28.
Treat chocolates as a luxury, don’t make it a routine. Do not indulge too much in chocolates. Even bitter chocolate is not good for you because, though less, there is still sugar and then there’s the cream.
29.
Make it a task to select a variety of foods from all food groups, every day. By changing the foods included in your diet daily you are minimizing deficiency diseases and keep discovering interesting ways to enrich your diet.
30.
If you can avoid alcoholic beverages, you should. Beer can contribute to obesity and immoderate consumption of alcohol will cause a host of other issues. It’s a slippery slope and after a couple of swigs you will be in no position to watch your diet.
31.
Make it a habit to have breakfast within one hour of waking. This way your body can charge itself with the energy it needs for the rest of the day. Avoid waiting to get really hungry before eating.
32.
About half of your diet should be carbohydrates. The diet myths say you should avoid carbohydrates when you are on a diet. However, carbohydrates are a ready source of energy and 50-55% of your diet should be carbohydrates.
33.
Make 25-30% of your diet proteins. Proteins are needed for numerous processes and activities that are going on in our bodies. Building resistance, recovery from disease, increasing muscle mass – the body needs plenty of proteins and a diet that consists of 25-30% proteins will supply those.
34.
Fats should stay in the 15-20% area. You should try to keep your fats below 20% and make sure they are the healthy kind.
35.
Try to adopt a vegetarian diet. A vegetarian diet is absolutely better when trying to lose weight. There are a number of advantages of keeping to a vegetarian diet and it should be your Monday-to-Friday routine. Make non-vegetarian diet a weekend event if you find it impossible to give up eating animal based products.
36.
Choose white meat rather than red. White meat, like fish and fowl, is significantly better than red meat, like beef and pork, for those trying to lose weight.
37.
Choose high fiber multigrain bread instead of white bread. Remember that we already covered the need to increase the fiber content in your food and this is one way to do it. It’s also better in terms of the protein content as well.
38.
If red meat is a must for you, at least reduce your intake of pork. Pork might be tasty, but it certainly won’t help you to lose weight. This includes the pork products as well, things like bacon, ham and sausages.
39.
If you can’t have things unsweetened go for sugar substitutes. These things are just as sweetening but not as fattening.
40.
Have 5 to 6 meals a day. Having 5 or 6 smaller meals during the day instead of three king sized meals is an excellent way of having smaller quantities of food.
41.
When the craving comes, it’s OK to eat cheat food, but only for flavor. There are many things which you have to avoid from your diet but don’t avoid them altogether. You could call them cheat foods and indulge in them once in a while. But take care just to tingle your taste buds, don’t hog on them.
42.
Watch your fat intake. Each fat gram contains 9 calories so by reading the total calories on a food and knowing the quantity of fat, you can estimate the % of fat, which should never exceed 30% of the food.
43.
Too much salt is one of the causes of obesity. Make it a point to really cut down on salt. Try to bring down your salt intake to half of what it was last year.
44.
Change from table butter to cholesterol free butter, it’s healthier and tastes just the same. All these small changes can go a long way towards weight reduction.
45.
Instead of frying, try baking without fat. Baking is by far a healthier method of preparing food than frying, requiring less oil and fat.
46.
Use a nonstick cooking pan so that you don’t have to add oil. The golden rule is to try and avoid as much oil as possible and a nonstick pan is the perfect tool.
47.
Boil or steam your vegetables instead of cooking them, if you cannot eat them fresh. If you do not like eating your vegetables fresh, try steaming them without adding anything at all. This is probably the healthiest way to eat cabbages, cauliflowers and a host of other vegetables.
48.
Carry parsley with you. Parsley is an excellent to munch on in between meals. Good for you in terms of vitamins and minerals and it is also makes your breath fresher.
49.
Choose low fat or no fat substitutes. There are plenty of low fat substitutes available on the market so why not go for them? We are creatures of habit so when we go shopping we pick up products we are familiar with, not bothering to find out if there are healthier substitutes. The next time you head for the stores instead of just picking up what you always do, check for substitutes as well.
50.
Avoid crash diets. They are bad for your health and you will gain what you have lost once you take a break. Crash diets are not a long term solution to weight loss and do more harm than good in the long run. It might seem as if you have lost few pounds but the moment you give up on the crash diet everything bounces back, and now with a vengeance.
Read more on the next page.
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