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A part of learning to have healthier eating habits is to control the calories you consume. Healthy foods are often lower in calories than unhealthy ones, and you can learn to make healthy foods that you really enjoy the flavor of.
Today I’m going to go over some basic calorie cutting steps. Eating fewer calories is one of the most basic ways of trying to lose weight and live a healthier life.
- Improve your portion control.
We tend to eat a lot in this country. Most people have an exagerrated idea of what a single portion of food looks like, and that means it’s easy to overeat even the healthy stuff. You can get guidelines at MyPyramid.gov to figure this out.
- Use a smaller plate.
Instead of using the dinner plates in your set of dishes, try using the salad plate. It holds much less food, and you are likely to eat less by doing so. You’re basically fooling yourself into eating less.
- Don’t buy junk food.
I use this one all the time. It’s hard giving up on candy, soda and so forth, but if you don’t buy it you are more likely to eat the healthy snacks you bought instead. For most people it will just be too much effort to head to the grocery store every time they want an unhealthy snack.
- Eat lots of vegetables.
Vegetables are low calorie and very good for you, so you don’t necessarily have to count calories with them. My favorite way of making vegetables easier to eat is to have my favorites precut in the fridge. They become an easy snack. Just be careful about adding salad dressing to them, as you can undo the low calorie, low fat side of this very easily.
- Enjoy dairy products.
Well, go easy on the ice cream. But eating a lot of dairy products has been shown to help with weight loss, as well as providing needed calcium to your diet. Just make sure you keep it to about three servings a day. Yes, that means know what a serving is and stick to it.
- Think when you eat out.
You don’t necessarily have to order the lowest fat item on the menu, but do think about what you’re eating. You can also doggy bag part of your meal right away to reduce the temptation to eat the whole thing. Restaurant meals are often much larger than they really need to be.
Technorati Tags: calorie counting, reduce calories, vegetables, healthy eating
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April 22nd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
carnival of the cooks – April 22, 2007…
Welcome to the April 22, 2007 edition of carnival of the cooks.
Al Nye presents What, exactly, is a “free range” chicken? posted at Al Nye The Lawyer Guy.
Al Nye presents $3400 Lobsters Set Free posted at Al Nye The Lawyer Guy.
cooking
An…