INTRODUCTION TO HEALTHY EATING & WEIGHT LOSS TIPS

from Mark Stibich, Ph.D., About.com
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Medical Review Board

Living a long, healthy life depends largely on what you put into your body over your lifetime. You can make simple changes that will help you develop healthy eating habits.

How to Use These Healthy Eating Tips

Browse through these tips and select 2 or 3 that you think will work for you. Write each on a card and it near your food as a reminder. Putting a card in the silverware drawer, in the napkin holder or on your place mat can be great places to remind yourself. Try the tip. If you like it, keep using it until it becomes a habit. If you don't like it, pick another one.

Treat it like an experiment where you can learn about yourself and your habits. Don't get discouraged -- keep trying.

Below are the tips broken down by category. Use this list or browse until you find something you like:

How You Eat
These tips focus on your eating behaviors and habits like speed, cleaning your plate and more:
Slow Down Your Eating
Watch Your Liquids
Chew More to Feel Full
Don't Drink and Eat
No Clean Plate
Count When Snacking

Mind Over Food
These tips look at ways you can use your mind to out-smart your stomach:
Food Thoughts Make You Hungry
Expect Unhealthy Food to Taste Bad
Avoid Using Food as Reward, Punishment, or Comfort
Control Food Decisions
Don't Diet: Change
Set a Pause Point for Cravings
Stop When You Are No Longer Hungry
Confuse Your Nose

Serving and Storage
These tips use your dishes, storage containers and pantry as your allies in eating less:
Move Your Food Around to Remind You About Your Goals
New Plate or Glass
No Bag Eating
Use Tall Skinny Glasses
Small Packages
See No Snacks
No Serving Dishes
Iced Drinks Burns 1 cal/oz Extra
Make It a Challenge to Get to Your Food

Food Choices
These tips look at ways to change what you eat:
Increase the Variety of Healthy Foods
Reduce the Variety of Unhealthy Foods
Make Healthy Food Look Smaller
Make Unhealthy Food Look Bigger
Dish Out 20% More Vegetables
Dish Out 20 Percent Less of Most Foods

Distraction
These tips emphasize limiting distraction to help you focus while eating:
Do Nothing But Eat During Meals and Snacks
Watching TV and Eating Adds Extra Calories
Put Your Fork Down Between Bites
Eat Your Meals and Snacks at the Table
Slow Down and Pay Attention By Using Chopsticks

QUICK TIPS 1 - GIVE YOURSELF A BOOST!

You are on your way to losing that excess kilos, now give yourself a helping hand.

SAY NO TO STRESS
Stress is not only bad for your health - it can spell disaster for your diet as well as you're more liekly to binge if you feel things are getting out of control. Set aside time every day - even if it's only 10 minutes - which is chill-out time for you alone. Read a book, sit quietly, reassess your goals, have a bath, write a letter... or do whatever makes you happy. exercise is also one of the best stress relievers, so take up a regular activity and if you feel things getting on top of you, try going for a brisk walk instead of reaching for comfort foods.

***Only weigh yourself once a week, at the same time on the same day. Your weight fluctuates a lot and you'll only get stressed if you seem to be putting on weight.

SPICE UP YOUR LIFE
Research has shown that spicy foods boost your metabolism for hours after you've eaten. They're also a great way to add colour and flavour to foods, without the calories. But don't splurge on takeaway curries which are laden with fat, instead experiment with different spices when you're cooking - try adding fresh chopped chilles to soups and stir fries for a bit of extra zing!

***Treat yourself - a new haircut, lipstick or a facial will do wonders for your confidence and self esteem.

BE A GOAL GETTER
Give yourself something to aim towards will really help to motivate you. Write a list of things you're looking forward to doing when you've lost weight. When you feel yourself waning, read the list back and think about doing all those great things... do you really want that extra biscuit now..??

