs was actually causing her to lose control by making her feel deprived. This psychological deprivation made her preoccupied with carbs. It’s no wonder she lost control. Once she understood why she was bingeing, Leni was able to work on letting go of her rigid expectations, eat high-quality carbs and feel satisfied. Gradually, she regained natural control of eating, the binges stopped and she lost weight permanently.

• • •

There are ways to lose weight, but only a logical approach will keep it off. It pays to take the time to be honest with yourself about approaches that are only perpetuating the problem and start down the right road to a life of leanness. Even if the weight loss is slower, it’s not nearly as frustrating as losing and regaining the weight again and again.

Previously published in The St. Petersburg Times July 17, 2010

Americans like to eat out a lot. Unfortunately, eating out can get in the way of managing our weight. There are ways, however, to lessen its caloric impact.

Eating out can be fun and flavorful but it can also be fattening. Restaurants are businesses so they are concerned with the bottom line . One of the ways that restaurants get people to return is to make the food irresistibly flavorful. How do they do this? By enhancing the flavor with fat and spices (mostly salt). Fat and salt are inexpensive ways of making food tasty.

When we eat out we have no idea of how much fat, salt, and other ingredients are in the food. We just know whether we like the taste or not. For example, we see that we’re eating chicken but we don’t know how many calories, fat, or salt we’re eating. What we think is a normal meal may prove to be the reason we are frustrated with our weight gain next week.

Restaurant Portions

Another method that restaurants have used to get us to return is by serving extremely large portions. It’s not unusual today to be served enough for four people. Because it’s on our plate we have a tendency to think that it must be a serving for one person, but don’t be fooled – it could be enough for four people.

Frequency of Eating Out and Weight

Americans do like eating out frequently. With our fast-paced lifestyles, some people eat out more than they cook at home. That’s unfortunate because the more we eat out, the harder it is to manage weight.

How to Out-Smart Restaurants

How can we still have fun eating out without ruining our goals for fitness?

• Gradually reduce the number of times that you eat out and replace with quality meals at home.
• Don’t starve yourself all day to compensate for the meal out later. It will make you hungrier and will cause overeating. Eat enough to satisfy during the day but pick foods that are high in nutrition and fiber, and low in fat.
• Reduce or eliminate how much alcohol you drink when eating out as the effects of alcohol will only cause you to eat more and will add more calories.
• Ask for a “doggy bag” at the start of the meal and save part of the meal to have the next day.
• Eliminate the extras such as appetizers and desserts. These only make your “four-person meal” more like a “six person meal.” If you really want the appetizer or dessert then forgo the entree. Decide which is most important to you.

How to Handle Menu Choices

If you’ve done your job of not being too hungry or inebriated when you’re looking at the menu, it should be easy to choose a healthier meal. Here are steps to take:

1. Decide which meal you would really like.
2. Look for the most nutritious (more fiber, more vitamins, less fat, less salt) meal on the menu.
3. Ask yourself if you’d be satisfied with #2. If yes, then order it. If no, go to #4
4. Look for a meal that resembles your first choice but is more nutritious. Ask yourself if you would be satisfied with that choice. If yes, order it. If no, go to #5.
5. If you feel you won’t be satisfied with any of the alternate choices go back to choice #1. Now look for ways to make this meal more nutritious. For example, ask for meat to be baked or grilled instead of fried or saucy, ask for a lower fat vegetable, and don’t put butter on your bread.

It’s easy to gain weight from eating out. The smart ones learn to manage it well.