Choose Healthy Snacks

Select foods that can satisfy your hunger, supply your body with energy and provide important nutrients. Choose a wide variety of these foods to ensure that you get all the necessary nutrients and to make your snacks more interesting. Here are some of your best snack picks:

Whole grains. Whole-grain snacks are rich in fiber and complex carbohydrates, which give you energy that has some staying power. Look for items such as low-fat whole-grain crackers, whole-grain pretzels and whole-grain crisp breads.

Fruits and vegetables. Eating fruits and vegetables provides a feeling of fullness with no fat and only a small number of calories. They also provide vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients.

Nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds provide protein, which helps keep you feeling fuller longer. Nuts and seeds contain mostly monounsaturated fat, a healthy kind of fat. Nuts and seeds are high in calories, however, so don’t eat them in large quantities.

Low-fat dairy products. Cheese, yogurt and other dairy products are good sources of calcium and protein, plus a variety of other vitamins and minerals. Dairy products can be high in fat, so choose the low-fat versions. Some yogurts have a lot of added sugar, so consider “light” yogurt if you want to limit your calorie intake.

Though snacks can contribute to a healthy diet, they can also be a source of excess calories if not eaten in moderation. For example, a single serving of almonds (about 23 kernels or a handful) contains 164 calories. But if you eat handful after handful until it totals a cup of almonds, the calorie count jumps to 800-plus calories.

Source: MayoClinic.com Snacks: How they fit into a healthy diet.
The first step with food is the “what” or replacing undesirable fat/sweet foods with healthy options and getting snacking under control. The second step with food will be to learn portion control and then substitution, “how much” and “what” we eat. You may not need to substitute many food items if you are eating low on the food pyramid, it may just be a question of “how much,” or portion control. The third step with food will be the “when,” especially when it refers to dinner.

It is important to note that if you want to lose weight you will have to moderate your alcohol consumption to no more than one small glass of wine or beer a day. It is best if you don’t consume alcohol regularly since alcohol is high in calories2, it has the indirect effect of reducing the number of fat calories you burn, it increases your appetite, lowers testosterone levels and raises the muscle-wasting hormone cortisol. You will learn more about this as you continue reading.

Also, consider your sleeping habits, if you are not getting enough sleep you will not be able to lose weight effectively. Those who sleep less, often weigh more3. Studies show that lack of sleep and sleep disruption affect hormones that control feelings of hunger and fullness, and that stimulates appetite. In other words, sleep duration is an important regulator of body weight and metabolism.

Prepare your exercise environment. Depending on your personality, schedule, and location, you may want to join a health club, dance class studio, martial arts gym, or some kind of organized exercised after finding out if the club/gym/studio has some program that appeals to you, fits your schedule and is easy to get to. These are important factors. Don’t overlook them because when things get tough they will affect your compliance with an exercise program. Write down what you will do to prepare to exercise. Be specific. Be realistic.

Tips: Prepare your Exercise Environment

If you prefer to exercise at home, create an area, a corner in the house/garage that will be yours. Take this seriously, make it appealing.

You may have to re-arrange furniture to prepare your space. This can be a good way to create a new space for your new routine. A space with less triggers for older behavior, if you will.

You may also want to consider following an exercise tape of some kind.This will also require a space for you to move in, and without distractions.

If you like to walk, this is a great exercise and it will provide you with instant privacy.

Consider puttng a set of clothes aside for this purpose to make it easier on yourself, or having a gym bag ready to go on your car, or keeping tennis shoes at work.

Prepare your mindset. Let’s take a look at what you can do to prepare your mind for your emotions while going through this change.

Become aware of your triggers, emotional and situational. Pay attention to any situation, or emotional stress that drives you to eat, notice what you are feeling, acknowledge it without judgment, and make a mental note of these triggers.

Devise a plan to help you cope with emotional and situational eating, and the feelings that this change will bring up. You can keep a list of your triggers in a two-column fashion in order to list a coping technique or two next to each. Again, writing things down assists your memory and drives your mind to process solutions.

Tips: Preparing your Mindset

When a situation or emotion triggers an eating response, practice excusing yourself if you are around people, and leaving the space you are in to find a glass of water in a kitchen or a bathroom, drink it slowly, take some deep breaths and return to the area composed and reassured.

You can use a quick, meaningful sentence, prayer, or mantra to reassure yourself. Again, it is important that you do not judge your feelings. Acknowledge them, reassure yourself, and move on.

If the food you reached for is still available to you, either, put it away, give it away, or throw it away.

If you are not able to let this feeling go, then reach for a healthy snack that you had ready to go since you are prepared for these contingencies.

Reward yourself with kind words for the effort!

At night, while getting ready to rest, notice how many times during the day you reach for food driven by stress or a particular situation, as well as how many times you were successful at coping with it. Write it down.

Know your excuses not to exercise. Write down what days and at what time(s) you will exercise, and what type of exercises you will do. If making time to incorporate this activity into your daily life seems complicated, then write down how you expect to do it. If in the process of going through this exercise it becomes obvious to you that this schedule will not work out, find an alternative; get creative. Remember, you are striving for more activity than you currently have in your life, so if you don’t exercise at all this should be fairly simple. Any activity in small increments will count as long as it is consistently performed. A consistent schedule is key to incorporating a new habit into your routine and the small incremental goals will give you a sense of accomplishment.

Tips: Preparing to Exercise

Be ready to push through your resistance by putting your workout clothes and shoes on, even if it is just to stretch on the floor in front of the TV.

Continue doing this on the same days, and at the same time until you get used to getting into your workout clothes and doing something related to movement, even if it means walking to the mail box and back.

Do squats, push-ups and sit ups which don’t take a lot of space and use multiple, large muscles of your body, very effective!

Deal with your resistance by getting on your exercise bike, go walking, or follow an exercise tape for at least 5 minutes at a time and build on your exercise time as your resistance diminishes and you begin to enjoy how exercise makes you feel.

Walk to get lunch, park at a distance from your office, climb stairs a couple of times a day as a break or instead of taking the elevator, walk faster, make love more often, etc.

If exercising is an area of major resistance for you, recruit someone to exercise with you, even if it is your dog.

If you joined a gym, take a tour with or without assistance to get familiar with equipment, class schedules, and the feel of the place so when you show up to start your program you can get right to it.

Reward yourself with kind words for the effort and remember that doing something is better than doing nothing at all!

Recruit your support system. Communicating with one’s family is crucial if you want to succeed since they can unknowingly sabotage your progress. Call a meeting and prepare to discuss your intentions for change. Be clear and specific about how they can help you.

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