***Keep your diet-diary up to date - it's amazing how 'forgotten' snacks soon add up and find their way to your hips!

HAVE MORE SEX!
Turning up the heat in the bedroom will not only help you lose weight and tone up, it will make you feel happier, sexier - and put a smile on your partner's face, too! A 30-minute session will burn off around 200 calories - that's the same as swimming eight lenghts or doing 15 minutes of circuit training, but a lot more fun! It also boosts your immune system, reduces stress and encourages your body to release endorphins - the body's happy hormones - and at the very least it will take your mind off food!

GET ACTIVE FOR LIFE
Exercising will help you to lose weight quicker, and will also boost your metabolism and energy levels. Take evry opportunity to be active and fit exercise into your daily routine. Walk whenever you can, use the stairs instead of the lift - and make sure that you find an activity that you enjoy doing.

And being active doesn't have to mean slogging it out in the gym. Walking and cycling are great calorie burners and doing just a little but everyday will soon make a real difference, inside and out.

SLIMMING MADE SIMPLE!

Congratulations, you have decided to lose weight, so how do you go about it? We want to make it simple by providing calorie-counted diets and recipes, and the nutritional knowledge to create your own healthy eating plan for life.

HOW MANY CALORIES SHOULD I EAT?

Find your healthy weight range on the chart and decide on a personal weight. Then check the box below. The figures assume you are exercising for 30 minutes, three times a week, which is what health experts recommend. If you don’t exercise, reduce these figures by 250 calories a day. If you follow this advice, you should lose around 0.5-1.0kg a week, which is safe and healthy.

COUNTING CALORIES

We believe in the simple, scientific way to lose weight: counting calories. A calorie is a measure of energy in food. We all have a basic calorie requirement – the amount of food we need to eat to keep our weight stable. This varies a lot, but for women, it’s around 2,000 calories a day; for men, around 2,500. If you eat more calories than this, you’ll put on weight, eat less and you’ll lose weight – it really is that easy.

You can lose weight by simply eating less, but by far the best way is to eat less AND exercise, as regular activity helps to boost your metabolism, helping you lose weight – and keep it off in the long term.

KEEP AN EYE ON FAT

As a nation we eat too much fat, which is contributing to a host of health conditions, heart disease. Although we recommend losing weight by managing your calories, we also suggest you cut down on your fat intake. It is recommended to get 33% of our daily calories from fat, but if you are trying to lose weight, you should aim for less than this – between 25-30%. Always check the nutrition labels on products and don’t fall into the trap of thinking low-fat means low calorie. Many foods, such as alcohol and sweets, don’t have any fat at all, but are full of calories, so be careful and take both into account.

BOOST YOUR WEIGHT LOSS

Exercise is vital for good health and weight loss. Not only when you burn off calories while you’re doing your chosen activity, but it’s been proven that exercise boosts your metabolism in general, so you’ll burn off more calories even when you’re doing nothing!

Health experts recommend a minimum of 30 minutes exercise, three times a week. This should be a combination of cardiovascular exercise (anything that raises your heartbeat), such as brisk walking, aerobics, cycling, swimming or skipping, and resistance training (building and strengthening the muscles) such as weight training.

There are literally hundreds of classes to choose from these days, so it shouldn’t be hard to find something you enjoy doing, which is crucial if you’re going to keep it up! But if you can’t bear the thought of joining a gym or class, take steps to make your everyday life more active. Walking’s a really great calorie burner, as is gardening.

BECAUSE YOU WORTH IT...!!!

You’ve lost weight and now have fun doing all those things you’ve always wanted to:

1. Book a dream holiday – now you won’t be embarrassed to be in the photos!
2. Go clothes shopping – there’s nothing quite as satisfying as being able to buy a smaller size (and you won’t have to stick to ‘flattering’ black!)
3. Write us your testimonial and inspire others to achieve their goals.
4. Use your new confidence for a romantic night in with your partner. Buy sexy undies, light some candles and …
5. Feel proud. Losing weight is an achievement, for you and your health, so don’t feel shy about telling everyone you know!
6. Buy some new jeans – you won’t have to worry about being able to squeeze into them now.
7. Go to a spa for the day to pamper yourself as a reward for all your effort.
8. Have a makeover. Get a new hairdo, treat yourself to a professional make-up session or a fake tan at a department store. People will hardly recognize the new slim you.