Diet Tips

Winter sends many of us indoors where food is plentiful and there are many excuses not to get out and exercise. Ok, so maybe exercise isn't your thing, but there's got to be a way of distracting yourself from the food calling your name any time you get near the kitchen or see a commercial for some juicy burger.

The answer is -- get a hobby! Learn something new or make time for a hobby you've set aside for a while. When you are spending time doing something you enjoy, you will lose track of time and food. You'll enjoy the time you spend creating, you'll have gifts to give or items to sell....AND you'll lose weight at the same time. What could be better!

I've just recently started a new hobby -- round loom knitting. This is such a simple hobby. All you have to do is wrap yarn around pegs. You use a pick to pull one set of yarn over another. Pretty soon you'll have a hat or a scarf or something to decorate your home like a stuffed snowman.

I have never been able to learn to crochet or knit. I've never been attracted to either hobby. It just all seemed so boring to me. But round loom knitting has sparked my attention because it's so easy and so fast! I couldn't believe that I could make a hat while watching a movie. I made a scarf in a little over a week.

Besides being easy and fun, it keeps me distracted. I'm not grazing on food in the evening any more. I can't! I don't want to mess up the yarn. But, even better, I don't have the craving I had to graze. Maybe my grazing was from boredom, and now that I'm more active in the evenings, the cravings have gone. Whatever the reason, it's good!

Banished cravings, new hobby, fun gifts...it's all good!

Even though the holidays are on their way -- the hardest part of the year for a dieter to make it through unscathed -- I decided to get serious about weight loss this week. And, let me tell you, it was worth it!

In the past I have had success with the 3-Hour Diet plan. Basically, you eat small meals or a snack every three hours. The purpose being that each time you eat your kick your metabolism up. And since you are eating small meals, your metabolism can burn what you have eaten without leaving some to turn into fat. I lost 30 pounds on this plan pretty easily last year. Then life happened (a couple of deaths in my family, a huge career shift and a major move across country) and I got away from good eating habits. During the past year my weight has fluxuated, but I never gained back more than 15 of the 30 pounds I lost. This is the first time I haven't gained back more than what I've lost.

With that kind of success and being able to keep the weight off for the most part, I decided to go back to the 3-Hour way of eating. To help me track calories, I have been using a food diary on Weight Loss Buddies. They have a great tool that even lets you look up foods from popular restaurants. And with their support community, it's a great help.

I am proud to say that, in the past 7 days, I've lost 5 pounds. Now, I do know that the first week of eating differently you tend to lose a lot. I am sure that I won't continue to lose 5 pounds every week. The last time I ate the 3-Hour way, I did lose 1-3 pounds each week, unless I really didn't stick to it.

I am walking about 30 minutes every day to and from the train station, but I know I'll need to increase that exercise time. I just learned about Red Exerciser and may give that a shot. It looks fun! I need something no/low impact since my walking (running, if I am late) to the train is such an impact on my joints. The Red Exerciser may just be what I need to do more toning around my abdomen without additional impact.

My goal is to lose 100 pounds by the end of next year. It's amazing to me to think that I could lose 1/3 of this body I carry around. But I know it is possible and do-able, as long as I stick to eating small meals every 3 hours and keep up the exercise.

EVERYONE on this planet of ours is an artist. It's just up to you to claim the title. Making that claim is easy. Can you make a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich? Voila! You are an artist!

Seriously (and I don't get serious that often), we all create in our own ways. Maybe you create a calm, nurturing environment for your family while I create clutter. We all have talents, we all have things we do that we enjoy. While we are enjoying, we are often creating.

What is it that you most enjoy doing that doesn't involve food? I know that some of you are creative cooks, and that's tough. It's what you enjoy doing the most while also being one of your biggest triggers to eat. Is there something else you enjoy doing almost as much?

I find that when I spend time doing what I most love to do, I don't think about food. Hours can pass while I am lost in my art or reading or writing or surfing the net.

The next time you find yourself craving your worst craving and you know you aren't really hungry, immediately immerse yourself in what you love to do. This may take some planning. You may need to find a friend to call who will do things with you last minute or you may want to try doing your favorite activity alone. I thought I would HATE going to the movies by myself. But, honestly, by the time the movie really got going, I forgot I was there by myself.

Make a list of things you may have to do or have on hand in order to do what you love best. Set those plans into motion...and get ready to create a non-food time that you'll enjoy!

