As a registered dietician and serial dieter, I’ve spent years exploring the reasons for my own lifelong struggle with weight. The most painful relationship in my life has always been my relationship with food. So, I went on a journey to break free of the demoralizing, destructive and disheartening cycle of yo-yo dieting and realize my goals of living thin and comfortably in a world of food.
Truth is, most people can lose weight. Every year in this country, millions of dieters lose hundreds of millions of pounds. But there’s an 800-pound gorilla that no one wants to talk about. Most dieters, 97% in fact, regain all of the weight they lose. Is there another business n the history of the country that’s see so many of it’s customers fail? I doubt it.
For most dieters, weight isn’t really the problem. It’s a symptom. It’s a symptom of being out of control with food. Losing a few pounds doesn’t mean you’ve lost the problem, as the failure of most dieters prove. Fundamentally, overweight is a disease of thinking.
The dieters I see in my office, like you, are so knowledgeable and sophisticated they could write a diet book themselves. Problem is, they can’t stop eating! That’s why I look at things differently. The cornerstone of the Skinny Jeans Diet isn’t a meal plan, it’s a thinking plan. It’s about your personal relationship with food. Any diet will work if you follow it. If you don’t change your thinking about food, you’ll end up just another failed dieter. And you’ll have millions to keep you company
My new book, the Skinny Jeans Diet (Harper Collins), is for any woman who wants to live thin, stop obsessing, thrive in a world of food, and finally fit into her favorite pants. It’s self empowerment for ending the dangerous and discouraging cycle of losing and regaining weight. In the pages of this book, you’ll discover essential eating strategies that have helped hundreds of women lose thousands of pounds. The Skinny Jeans Diet gives you the keys to the kingdom- the indispensable knowledge you need to live comfortably in a world in which food temptation lurks around every corner.
Top 8 Weight Loss Mistakes (And How To Fix Them!)
Are you a healthy eater but the weight isn’t budging? Maybe it’s time to look at your old habits in this new year. Here are eight common mistakes I see my clients, friends and even myself (sometimes) making.
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Your Portions Are To Big
Trade in your dinner plate for a salad sized plate. The bigger your plate, the more calories you’ll eat. If you eat off a smaller plate, your can reduce your intake anywhere from 20% to 40%, plus your meal will look bigger. Use pre-measured serving bowls. A 16 oz box of spaghetti should serve 16 people. If it doesn’t feed that many people in your house, you are not alone. To cut back, use a 1 cup serving bowl to eat out of. This way you will know how much you are eating.
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You Eat Your Kids Scrapes
Those BLT’s (bites, licks and tastes) add up fast! And just 100 extra calories a day can be the difference between weight loss and weight maintenance. Make it a new rule: When kids are done eating, they must take their plates to the kitchen and scrape leftover food into a container that gets dumped into the trash or compost bin. This not eliminates temptation, but also eliminates a chore that has likely been falling to you!
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You Eat In Front Of The TV Late Night
Put a lid on your nighttime snacking. Have a defined end point to your evening eating. It can be a time (8pm), a final snack/cup of caffeine free tea, brushing your teeth or turning off the lights in the kitchen. It’s a signal to get to bed so that you’ll end today’s diet on a good note and be ready to start tomorrow on a diet positive one.
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You Binge On The Weekend
During the week, your diet is on track. However, come the weekend, all discretion flies out the window. French fries are a vegetable, right? Guacamole and corn chips are vegan, right? Red wine is good for you, right? Before you know it, you’ve given back all the calories you cut during the week in 48 hours. And one splurge meal can take 2 days of dieting to take off.
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You Oil Up Your Food
If your food looks like an oil spill occurred on it, you are adding hundreds of extra calories to your meal. Just one tablespoon of oil is 120 calories. Douse your steamed broccoli with a quick “splash” of olive oil and you can easily add two tablespoons of oil which translates into 240 calories! To save calories and fat, pick up an oil mister, sprayer or zero calorie oil cooking spray. Spritz your food to give it some zip and taste without the extra calories.
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You Don’t Keep Track Of What You Are Eating
Thanks to multi- tasking, grabbing food on the go, and munching in the carpool line, we often barely register what we’ve eaten. Even if you do pay attention, most people low ball calories by about 10%. The simple solution is to get a reality check of how many calories you consume by keeping a food diary. It may be one of the best predictors of whether you will lose weight as it doesn’t just aid weight loss, it turbo charges it!
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You Eat With Your Eyes
Those warehouse clubs may be a bargain for your wallet, but they are no bargain for your waistline. If food is in sight, we eat it. Buy individual portions and order the smallest portion of everything. If you’re out and ordering a sub, get the 6-inch sandwich. Buy a small popcorn, a kids meal, or a cupcake. We eat what’s in front of us, even though we feel just as full on less.
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Your Kitchen Is Dirty
People eat what’s easiest to access and what they can see. Keep your kitchen clean. Don’t buy tempting foods to keep in the house. If you don’t buy chips, you can’t eat them. Conceal junk food. Keep tempting foods in opaque containers on high shelves in your pantry, not in full view or easy reach. Food manufacturers know how to lure you in. Red and yellow colors increase your appetite and entice you to eat more. The color blue has a calming effect and is an appetite suppressant.
Lyssa Weiss, M.S., R.D., C.D.N, creator and author of The Skinny Jeans Diet
www.theskinnyjeansdiet.com. Her new book The Skinny Jeans Diet: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Eating, and Finally Fit into Your Pants!
