Eat your veggies daily

Are you consuming at least 3 cups of leafy and green vegetables and 2 cups of other vegetables daily? If not, make an effort to do so. Use these pointers.

• Purchase plastic food containers in various cup sizes. Fill these containers with salad greens or chopped veggies and take them with you for an easy lunch or snack. This allows you to easily know how many cups you’ve gotten in during a given day.
• Precede lunch and dinner with a salad. Starting your meal with a salad provides the side benefit of filling you up, so you are less tempted to reach for the bread or pasta.
• Buy an assortment of frozen vegetables. Many of these will steam in the bag, making them quick and easy to prepare. Serve on every night with dinner.

Try to be realistic

We all travel. We all attend dinners at friends’ homes, where choices may be tempting. Remember: It’s your choice, and you can remain in control. We all indulge from time to time. As long as you keep those indulgences to a minimum, you will be able to keep off the weight. Don’t stress about occasional luxuries. Stress is just as bad for your metabolism as poor eating habits are.

When in doubt, eat real food

If you want to indulge in something sweet, do so, but make it a small serving of a real food. Ice cream means sugar and cream, and almost nothing else. Don’t go for the low-fat or artificially sweetened varieties. These are not only less satisfying and satiating, but they also tend to cause people to lose self-control. It’s psychological. When we eat reduced calorie foods, we assume we can have more. When we eat high-calorie foods, we assume we can have less and stick to it.

The Yoga Effect

A study of 15,500 men and women determined that study participants who practiced gentle yoga for 30 minutes once a week for 10 years did not gain the typical 2 pounds a year that non-yoga practitioners did. The yoga practitioners who were overweight at the start of the study lost 5 pounds in 10 years, even though they were not dieting. The researchers speculated that increased body awareness allowed study participants to gain more control over their eating choices.

Calcium is important for strong bones

You’ve probably heard that calcium is important for strong bones, and it is. But did you know it can also stimulate weight loss? At least six studies to date have shown that women who consume more calcium–either through food or through supplements–tend to weigh less and have less body fat than women who consume less calcium. For example, when researchers supplemented overweight African-Americans with 1,000 daily milligrams of calcium, the women lost weight effortlessly. Multiple studies have been completed since and have continued to find the same beneficial results. People who consume more calcium–through supplements of food–tend to weigh less than people who don’t. Dieters who take calcium lose more weight than dieters who do not.

Include vegetables at every meal

Vegetables contain fiber, so they fill you up and keep you regular. Vegetables also contain important antioxidants, nutrients that protect your cells from oxidative damage. For each level of diet, you’ll find a number of recipes that creatively sneak fiber-rich vegetables into everyday foods such as grilled cheese and even hamburgers. Add more veggies by rounding out lunch and dinner with side salads and heaping servings of steamed or sauteed broccoli, cauliflower, greens, or another veggie of your choice.

Emotional Eating

Do you eat when you are under stress? How about when you feel sad or angry? Although emotional eating is very common-among men and women-it’s also destructive. To overcome emotional eating-whether you eat out of stress, sadness, anxiety, or even happiness-you must break the association that links your emotional state with eating.

Get honest with yourself. There’s probably a little voice inside your head that’s whispering phrases such as “But I’m really hungry,” “But I really need it,” or “But I can’t stop myself.” Oh, hush. Try hunger comes on slowly. You can satisfy true hunger with any food, including broccoli. Emotional hunger surfaces quickly and centers on one or two specific finds. With emotional hunger, broccoli or a meatball won’t do. You must have the bread of bagel or cake or cookie or whatever it is that calls to you.

As soon as you realize that you are craving a specific food, you need to find a way to soothe yourself with something other than food. Thin about which emotions drive you to eat. Then think about other ways you can deal with those emotions.