We all know and love-to-hate food diaries. At best, they have felt like a waste of time for me. At worst, they have felt like a daily list of sins I've committed. I've avoided them as much as I possibly can.

I noticed something recently that would make a record of my eating habits something that could be helpful. Some mornings my breakfast carries me for 3-4 hours without any trouble. I don't feel any cravings or hunger pangs. On other mornings, my breakfast barely gets me out the door. This is when I'm most tempted to stop off at McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts for a breakfast sandwich -- tons of carbs and fat I really don't need.

What makes one breakfast carry me into the day and another breakfast not? Similar things happen to me at other meals of the day, too, with the "wrong" meals leading me into a day of picking and grabbing fast foods. Knowing which meals will keep me satified for 3-4 hours will keep me away from unhealthy choices.

To help me crack the code of my own body, I've started keeping Secret Code Cards. On each index card, I write what I ate at a meal. For my own personal meal plan, I'm trying to hold to a certain number of calories per meal, so I do the best I can to estimate the calories I've eaten. I'm also curious about how much carb, protein, and fat it may take to make a "balanced" meal, so I keep track of that when I can.

You can decide what you want to record on your own Secret Code Cards. It'll all depend on the type of eating plan you are trying to follow and what things you think may be important to know when you are deciding what to eat.

With one meal on every card, you can make notes on the card about how long the meal carried you, or if it made you feel sluggish or energetic. Draw large X's through cards of meals that just didn't work for you. Keep those cards around long enough to know to avoid those meals and to collect enough cards with meals that make you feel your best. At that point, you can toss the cards with X's. You'll have decipered your own personal code. You'll know exactly what you body needs at each meal, and you'll have created your own, personalized meal plan.

No one knows better than you what makes your body hum. Use Secret Code Cards to help you define that hum. Then, by eating what makes you feel good, your eating plan will never be a drag.

No matter whether you work at a office or a factory or anything in between, I'm sure there are moments of your day when you have to listen to your boss or other co-workers drone on. Steal those moments back and make abs of steal.

Ok, I'm sounding like one of those hyped ads that tell you that you, yes you, can have a rock hard body in 30 seconds a day. Yeah, right. I hate those ads. Do they really think we are that stupid!

I can't promise you abs of steal in 30 seconds a day, but I can tell you how you can work towards stronger abs during stolen moments in your day. This is so simple that you can do it in public and no one will know.

1. While you exhale, pull in your stomach muscles as tight as you can.

2. Inhale and hold in your stomach muscles in as much as possible. Try not to let them expand as they normally would. And don't let your shoulders go up. You should feel your lungs expand while you feel pressure and tightness in your abdomen. If you've ever done sit-ups, you'll notice the same stretch across your stomach that you feel when doing sit-ups.

3. When you have inhaled as much as you can, hold your breath for a few seconds, if possible. Then release your breath. Make sure you exhale slowly or the people around you may wonder what you are sighing about.

That's it. Give it a try. Do it once. Then try to do it more often. Sometimes I do this at work. Sometimes I do 10 breaths while I'm waiting to fall asleep. When I'm not around others, I try to hold my breath longer and work harder at tightening my stomach muscles.

Do this several times a day and you'll feel the results, then you'll notice it in your clothes. Remember how you felt the day after you started doing sit-ups again? Your stomach may have ached a little when you laughed or took in a sharp breath. You'll feel that after you've done this breathing exercise a few times and that'll tell you that you are working your muscles. You are strengthening and tightening them. And, as long as you continue, you'll notice your waistband feeling a little looser.

Did you ever do the Cabbage Soup diet? You could eat as much of the stuff as you wanted because it had so few calories. Most of my friends complained about this diet and didn't stay on it long because they hated the soup. Moi? I LOVED the stuff. I would eat bowl after bowl of the stuff. With just the right salt and paper, it really isn't all that bad. And it's packed with great vegies!

Here in New England, we are just beginning to enter soup season. If you like soup as much as I do, this is a GREAT time of year. I could eat soup (good soup...not just the cans of sodium sold at the store) at every meal. Soup provides a lot of taste and has the chance to fill you up before you reach the bottom of the bowl because it takes you longer to eat it.

If you are a weirdo like me and actually liked the Cabbage Soup Recipe, you might want to check it out.

Find recipes for the soups you love and share them with us in the feedback box below. I'm always up for trying a new soup! I'll even post an article letting you know how good each recipe is.