1) Drink lots and lots of water, before meals, between meals, often dehydration masks itself as hunger, you may just be thirsty, not hungry
2) Eat your calories, don’t drink them, except for healthy smoothies. Stay away from sodas, even diet, and most juices, eat your fruit when possible, the extra fiber helps you feel full
3) Use smaller bowls and plates, and a bigger spoon or fork… this is part of tricking your body into thinking you are eating more food, if you see a plate filled with food your brain thinks “Wow I just ate a whole plate of food” it doesn’t take into account the smaller plate
4) Heap your food into a tall pile, same philosophy as above, a tall pile of veggies looks much bigger
5) Put your vegetables on your plate first, it should be about half
6) If you are eating half a chicken breast and saving half for another meal, like I do, cut it the long way, it looks bigger somehow than cut the other way
7) Spice it up! Spicy food fools your taste buds into being more satisfied with smaller amounts, it’s the taste your hunger is craving, bland foods make you feel like you have not eaten as much. My favorite new treat, I sprinkle my popcorn with a spicy pepper blend, it’s delicious!
Avoid fad diets!! Putting your body into starvation mode freaks your body out so that it holds onto every fat cell for dear life, in case you need it later. You are much better off making small, permanent changes you can live with forever, it’s about good health, not being a magic number or size
9) Remember, if you don’t love yourself heavy, you won’t love yourself skinny either, it’s not a magic fix-all for problems, you did not get heavy overnight, you will not lose it overnight either, even if you are like me and gained 50 pounds in 3 months following a hysterectomy, there is no easy fix, unfortunately
10) No matter what you read, or what anyone tells you, there is no magic cure. The ONLY way to lose weight, and keep it off, is to consistently burn more calories than you take in, it’s a life change, not a 2 week change
11) You are an amazing wonderful creature no matter what your numbers are, love yourself enough to want good health for your body, make it a mantra, for example, “Today I will eat food that nourishes my body and makes me feel good, I will do some gentle exercise to stretch my muscles, because I deserve the best I can do for myself”
12) Keep track of inches, sometimes when you think you have hit a plateau in weight loss it is simply your body exchanging fat for muscle, muscle tissue is half the size of fat and burns calories more efficiently.
