Posts Tagged ‘Dieting’

OK, let’s say you just can’t make yourself count calories or go on a traditional diet.

Diets make you feel deprived so, after a couple of days, you rebound and stuff yourself with everything in sight. Not ready to “call Jenny?”  Can’t stand Weight Watchers?  Then start small!

Make some teeny, tiny, hardly noticeable changes to your eating habits and you will be surprised to see your weight slowly going down.  Here are some things to try:

• Use skim milk in your coffee.  If you miss your flavored creamer, try a sprinkle of cinnamon.
• Have high-fiber cereal for breakfast to keep you feeling fuller longer.
• Rather than using 2 tablespoons of mayo to make your tuna or chicken salad, use 1 tablespoon of mayo and 1 tablespoon of low-fat cottage cheese.
• Leave the cheese off your subs and burgers.
• No Big Gulps or Supersized sodas! Order the smallest size available, even kid-size if possible.
• When having salad, put only 1 tablespoon of dressing in the bottom of the bowl, then toss and toss until your vegetables are coated.
• No crackers or cheese with your salad.
• Use light margarine rather than butter.
• Dip your chicken in barbecue sauce instead of honey mustard.
• Craving popcorn? Microwave a 100 calorie snack bag.

The following choices cannot be called “healthy” but will save some calories when you feel that you just have to have them:

• Eat bacon rather than sausage.
• Order thin crust pizza, not pan pizza.
• Grab a yeast donut instead of a cake donut.
• Eat angel food cake in place of cookies.
• Going out for ice cream?  Get the sugar cone, not waffle.

These small tweaks can lead to small amounts of weight loss, perhaps a pound per month.  You obviously have to make bigger changes for more dramatic results.  But it’s a start! Once you see how effortlessly you can make these small changes, it will be easier for you to begin making larger ones.

What small tweaks have you made to cut calories? Please tell us about them in the comments!

And please be sure to share this post with your friends and followers.

Many women believe that building muscle will work against their weight loss efforts.

We’ve all heard that muscle weighs more than fat so we tend to be afraid that strength training will make us gain weight.  However, when done correctly, building muscle actually helps increase fat loss.

When you are following a weight loss diet, you want to lose fat, not muscle.  The best way to ensure that you build and keep the muscle you already have is to do sets of 5 – 8 repetitions of your weight lifting or resistance training.

Performing more repetitions may increase your endurance but can actually cause you to lose as much muscle as fat.  Remember that muscle burns calories even while you’re at rest so the more muscle you can build, the more quickly you can melt off the fat, and the easier it will be to keep it off!

Don’t be concerned about becoming too muscular; testosterone or steroids are required to build massive, bulky muscles.  The average, non-supplementing woman will develop strong, lean, feminine muscle mass.  If you don’t like the look you are getting, you can always cut back on your strength training routine.

Studies have shown that dieting combined with aerobic exercise and strength training produces more weight loss than either just dieting or dieting plus aerobics.  The Fit Chic is a good, easy to follow, balanced weight loss plan which includes daily meals and workouts.

Don’t neglect protein in your weight loss diet.  Protein is not only necessary for building muscle tissue, which burns calories at a higher rate than other tissue, it also requires more calories to digest than fats or carbs.  (See my post on  Fat Burning Foods.)

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