Lose Weight and Find Your Swimsuit Body

Caught your eye,  didn’t I?  Are you dreading it or are you planning a crash diet?  You know diets don’t work, ever, because if you don’t change your eating patterns forever then you will one day be back where you started, or even worse off.  Here at Orange Tree Lane three of the five resident taste testers have been shedding a few extra pounds lately without dieting or any other drastic measures.  Just taking a different perspective on food can be powerful!  Let me share with you some of the perspective changes that have been making a difference for us.

1. Bread goes with some things, but not with everything.  We’ve cut down on the amount of bread we eat;  extra fruit instead of another piece of toast, wrap the protein in lettuce instead of a bun, skip the sandwich and have a chicken or steak salad instead,  replacing pasta with whole grain pasta and less of it in relation to amount of vegetables, a second vegetable like honey carrots instead of a loaf of bread or dinner rolls, etc. 

2. We don’t need as much food as we think we do.  I would never suggest skipping a meal, but a “meal” doesn’t have to be so extensive as we usually think it does.  Reduce portion sizes even a little and it adds up over time.  Not hungry but it’s time for dinner?  Have the vegetables you are serving and just a few bites of protein.  Listen to your body and don’t eat just because its there and everyone else is eating a lot of it.

3. Snacking should be something you do to help your body, not just take away hunger pangs.  By help I mean that whatever you put in your mouth should have nutritional significance.  A pretzel made with white flour, a sweetened coffee drink or chips might make you feel happy and less hungry, but are they helping you nutritionally?  Refined and processed food and sugar are burdensome to your body, while healthy snacks are actually useful.  Cut up vegetables like English cucumbers, carrots, sweet bell peppers,  apples, bananas with peanut butter, pears, nuts, dried fruit, trail mix, yogurt with granola…these kinds of snacks do you good!  I find that if I set out cut vegetables and have a healthy dip on hand like hummus or guacamole, the vegetables disappear.  If I don’t do that, snackers reach for corn chips, ice cream, and the like.  Plan ahead by bringing healthy snacks with you wherever you are going, and especially if you are going to be tempted to eat junk when you get there.  If you are just “in the mood to eat”, make sure you grab something that takes a lot of chewing like an apple or a large carrot.  And finally, if you start your day off with a protein rich breakfast you will stay full much longer and be less anxious to snack on empty calories later in the day. 

4.  Don’t focus on what you can’t eat, but spend all of that mental energy pursuing what you can and should eat.  The challenge is to find healthy food that you like, and the to start having it on hand, preparing it, and enjoying it.  If you are eating the right things, you can eat a lot of food and you should never go hungry!  The mission of Orange Tree Lane is to help you do this very thing and it is my way of sharing with you what I do for myself to keep focused on the good rather than trying to avoid the bad.  If you are full of the good stuff, then you will have very little appetite for all the rest anyhow.

Is there something that has been working really well for you?  Why don’t you share it by commenting on the side so that everyone can benefit?

Remember, a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.  Even if you’ve stopped walking for awhile, you can resume instantly in the right direction by making just one small change today. What will your step be?

Molly