Perfect Slimming
If you are a fan of horse racing, you are familiar with the exotic bet called Superfecta. It requires you to pick the first four horses to cross the finish line. Depending on the size of the field and the odds of the winning horses, the reward is often huge.
Approaching our weight loss efforts with the attitude of a gambler, we’ll pick four surefire winners in the diet game. To improve our chances, we’re going to “box” our picks, meaning they can finish in any order as long as our picks are first, second, third, and fourth.
1. Restrict your eating at meal times.
We often control ourselves relatively well when we sit down at the table. Whether at home or eating out, we’ve given the food on our plate some thought and made a conscious decision about what we’ll allow ourselves.
It is what happens between actual meals that is often our downfall. We act without awareness or foresight, absentmindedly picking up leftovers or items that are just “hanging around”: candy, chips, last night’s unfinished bowl of popcorn, one last lonely cupcake. With little genuine memory of doing so, we have doubled or tripled our daily caloric intake and completely subverted our best intentions. Whether you eat twice a day or “three squares,” stick to that and keep your teeth square for the rest of the time.
2. Increase your activity.
Most of us who are overweight hate exercise. We always manage to not find time to perform a daily routine or join a gym. It is true that you can increase your energy expenditure during the day by such changes as using the stairs instead of the elevator, parking as far away from the store or market as possible, or walking over to a coworker’s desk rather than calling him on the telephone. The problem is that these suggestions, so often voiced by weight loss specialists, have little effect, especially in the short term. If you honestly think a few extra steps a day will make you better, you’re in big denial, my friend.
Increasing your activity levels to the range where they will actually help your weight goals will take genuine and regular effort. If you can’t bear to do calisthenics in the morning, try these.
has. Don’t just take the stairs, use them. If you work on the third floor of a six-story building, walk up to the roof and then back down to your floor. If you have a two-story house or an upstairs apartment, be sure to leave things behind so you’re forced to run up and down the stairs at least three or four times before getting in your car and leaving.
b. Park your car in the back 40 of the supermarket and then leave your wallet under the seat. When you get to the store, you will have to walk all the way back to get it. When you’ve loaded your purchases into your trunk, push the basket to the front door of the store; now he has walked the distance four times instead of just once.
con Use your break or lunch time to walk around the block. Then convince yourself that you might have dropped something and retrace the full path.
d. Play music when you clean the house or do the dishes. Dance constantly while trying to finish your tasks without breaking anything.
me. When you watch TV, just put an ounce or two of water, coffee, or tea in your cup or glass. Get up for a recharge in every commercial. During the night, you can go up and down fifty times, which will keep you limber and burn calories.
Some of these ideas can take so long that you’ll throw in the towel and choose an early morning workout, knowing then you won’t have to worry about this nonsense all day!
3. Think small.
We gain weight because of the types of food we eat and how much we eat. For now, let’s focus on the amount of our intake: calories DO count.
Start thinking small in the market. Yes, food producers give us a price discount if we buy the “economy” size (they have a vested interest in keeping our appetites unrestricted). We can save even more by buying in bulk. At this stage of our weight loss program, we are less interested in saving money than saving our diet. Buy the smallest available size of everything.
When you start preparing your meal, figure out how much of each item you need, and then cut back by 25%. Use dessert instead of dinner plates. A portion of food looks so much bigger when it threatens to spill over the edges.
When you start eating, cut the food into small pieces. Mind you, they’re not bite-sized pieces, but more like bite-size bites of pet food or large peas. Then eat one at a time, making sure your mouth is completely empty before taking another piece.
You’ll find yourself paying for everything (and pretty bored with the whole procedure) long before your plate is empty. The thought of a second helping may even make you nauseous.
If you’re eating out, try ordering a kid’s plate, a senior menu size, or just an appetizer. Never order a full meal when a la carte dishes are available; the rest is just “filler” anyway.
4. Always have a pleasant diversion at hand.
The less time you spend interacting with food, the less you will eat. Set your schedule to allow yourself as little time as possible to eat. If you have an important meeting at 1 pm, don’t take time for lunch until 12:45. At 1 pm, stop and clean it all up. If you want to watch a special TV show at 7 pm, don’t start dinner until 6:45. At 7 pm, throw any uneaten food in the trash and turn on your program.
If you didn’t have time to finish your meal, more power to you – you have so many calories ahead of you. And remember that this advice must be combined with your previous commitment not to eat between meals.
If you’re home with nothing special to do, identify some fun non-eating activity and schedule it right after you start eating so you’re forced to stop again sooner than your stomach demands. Schedule yourself to start a new book, surf the web, read a favorite catalog, visit a neighbor, or sit down with the kids to talk about their day.
Never find yourself at “loose ends” with nothing better to do than eat. Make a list of the things you enjoy so there is always something to tempt you away from the table.
Mix and match these four suggestions as you go on your weight loss journey. In any order, in any grade, in any rotation, they’ll help you cross the finish line to reap your well-deserved rewards.