Five Easy Rules that Helped Me Lose Weight

When I first started on my weight-loss journey, I was used to eating until I felt like stopping, not when I was full. As a result, I knew that I had to find foods that I could eat a ton of without too many calories; the idea of cutting down my food volume all of a sudden frightened me and I knew it would be detrimental to the beginning of my journey. So what did I do?

First, I realized that often times I felt hungry I was actually thirsty. So I would drink a glass or more of water and then I would decide if I was actually hungry. If I was, then I would eat something. This is a great trick to cutting calories and feeling hungry.

Second, I found foods that had few calories so that I could eat a ton of it! Most any vegetable packs little calories - we can all eat as many vegetables we want each day and it will likely NEVER cause you to gain weight. The problem is, I do not like many vegetables, so I turned to fruits. While fruits have more calories than vegetables [because of the natural sugars], they are still very healthy. Most fruit servings contain between 50 and 90 calories, with the exception of regular sized bananas - that is because bananas contain more fat than other fruits. So I survived on eating lots of fruits in the early stages of my weight loss.

Third, I found low calorie, high fiber [if possible] substitutes for my favorite meals and foods. For instance, I substituted regular bread for light english muffins, each one containing less than 50 calories - that was AWESOME  because I was able to make sandwiches for less calories. Instead of eating regular deli meat, I started to purchase the selects because the packaging plainly told me how many calories were in the container. In most instances, because the meat was sliced so thin, there were far fewer calories than regular lunch meats from the deli. As a result of my english muffins and meat selects, I was able to get away with making two english muffin sandwiches for the caloric intake of just over one! 

Fourth,I started eating the 97% fat free popcorn. Once popped, most 97% fat free popcorn tallies in at about 50 to 90 calories. This is such a good thing. I was able to each a bunch of popcorn, which saved me in moments when I felt like I was really hungry! 

Fifth, I cut out drinking all regular soda. This was very critical in my weight loss endeavors. I was able to drink a lot of liquid back then without it phasing me much and I was drinking a lot of regular soda. I first started introducing diet soda into my eating habits when I joined Weight Watchers. It helped me lose a lot of weight; I did not realize how many calories I was actually consuming. Many critics of soda now tell you that diet soda is unhealthy for you and, in fact, may contribute to weight gain. I am not sure I believe it, but I am also not drinking much soda nowadays!

I hope these few tips help anybody reading this who is struggling to lose weight. These little tips might not seem like a big deal, but they are! Remember, it's not about starving yourself so go ahead and eat as many vegetables and popcorn you want but make sure you're hydrating yourself, too!

Meet you all back here soon with some new tips!! Keep Checking!!

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