Lose the weight, not your sanity.

I thought it was time for some practical tips on making weight loss livable and maintainable.
Here is a compilation of a few little tips that can add up to a lot of saved calories.

• Thirsty can feel a lot like hungry.  This is why you will often see a tip about drinking a full glass of water and waiting 15 minutes before snacking.  It is a good idea to pause a second and consider how long it's actually been since you've eaten and WHY you want to eat.  If it has been fewer than three or four hours since a meal, is there an emotional reason such as boredom, stress or loneliness?  If so, consider its source (many people will choose to journal at this point about an emotional trigger they have experienced to try and avoid it next time) and see if there is a way to divert your attention to something else:  take a walk, clean, call up a friend, pick up a craft project, do some work or garden.  Removing  yourself can be very helpful. If you are still hungry after this diversion, have a snack.  By the way, we who need to lose weight may not remember or may have never experienced what hunger actually feels like.  I know that sounds crazy.  I very clearly remember a day during my Junior year of college when I was walking home from class and my stomach growled.  It literally stopped me in my tracks.  I was thinking, "What the heck was that?!".  After considering for a second, I realized that my stomach had growled and that I hadn't felt that sensation in YEARS.  So many, in fact, that I didn't know what it was at first!  So get back in touch (or become familiar with for the first time) actual hunger cues.  Stomach growling, feeling shaky or a little lethargic, several hours since you last ate are all clues that it probably is really hunger you are feeling and not a habit or emotional need.  It's still a good idea to try the drink of water first just to be sure and it will help you eat less by filling up that belly a little first!
• Give in to temptation...intelligently.  Just can't say no to the chips, cookies or chocolate?  Decide  how much you will eat and remove it from the package.  Now put away the package or have someone else put it away where you won't find it.  Eating mindlessly from the bag is a sure way to finish it before realizing what you've done.  Along these lines, make sure it's a small portion.  Easier said than done?  Have you ever noticed that the very first chip out of the bag tastes AMAZING?  The second one is pretty good and the rest after that all taste the same?        I  know people who pre-portion snacks as soon as they arrive home from the store.  They buy large bags of things, but measure out the portions with measuring cups or a food scale and bag them individually so it's easy to grab without thinking about how much you can/should have.  Something my husband does after eating sweets is to munch a few baby carrots.  Removing the sweet residue from your teeth and tongue helps keep it from snowballing into an all out binge.  
• "It's not mine."  This tip is the one that has served me the best around candy-centric holidays such as Halloween, Valentine's Day and Easter.  When I visit someone else's house and they have a candy dish sitting out, I often don't know whether it's okay to take something from the dish, so I don't.  I keep this attitude around my kids' goodie buckets.  They definitely don't need all the candy, but I need it much less.  To keep from polishing it off, I tell myself that it's not mine, just like the candy dish at someone else's house.  The kids would be very upset if they found a bunch of their candy missing so it also keeps me out of trouble with them.  
• Keep treats you don't like.  My hubby has been kind enough to limit his in-house treats to things that are of no interest to me:  jelly beans, gummy bears, hard candy, sour candy.  All things that I can easily pass up.  He (and the kids) can indulge as he pleases and it doesn't tempt me one bit.  Now, bring in some chocolate and all bets are off!
• Only the best of the best.  This can be a REALLY tough one to make a habit, especially if you're an indoctrinated member of the 'clean plate club'.  If you take a bite of something, such as a cookie or candy, and it isn't the best __________ you've ever had, don't finish it.  For me, this means that I won't touch chocolate that isn't Hershey's.  To my palate, it's simply the best and the rest just isn't worth the calories because I won't enjoy it as much.  This can be especially helpful around the holidays when everyone you come across is offering goodies.  If you don't like a particular offering, politely decline instead of accepting just to be nice.  If you take a bite of something that doesn't knock your socks off, put it down and walk away.  
• Make indulgences inconvenient.  I try not to keep the treats that I can't control myself with in the house and I generally am too lazy to go out and get something when the urge hits.  This can be really frustrating in moments of desperation but I have found myself reaching for an orange or an apple when I had been seriously jonesing for something sweet.  The urge is typically fulfilled and I feel a lot better about not having polished off an entire huge bag of M & Ms by myself.  
• Allow the family their vices...OUT of the house.  I love ice cream.  I haven't met many people who don't (like that double negative?).  To keep from indulging nightly, I don't keep it in the house.  However, the rest of my family wants their treats, too, so hubby has a standing date with the kids on Monday night to go out for ice cream.  They have become connoisseurs of the various 99¢ cones.  The kids know that they will get their ice cream once a week so they don't ask for it on other days and I get something else that I crave:  an hour at home, alone, with some peace and quiet.  
