Best Diet Tips for 2013

By Anna Dantoni –

Yes, you’ve seen these nuggets of advice in print before, but maybe this is the year you take action and substitute progress for good intentions. Americans in unprecedented numbers are suffering from diabetes, heart disease, back problems and other medical issues that could be ameliorated by simply losing weight.

The experts (those who have lost weight and are successfully keeping off) say avoid being overly ambitious. Start with what you can manage and then take on more as the weeks go by. These experts also advise that losing weight with a buddy or a group, such as Weight Watchers, gives you the support and encouragement that going solo does not provide. Start now. Call a friend, contact a local group of dieters, pick two actions from this list and just do it.

• Eliminate or reduce your intake of alcohol, fruit juices and carbonated beverages. Diet sodas are not good for you.
• Buy a calorie counter and refer to it often just to see what you’re consuming during the day. Use the guide to calculate the number of calories you can take in each day to lose weight and make that your daily goal.
• Exercise. Start with a mile walk around the neighborhood three times a week. Do simple stretches and a routine of repetitions with hand weights while you’re watching television or listening to music. Ride a bike, rollerblade. Don’t make a big thing of it, just do some kind exercise.
• Use smaller plates at mealtimes and cut down on your portion by a third. Sit down. Eat slowly. Drink water with a slice of lemon or cucumber in it and use a pretty glass. Six to eight glasses of water a day would be ideal.
• While green coffee bean extract and raspberry ketones are not magical, taking one a half hour before lunch or dinner with a full glass of water does help burn a little fat and dulls the appetite.
• If you love beef, switch to bison. Love roasted chicken, go ahead and roast the bird with the skin on and then just throw away the skin before eating the chicken. Skin holds in juices when chicken is cooking, but skin is loaded with fat. Sadly, it’s full of flavor too. Just close your eyes and trash that crispy skin. Tomorrow you’ll be glad.
• Eat more whole grains. Reject white potatoes for forbidden black rice and quinoa.
• Cut down on salt. Canned foods and foods in jars are sodium bombs. Pick fresh vegetables and season with herbs or a salt substitute.
• Weigh yourself just once a week at the same time of day. Use the same scale each time.
• Go to the mall and try on something fabulous in a size smaller than you normally wear. Pretty soon, that size will be your size. When it happens, reward yourself and buy that fabulous thing.

F&M