This post is by Alex Work of Lane6Fitness.com.
Looking for some easy techniques to get your diet on track?
Here are 7 of my favourite tips and techniques that you can immediately implement to get your weight loss and diet on track. Best of all – they are easy and take only a couple moments to put into place.
1. One Good Food Choice Isn’t Carte Blanche For Two Bad Ones
Eating a healthy and balanced meal is a good feeling. It’s rewarding to know that you are properly nourishing your body and providing yourself optimum nutrition. Sometimes that rewarding feeling is so good that you reward yourself with a bad meal or two. Some people confuse this for “cheat meals” which are strategic interruptions in your diet designed to shock your metabolism into heating up again.
Eat badly with a purpose, not because you ate well earlier that day.
2. Stuff Yourself With Veggies
An easy way to fill yourself is to make those carb-heavy meals with heaps of vegetables. Eating a hamburger? Stuff it with lettuce, tomato and even avocado. You can do the same with pasta meals, sandwiches and more.
The veggies will help fill you up and stop you from going back for seconds.
3. Drink Water Before Meals
In research conducted by Virginia Tech, drinking 16 ounces of water before meals helped stimulate weight loss. Filling up on calorie-free liquids before a meal helps encourage smaller portion sizes and decreases the likelihood of overeating.
Additionally, water consumption helps ward off drinking calorie-crammed beverages like juice and soda to satisfy perceived dehydration.
4. Smaller Plates
Seems ridiculous, but appearances matter. A study done out of Cornell showed that eating off a smaller plate leads your brain to believe you are consuming up to 18% more food.
This makes sense when you think about – we tend to use markers such as an empty plate, or the bottom of the bag, to signify when we are satiated.
5. Make Your Veggies and Fruits Visible
Likewise with the foods that you want to eat less of, place them in the cupboards you use the least. Studies have been done with both fruits and candy showing that the closer you keep specific types of food, the more of it you are going to eat. Makes sense when you think about.
In a society where convenience is king, make it easy for you to grab a fruit or veggies.
6. Take a Time-out
You know that point where you think you might be hungry still, but you aren’t sure? If you’re like me there are times when you blow past that mark and fifteen minutes later you are on the couch holding your belly and undoing your belt.
Wrap your food and put it and resolve to come back to it in 15 minutes if you are still hungry. More often than not, you won’t be.
7. Spice It Up
Foods like chicken and fish are awesome for us. They are full of protein, low in fat, and relatively cheap at the supermarket. The downside for some is the plainness.
Instead of butter or cream-based dressings to make ‘em taste better, try a variety of marinades or spices to give them a little kick and give your palette some variety.
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What has your experience been with diets? Can you stick with them or do you fizzle out?
These are solid tips. I know there is still a lot of disagreement on this, but I’ve had best results when I’ve steered clear of breads, potatoes, any sugar, etc.– basically anything that spikes insulin. Do you have any thoughts on that?
I do.
You need whole wheat grains (bread) to help reduce cholesterol and lower heart attack risk.
You also need complex carbs (like potatoes, pasta, etc) to help meet energy requirements to stay sharp all day and specially to perform well during exercise.
You should eat whole grains, complex carbs and a little sugar right before/during/specially after exercising,
it really all comes down to meal timing, look it up.
I was just told by a friend who I shared this article with that on the 6th tip, when you hit that point of not knowing if you are really full or not, it’s beacuse it takes around 15 mins for your brain to tell your body you are full.
haven’t looked that up, but if it’s true it should be in the article!
Alex, you’ve brilliantly distilled nutrition essentials into chewable, digestible bits.
Mike and Javier, it’s best to reduce added sugars to 6 grams or less per day. More than that promotes inflammations, which is the precursor to all chronic diseases. Simple carbohydrates also promote inflammation, such as refined grains. Carbohydrates are found in nearly every food. You should actually refuel with some high-quality protein after exercising.
You are correct Javier, in that it takes about 15-20 minutes for the brain to read the stomach’s signal for satiety. If you eat slowly, you should be able to read this cue before the end of your meal. People get into trouble when they eat mindlessly or eat too quickly.
Cheers!