Weight Loss Tips

Tips to Change Your Eating Habits and Lose Weight Too!!

1. Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time. Haphazard eating is often high calories eating.

2. Write your shopping list when you are NOT hungry, and go grocery shopping with a full stomach. That way you are not tempted to buy extra goodies

3. Cut back on high-calorie foods. If you buy them for the rest of your family, store them out of sight. (Out of sight- Out of mind!)


4.	Eat only when sitting at the kitchen table or dining room table instead of nibbling while doing other thinks, like watching TV.

5.	Eat slowly so you'll feel full. Savor and enjoy every bite of food. Try putting your fork down between bites if that helps you slow down. Did you know that it takes your stomach at least 20 minutes to get a signal from the brain that it is full?

6.	When you get the urge to eat between meals, do something else instead! Jog with a friend, walk the dog, wash the car, water the garden or read your favorite book.

Shake the sodium habit! The average American consumes 25% of their sodium intake from using salt while cooking and from the salt they add at the table. A preference for sodium is a learned habit and can be unlearned. Sodium is a nutrient your body needs but only in minimal amounts. Try to break the salt habit by tasting food before using the salt shaker, remove the salt shaker from the table, use other spices like garlic and herbs to cook with instead of salt, reduce or skip the salt in cooking water and read food labels!

Antioxidant vitamins are important to good health! Antioxidant vitamins include vitamin A (as beta-carotene), vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium. Antioxidants counteract the effects of harmful free-radicals. Free-radicals can damage body tissues and DNA which can lead to the onset of health problems. Free-radicals are formed when the body burns oxygen and from certain environmental factors such as burns, cigarette smoke, ultraviolet light and pollution. Antioxidants work together and compliment each other. An excess or deficiency of one may inhibit the benefits of another. Eat lots of whole-grains and eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day to make sure your body gets the antioxidant vitamins it needs.