Just Change What You’re Eating
Another healthy way to lose weight — without even placing yourself on a diet — is to simply change some of the things you eat. For example, you could drink 8 ounces of skim milk, which is only 86 calories, in place of 8 ounces of whole milk. Instead of having a 16 ounce blended caramel coffee drink, have a 2 ounce cup of tea. And those great tasting French fries that come in at 500 calories could be eliminated in place of 1 1/2 cups of whole strawberries at only 60 calories.
You could have 3 1/2 cups of air popped popcorn in place of a 3-ounce pack of tortilla chips and save more than 300 calories. 1 2/3 cups of grapes has only 100 calories versus one slice of thick-crust pepperoni pizza that has 301 calories. You might hate to miss that morning doughnut, but a three-inch glazed donut has 192 calories while a cup of blueberries has only 84 calories.
Read The Labels
As you may have noticed, almost all of today’s foods come with nutrition information panels. If you don’t mind spending a few minutes reading the calorie information on those panels, you can probably find foods you’ll enjoy that have fewer calories than what you’re currently eating. Do be careful though because these nutrition panels generally provide calorie information in terms of a portion. For example, one portion might contain only 150 calories but if you read carefully, you might see that the entire bag is two portions or 300 calories.
Eat Smaller Portions
If you don’t want to give up on your favorite foods entirely, simply try to eat smaller portions. If you eat less at lunch or dinner and are still hungry later, you can always have seconds at that point.
As an example of this, if you drink 4 ounces of orange juice in the morning instead of 8 ounces, you’ll save 60 calories. A 4-inch buttermilk pancake has only 86 calories versus a 6-inch buttermilk pancake. And a half-cup of whole-grain cooked pasta is just 70 calories versus the 200 calories you would get if you ate 1 1/2 cups.
Just reducing the amount of food you consume could be a lot easier than trying to count calories and yet will reduce the amount of calories you’re consuming and you will eventually lose weight.
