Roberta Lashua asked: There is no time like the present to begin a diet. We all can put it off until tomorrow. However, change begins in the present.
There are a lot of articles and books written on the topic of dieting. Here we will give you some basic tips to give you a head start. We can call these the ABCs of dieting. If these tips are followed the roadway to success will be paved with more than good intentions.
The ABCs are easy to remember and yet these are topics we all know already. The secret is to DO these. The difference from success or failure is a two-letter word, DO.
The other important factor in these ABCs is REDO. If we fail, no, WHEN we fail we need to REDO. We will all fail from time to time. It is then that we need to remember to REDO. Start again. Move forward and let go of the past.
ABCs
Add Fiber – Roughage is very important. This is sometimes also called fiber. We don’t have to eat cups of bran cereal that taste like cardboard. We can eat vegetables. The best kind is fresh, the next best is frozen, and the least best is canned. However, if you cannot get the fresh, do the frozen. If the frozen does not work for you, get canned vegetables. The important thing to do is to eat vegetables. Many vegetables contain sulforaphane, which are known to be anti-cancer ingredients (Kendal-Reed. Alive.Com, 2006).
Fiber does not add nutrition but it does add health. Roughage aids in the proper working of the intestinal tract. This assures that the body does not hold on to the food for too long. The longer the body takes to process the food the more calories it absorbs. This is why elimination is so vitally important.
Rebecca Webber, (Prevention, August 2006) suggest 4 grams of fiber per meal and per snack. She cites a recent Tufts University study, which documented that the women who ate “13 grams of fiber or less per day were five times as likely to be overweight as those who ate more fiber” (Webber, 2006).
Be Active – Stay active as much as possible. We are so accustomed to the easy life, from the remote control to the riding lawn mower. We can make some simple changes to add a few more steps each day. Getting up to change the channel on the TV probably won’t work because most of us would not know where or how to change the channel without the remote control. However, there are other steps we can take. We can park at the bank and go inside instead of going through the drive through. We can take the stairs and not the elevator. We can take a walk after dinner instead of watching the extra TV show. Don’t look for the closest parking space but rather take the extra steps. Rebecca Webber cited a “University of South Carolina study of 109 people revealed that those who took 5,000 steps per day were heavier than those who typically took more than 9,000 steps” (Prevention, August 2006). Extra steps make a difference.
Limit your work. For many of us it is very easy to continue working because the work is always there. We must make a commitment to ourselves to put ourselves first. For those of us who are workaholics, this is a hard one to control. However, it is too easy to do less when we work so long that we have nothing left after work. That is why we do not take that evening walk. That is why we do not go to visit friends or go do that errand after work. When we work too long it is too easy to be sedentary all evening.
Control – Stay in control. This is an unusual tip. One not voiced by many. Get in a habit of saying NO. Say NO to the extra TV shows, and instead go to bed early. Getting plenty of sleep is important to weight loss. Say NO to sugars. When we have a choice of cake or fruit for desert, choose the fruit. Even if the fruit was packed in syrup it is better than the cake inundated with sugar and starches. Say NO to fat. When we have a choice of baked potatoes or French fries, choose the baked potato.
What is amazing about this control factor is that the more we say NO the easier it is. Therefore, we suggest you say NO to things that you do not care about but make a mental note that you said NO. This is practice for the NO that will come later that will be difficult. The more we say NO the more normal it will be for us to say NO in difficult situations. Remember this, compromise starts when a NO is replaced with “Oh Well, it’s just….”
Sean Hyson in Men’s Fitness Magazine (Dec/2006 – Jan/2007) relates the efforts of a mechanical engineer, Mike Ogorek, who got mad enough to do something. Mike went from 333 pounds in 2001 to 194 pounds in 2006. He got mad and used that for energy to fuel his determination. He began to say NO to his “normal two Quarter-Pounders with Cheese with super-sized fries and super-sized Mountain Dew” (Hyson, 2006/2007).
Another interesting tip is to keep meal journals. It can be very enlightening to keep a meal journal. Nibblers eat more than we know by snacking just a little here and there. It can make a big difference, especially if it is high sugar or high fat snacks. It has often been said that it’s the small things that makes the difference.
These ABCs of dieting are a good start for us to begin to take control of our lives and begin down that road to success.
dieting
