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Clean Eating Shortcuts for Big Weight Loss
Losing weight is about portion control, not the exclusion of food groups. Divide your plate into four sections. Fill one-quarter with a healthy protein food like fish, poultry, or lean red meat; fill one-quarter with a whole grain like brown rice; and fill the other two quarters with vegetables and fruit. Add a glass of milk, and you're set. Still hungry? Serve yourself additional helpings of veggies until you're satisfied. Vegetables are naturally low in calories and high in fiber, which helps you feel full. You can also use this "handy" portion scale to size up your servings at restaurants, at home, or wherever you eat.
Fist=1 cup of rice or pasta; 1 piece of fruit
Thumb=1 ounce of cheese
Tip of thumb (to bottom of nail)=1 teaspoon of butter
Palm=1 serving of meat, poultry, fish
Cupped handful=1 serving of cereal, chips, pretzels
By Chris Freytag for Prevention
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Clean Eating Shortcuts for Big Weight Loss
The more easily recognized it is—like broccoli, carrots, chicken breasts, mangoes, and fish—the better! As food becomes more processed and less immediately identifiable, you should eat it less often. For example, bread, pasta, and cereal are okay, but choose whole grains that resemble the food that grows on a farm, like oatmeal and brown rice, over those like Froot Loops that are unrecognizable as anything from nature. Completely processed foods such as cakes and candies should be eaten very sparingly.
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Clean Eating Shortcuts for Big Weight Loss
Study after study has shown that even the simplest morning meal—a bowl of whole grain cereal, some skim milk, a handful of strawberries—lengthens attention span, sharpens fact recall, and elevates mood.
While many women skimp on breakfast because they're "not hungry" or "too busy," if you want to lose weight, you need to make your morning meal a priority. Ideally, it should be at least the same size as dinner, if not bigger (and dinner, of course, should be smaller). By eating 25 to 30 percent of your day's calories in the morning, you'll start the day well fueled and be less likely to snack all afternoon or, worse, binge at night.
One word of caution: Avoid starting the day on a sugar binge. Sugary cereals, breakfast bars, muffins, and pastries may give you a temporary boost, but they won’t fill you up long enough to sustain you through the morning. A healthy breakfast will.
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Clean Eating Shortcuts for Big Weight Loss
Smart snacking doesn’t have to be tedious. It can be fun, fast, and delicious. Here are a few on-the-go goodies to try:
- Trail mix
- Carrots and hummus or low-fat ranch dressing
- A zipper-lock bag of peanut butter and some apple slices for dipping
- Take 2 graham crackers and spread them with peanut butter
- Cinnamon toast (made from whole grain bread) with fruit
- Celery sticks filled with light cream cheese or peanut butter and lined with raisins
- Hard-cooked eggs, lightly sprinkled with salt or seasoning
- A small bowl of whole grain cereal with fat-free milk
- Nuked sweet potatoes. Thinly slice a sweet potato, spread it out on a plate, sprinkle with salt and ground black pepper, and microwave for about 4 minutes
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Clean Eating Shortcuts for Big Weight Loss
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Clean Eating Shortcuts for Big Weight Loss
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Clean Eating Shortcuts for Big Weight Loss
You’re not a bad person for eating potato chips. Ice cream is not "bad." It just has a lot of calories without a whole lot of nutrition. The key is to not get carried away. Here's how to deviate from your healthy eating regimen without falling completely off track:
1. Plan it. Tell yourself you’re going to have one slice of birthday cake.
2. Pace it. Limit treats to special occasions two or three times a month.
3. Portion it. Allow yourself one moderately sized serving.
4. Enjoy it. Pay attention to the food. Don’t read or watch television.
5. Pitch it. Discard any leftovers to prevent temptation.
6. Forget it. Go right back to your healthy eating habits.
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Clean Eating Shortcuts for Big Weight Loss
On any given day, half of all Americans will eat out at a restaurant. Dining out has gone from a once-in- a while treat to an essential part of our eating habits. That means we can’t treat every restaurant experience as an indulgence, dipping slice after slice of sourdough into the olive oil pool, choosing rich entrées, and ordering dessert.
Decide what types of healthy dishes you will look for before you go, choosing clear broths over cream sauces, grilled or broiled dishes over fried, and so on. Also determine ahead of time that you will eat just three nachos or a half slice of bread. Then, once you get to the restaurant, all your choices are already made, so you're more likely to stick to them.
Remember, every bite counts. Don't leave them up to chance. Even if you can’t see the menu online, you can still order what you want, how you want it, at most places— grilled, sauce on the side, extra veggies, no potatoes, you name it.
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Clean Eating Shortcuts for Big Weight Loss
New protein research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign shows that adding more fish, poultry, and lean meat to your diet will accelerate the benefits of your workout. In the study, researchers put 24 women on a fitness plan and asked half the group to eat about 9 ounces of high-quality protein a day, while the other half ate just 5 ounces of protein and twice as much carbohydrate-rich food. Though both groups consumed the same number of calories, the protein-only group lost 47 percent more weight than the carb group and 21.5 percent of their body fat, compared with 15 percent for the carb-heavy dieters. The researchers believe that protein helps work with insulin to better rebuild your muscles and rev metabolism.
Plan to have a little protein with every meal. Be creative. There is protein beyond chicken. Try soy foods and soybeans, kidney beans, and legumes and nuts, as well as fish, eggs, dairy, and meat.
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Clean Eating Shortcuts for Big Weight Loss
The USDA recommends that we all consume three or more servings of whole grains every day.
"Whole grain" means that the food contains the entire edible portion of any grain, whether it be wheat, oats, barley, or rye. The closer you get to the original form of the grain, the better.
To make it easier for consumers to identify whole grain foods, the Whole Grain Council has come up with a series of stamps for whole grain products. When you see a stamp that says "100% Whole Grain Excellent Source," it means the food contains a full serving and that all grains are whole grains. A stamp that says "Whole Grain Excellent Source" means the product contains a full serving of whole grain. "Whole Grain Good Source" means the food delivers a half serving of whole grain. Shoot for three full servings a day.
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Clean Eating Shortcuts for Big Weight Loss
To prevent unwanted pounds from creeping on your lower half, you need to keep an eye out for unseen calories. One of the top sources in the American diet is sauces! Restaurant cooks have a habit of drowning everything in dressings, sauces, melted cheese, butter, and oil, so even a reasonable portion can contain hundreds of hidden calories.
The easiest way to avoid getting "sauced" is to ask for everything on the side. Order salad dressings, dipping sauces, and cream sauces on the side. Then take your fork and dip the tines in the sauce before stabbing your food.
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Clean Eating Shortcuts for Big Weight Loss
Indulging yourself once in a while is perfectly okay, but if cravings start becoming daily occurrences, you need to find a way to calm them. Try these craving quenchers:
Pop some pickles. Strong-tasting foods like olives, pickles, and hot peppers are overwhelming to your taste buds, which experts say cuts cravings off at the pass.
Gum up the works. Chew bubble gum—it keeps your jaw going, and it's sweet!
Brush your teeth. Ever notice how nothing tastes very good after you brush?
What happens if these strategies don't work and you find yourself slipping? Shrug it off and get right back on track. There's always tomorrow. Remember, it’s what you do most of the time—not those few occasions you fall off the wagon—that determines your success.
from: www.prevention.com
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