• Have a standing "bad" food night.  I hesitate to add this tip because it's something that doesn't really help me with my battle against the bulge but it does help my family cope with being a party to my battle.  Pizza is probably the one thing that "dieters" fear the most.  It's typically the first thing that they feel has to go and symbolizes all that is evil about junk food in that doughy, cheesy, greasy goodness.  My family eats every home cooked meal at the dining room table.  Except dinner on Friday night.  Friday is pizza-in-front-of-the-TV-night.  We make a big production of spreading a blanket on the living room floor to 'picnic' with the kids and watch a family friendly movie together.    This has done wonders to curb the "can we have pizza?" whining from the kids.  They simply don't ask for it anymore because they know about Friday nights.  We watch very little TV so this is a BIG deal to them.  I also offer a big container full of chopped veggies and hummus to go with the pizza.  I can have one (or so) slices then fill up on the vegetables and dip.  The kids munch away on the veggies when their pizza is gone and they don't want to miss any of the movie to go upstairs to the kitchen to get more.  Win-win!  Oh yes, keep the rest of the "bad" food out of reach.  That flight of stairs is a pretty good deterrent for mindlessly grabbing one more slice.  But when we get take out and it's in the same room, there is never leftovers because ALL of us just keeping grabbing more.  One side note:  I weigh in on Thursday morning so it's no accident that Friday is pizza-in-front-of-the-TV-night!  (That would make Wednesday fish and giant salad night ;-)
• Dealing with cravings.  I have a personal rule of no junk food before lunch.  This makes the morning a pretty easy binge-free zone for me.  The afternoons and evenings are another matter altogether.  It is very predictable for me to have a serious need for something sweet after lunch.  I have found that having hot tea helps a lot.  Especially in the Winter, it is very comfort food-y.  I can usually get by with something zero calorie like peppermint but sometimes the sweet need is just too much.  Adding a MEASURED amount of sweetener (try different ones like agave nectar or honey to change it up) to a sweeter tea such as Earl Grey or peach is usually enough to take care of that craving for me.  Tea also counts toward hydration needs! A friend suggests chewing sugar free gum to help with cravings.  I go through A LOT of gum ;-)  Brushing your teeth after lunch or supper can help, as well.  It really makes you think twice about messing up that minty freshness.  Popcorn is also a great choice, especially in the evening when the rest of the family is going to town on junk or during a movie at home.  Popcorn is high in fiber so its satiety factor is high, as well as it being okay to mindlessly much away on given a few conditions:  plain air popped popcorn (spice it with calorie free things such as chili powder, dill or anything else you can think of) or 94% fat free microwave popcorn.  If you are using WW, FIVE cups of that stuff is only 3 points plus values!  That's a whole lot of popcorn.  I'm not a big fan of reduced fat foods primarily because of the chemicals that they tend to introduce into your diet and fat, quite simply, is not the enemy.  Fat is a necessary nutrient and is healthy in moderation, as with anything else.  By using the 94% fat free microwave popcorn, you still get the butter and salt flavor without the calories and other bad things (remember all the hoopla about movie theatre butter causing cancer?) and it's pre-portioned.  With that particular type, you can even go for the big bag and don't have to eat only a mini bag worth!  I have been known to bring my own mini bag of popped corn into a movie theatre.  What are big purses for, after all?  
• PMS cravings  When talking with friends, the theme of PMS cravings seems to be a need for fat. Specifically, chocolate and cheese.  I count myself among this group but have found a way of dealing with it.  My friend, Shanna, offers this great tip:  About a week before your period is due, increase the healthy fat in your diet.  Good choices are olive oil and avocado.  This doesn't mean to polish off an entire bag of tortilla chips with a bucket of guacamole.  This means add a few slices of avocado to your usual sandwich or drizzle some olive oil on your fish, pasta, or whatever you like.  As a hard core chocolate craver, I can tell you that this tip really does work.  The first time I tried it was the first time in my life that I didn't need chocolate to the point of being willing to do bodily harm to someone if I didn't get it.  
• Stretching it to the next meal:  I eat breakfast with my kiddos pretty early in the morning.  This can make it feel like a loooong time until lunch some days.  It seems like 10:00 is the magic hour for running on empty.  To make it to lunch without going nuts and enabling lunch to be a little smaller meal than it might otherwise have been, I have found apples to be a lifesaver.  They work in the afternoon, too!  Apples are great because they have lots of crunch, are sweet and have a lot of fiber for filling you up and keeping you that way for a good amount of time.  Another good choice is almonds.  Be careful here because it's very easy to mindlessly empty the container.  Eight almonds should do the trick to tide you over and not be a huge calorie expense.  So count them out then put away the package. 
