Best Diet Tips

Diet Tips from the "Lifestyle Change Diet" E-book

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by Shawn Ellis

*Always consult your doctor before making any diet or lifestyle changes

1. Avoid going to any restaurants (fast food or any other) at least during the first month of beginning your lifestyle change
2. After 1 to 6 months if you are able to  control going to restaurants and eating healthy foods when you go there or are able to only go once a week, then always look at the calorie content of each meal
3. You can usually split up a meal by 2 or 3 parts to share with others at restaurants because the portion sizes are so large.
4. Drink water or other low calorie (under 40 calorie) drinks each day, but avoid diet drinks that have caffeine.
5. Avoid Caffeine (it makes you pee more because it is a diuretic and therefore will make you weak and tired and feel like you have less energy)
6. Drinking and keeping water in your system helps you to feel fuller longer, which is another reason to avoid caffeine since it makes you lose that water
7. Be patient, even when it has been awhile since you last lost weight
8. Try to decide what you are going to eat  before going to a restaurant
9. Never let yourself be hungry. If it has been 2 to 3 hours since your last meal and you feel hungry have a light snack. When you feel extremely hungry, your metabolism slows down.
10. Remember to eat high protein, low fat, high fiber fruits and vegetables as much as possible instead of bad foods
11.  Did you know that popcorn is a whole grain, which is good for you? You need to make it the right way though. Never get microwave popcorn. It is healthier for you to make it at home with ½ table spoon of olive oil and a presto popper using popcorn seeds from the store
12. Did you know that if you chew sugar free gum, you can burn calories because sugar free gum has no calories and you burn calories chewing?
13. Grill corn on the cob so that it has a little bit of black kernels on it (it gives it a great flavor)
14. Grill pineapple on the grill
15. Grill chicken, steak, veggies, or fish on the grill. It gives it a great flavor
16. Build a support network of at least one person you can talk (who is also eating healthy and either maintaining or losing their weight )with about your diet and be accountable with regarding how you are doing and for support and motivation
17. Don’t ever eat too few calories to try to lose it too quickly. Never eat a 500 calorie diet a day and definitely avoid Fad diets that don’t last like the HCG diet.  Real HCG can truly only be gotten from a doctor and it has not been proven to even work.
18. Mix it up.  Avoid eating the same exact foods every day.
19. Make Quick and easy healthy meals that take 15 minutes or less to prepare (Not cooking time, just preparation time) There are tons of them, and some of my favorite are in this book
20. Stay at 300 calories or less for two of your three major meals of day and below 500 for dinner (470 or less is preferred and best. You can adjust this depending on how many calories you can have per day based on your current weight to lose weight healthily)
21. Stay around 100 calories or less for your snack between meals (In between breakfast and lunch, lunch and dinner, and after diner. You should try to have 3 small healthy fiber filled snacks per day.
22. Use whole wheat 100 calories (Total of 2 slices) sandwich thins  instead of 200 calorie total for 2 slices of regular whole wheat bread
23. Get a crock pot to cook many healthy, delicious meals faster and easier (as far as preparation time) and they have crock pot liners in the plastic baggie section of grocery stores to make cleaning the crock pot very easy. You can also spray the inside of the Crock Pot with Pam Cooking Spray before adding the food instead of using the liners.
    
24. Save your favorite snack for 3 to 4 hours after dinner to reward yourself for eating healthy all day. For any low calorie Fiber One Brownie or Slim Cow Ice Cream Cones or Slim Cow Ice Cream Bars make sure you can eat only one and wait one month into your diet before doing this
25. Recommend avoiding pasta meals especially during first month, except for occasional multigrain barilla spaghetti meals in one small bowel for dinners and sticking to mainly high protein and veggie dinners. Higher protein meals  are lower in calories, fill you up more and longer instead of pasta meals. Having one small red potato with meals is okay
26. Don’t get discouraged if you go 1, 2 or even 3 weeks without losing one pound because sometimes it may take you this long to lose 1 pound even if you are eating right. Be patient and don’t give up. It will eventually come off
27. If you eat bad one day out of the week, don’t beat yourself up. Sometimes we all eat bad one day out of the week on a diet.  Even though I recommend you eat well 7 days a week for the first month, if you eat bad one day out of the week you will still lose weight because you ate good 6 out of the 7 days of the week. After the first month, if you can do it without getting back into a bad addiction habit, you can eat a little bad one day out of the week
28.  Eat only one bowl of your dinner and avoid getting seconds
29. Weigh yourself at least once a week, its even okay to weigh yourself once a day, but do not discouraged when you see your weight go up or down a few pounds from day to day because it can fluctuate easily and it does not mean you are not losing weight. Be patient, because it may take 2 to 3 weeks sometimes to lose 1 or 2 pounds
30. Don’t turn to food for comfort, but rather turn to God, your family, friends, and healthy activities.  These are better and longer lasting sources than food.
31. Always read food labels of individual grocery food items and restaurant foods to know how much calories, protein, and sodium you are eating.
32. After the first month, you can occasionally have those foods you love in small portions,(Handful or less) BUT only one day per week AND only if it does not cause you to get back into a bad eating habit cycle of eating it more than once a week.
33. Eat Greener colored salads such as romaine lettuce instead of iceberg. It has more flavor and vitamins
34. Put a small amount (about ½ tablespoon or less of Italian Dressing on salad. It will spread over the entire salad better than most dressings. You get more dressing and less calories for your salad because of this.