Weight Loss Starts Bright & Early

Some people go on a diet and stop eating some meals. in particular breakfast falls off the schedule. It seems so easy to skip it that many people never eat it. That’s a bad habit. Breakfast is really good for you in a number of ways.

• You stoke your furnace to get your body (and brain) going.
• You get your metabolism started so it burns more calories as it fuels your body.
• You will actually consume fewer calories during the day. (You won’t be starving at lunch.)

It’s supported by research at the University of Texas. They studied the food diaries of almost 600 men and women and found that the more they ate in the morning, the fewer calories they ate during the day.

So eat your breakfast do give your diet a fast break. (After yesterday’s post I won’t say that “the early bird catches the worm”.)

TODAY: HAVE A GOOD HEALTHY BREAKFAST. THEN TAKE A GOOD HEALTHY WALK.

There Are Worse Things Than Eating Less & Exercise

This ad from the early the early 1900s shows that we’ve always looked for the easy way out. But eating tapeworms?! I think you’ll agree that you can’t wriggle out of eating less and exercising more.

TODAY: TAKE A WALK AFTER EACH MEAL.

Pizza Hut For Under 500 Calories

In many families, Friday is pizza night. Yes you can have pizza and still stay under 500 calories! Just keep the portions reasonable and add a salad. Here’s how it adds up.

You can have one slice of a large Thin ‘N Crispy Supreme pizza and a tossed salad with low fat dressing for just 410 calories. If you go for the stuffed crust pizza you’ll add 150 calories. But remember, you can burn 250 calories by taking that brisk walk some time today for a half hour. I think it’s a fair trade to get that extra special pizza. Just make sure you eat it slowly, (2o minutes… remember) drink your diet soda and enjoy it all.

Conversely, if you usually eat three pieces of stuffed crust pizza, just eat two. You will have cut 500 calories from your meal.

TODAY: KEEP ANOTHER 500 CALORIES OUT OF YOUR MEALS.

Are You Really Hungry?

One of the keys to eating less is knowing what it feels like to be full and what it feels like to be hungry. We tend to eat at the same times every day, and eat the same amount of food. But we don’t consume calories the same every day. You may mow the lawn one Saturday, but the next it rains and you sit inside watching TV. If you eat the same amount on both of thoe days guess what happens. Oh, I forgot, it already has.

When you are really hungry your stomach will rumble, you’ll feel sluggish, you get irritable. But think before you eat. How long has it been since you last ate? How much did you eat? How much are you planning to eat? Then get a nice big drink of water. Thirst and hunger are very similar to our brains. It’s not that you are filling your belly with water, you may be giving your body what it wants. The calories would have been bad. You would still be craving, and you would be craving that drink that you should have had in the first place.

TODAY: HAVE AN 8 OUNCE GLASS OF WATER BEFORE YOU EAT.

How Did Jerrod Do It?

Subway seems to have finally moved on from having Jerrod star in all their spots, but we all know the story. He was way overweight, ate Subway subs and lost weight. I’m not sure of his sanity though. I mean I like Subway, but I like variety better. But you can add a sub to your meal plan and really reduce your calories while enjoying a filling meal. Stay with mustard instead of oil or mayo and ask them to stuff it with the veggies. Get all of the veggies. With the six inch ham sandwich (on a whole wheat roll please) you can even add their oatmeal cookie for dessert and stay at 423 calories. Or have a whopping foot-long turkey for 666 calories and walk for 15 minutes to take it back down to about 500.

Are you seeing how this is working? Who knows, you may star in your own commercial someday.

TODAY: HAVE HALF A SUB INSTEAD OF YOUR USUAL FOOT LONG.

Are Fries Worth A Burger?

I love french fries. I really love GOOD french fries. The ones from fast food restaurants just don’t do it for me since they stopped frying them in lard. Hey, it’s the fat that makes a steak taste good too! So dropping fries from a fast food meal won’t really matter much. It does add up though. A small serving of fries has 210 calories. That’s about the same as a burger and you get hardly any nutritional value. If you supersize them it’s 610 calories!

So choose your fries wisely. If they’re real fries, cut from fresh potatoes and fried in peanut oil. (Like at 5 Guys) Go for a SMALL ORDER (Unless it’s at 5 Guys where you will SHARE a “small” order… and have the single patty burger!)

TODAY: RESOLVE TO EAT ONLY THE GOOD FRIES. DON’T WASTE CALORIES ON THE ORDINARY ONES.

Water Can Start Your Internal Fire

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that drinking just a pint of water increased the study participants’ metabolism for about a half hour. They actually burned an extra 25 calories. That means that by drinking your eight glasses (4 pints) you will burn 100 calories! Researchers think that most of the effect comes from warming the water in the stomach. In guys the calories came mostly from stored fat, in women it came from stored carbohydrates. So that’s just another reason to drink up.

TODAY: BURN 100 CALORIES JUST BY DRINKING YOUR WATER.