• Keep after it.  Believe it or not, junk food no longer feels good (and I'm not talking guilt here).  It still tastes good! But once that stuff is out of your system, your body will reject it.  Nothing feels so nasty to me now as a burger and fries.  It's just too much.  Too much grease.  Too much salt.  Too much food.  I also see it immediately on the scale the next day.  I have read that it takes about two days for food to get through your system and arrive on your tush.  Fast food seems to be on the fast track to my belly and bum.  
• Meal plan.  I know this is hard to make time for and a pain to do but it can be very helpful.  It is especially helpful when you don't really feel like cooking and would typically resort to eating out.  If you glance at the meal plan in the morning and know throughout the day that you will be making a particular thing for dinner, then it's easier to stick to that plan and you don't have to stand in front of the panty/fridge and puzzle out what you can make or want to eat.  My family has a dry erase calendar that I use and try to fill out a month at a time.  Doing such an extended period of time means that I only have to make time for it once per month and not once per week.  I definitely don't always stick to it.  It's more like an outline of what we have the ingredients for in the house in that given week.  If something doesn't sound good then I can glance ahead a few days and find something else that does and switch them.  I have friends that use apps and online meal planners.  They also will keep just a few month long meal plans and rotate between them so they aren't starting from scratch each time.  The most important thing about meal planning for me is that it puts me in the driver's seat of my nutrition and not at the mercy of my husband's whims (pizza tonight, nachos tomorrow night, burritos the next night, hot dogs after that...).  It also means that if I get busy, he can glance at the calendar and see what the plan was and get it started himself.  
• Buy and USE a food scale and measuring cups/spoons.  The only way to accurately portion food is to measure it.  "A serving of meat is 3 ounces.  The size of a deck of cards."  Whuck?!  Do you know how often I hold a deck of cards?  Pretty much never.   I don't think I have ever seen a piece of meat that was exactly the thickness of a deck of cards, either.  But I can put a piece of meat or any other food for that matter on a food scale and figure out how much it weighs and how many calories or points that would be.  This is the ONLY way that I can deal with potato chips.  If you read the nutrition information on the bag it will likely tell you that a serving is about 16 chips.  Good luck finding 16 whole chips in a bag.  If you asked me to eyeball one ounce (that's a serving!) of potato chips, I would probably put about three on the plate.  The truth is, one ounce is a pretty reasonable amount of chips (see above about the first one being the best one) and I can't produce that amount without some help.  Read the nutrition labels on your food and use the tools to measure out an actual serving.  You will probably find that your idea of a serving is enormously distorted (big surprise, America!) but you may also find that it is smaller than an actual serving.  I found this with hummus.  A serving is 1/4 cup.  I was (inaccurately, of course) eyeballing the amount of hummus I served myself.  I was pretty happy to find out how much it really is and now I just scoop it into the (leveled, not mounded) 1/4 cup measuring cup and dip straight out of there so I'm not being gipped at all.  However, I wanted to cry the first time I measured a serving of pasta with the food scale.  I definitely wasn't gipping myself there!  Learning to use the tools to see what an actual serving is has been HUGE for me.  This is the thing that I never learned growing up.  Huge amounts of unbalanced food and the clean plate club is the bottom line of my childhood food experience.  In spite of that, I have learned that a human being CAN survive on less food and actually is better off for it.  Speaking of the clean plate club:
• I don't expect you to clean your plate.  Yes, there are people all over the world, even in our own areas, who don't get enough to eat.  However, they will never directly benefit from the specific food on your plate.  That means that you are not directly causing the starvation of the children of the world if you throw away a little bit of food rather than cleaning your plate.  And just think how much your OWN kids will learn from that simple act.   Along these same lines:  Don't finish the pot just to avoid leftovers or avoid pitching the little bit of food that's left.  Save it for lunch or get rid of it.  Throwing away 1/2 cup of a side dish will not shift your cosmic balance of good vs. evil.  

Excuse time!  I have no willpower.  The funny thing is, I bet you actually have tons of willpower that you use everyday.  It took a LOT of willpower not to yell at Girly when she dumped a bowl of cereal all over the wood table on the fancy tablecloth yesterday morning when we were running late.  It took all the willpower I could muster not to tell a soul we were pregnant with The Boy for the first twenty weeks.  It takes a lot of willpower not to tell a friend what you really think of their new haircut and color.  It definitely takes willpower in so many work situations.  It comes down to choices, not willpower.  It's just part of the mental game.  I love the Jillian Michaels podcast where she interviews Bob Harper (3/31/12 Together Again!) and he says that his motto is "It's a game and I'm going to win".  I think that is so applicable here.  Willpower or choices, it's just a word game.  I can choose to be healthy, strong and in control or I can choose to hide behind the excuse that "I have no willpower".  Make no mistake, sometimes I choose chocolate.  Not because I lack willpower but because I'm choosing to live life on my terms.