Nutrition  pg. 5
*** 90% of your ability to lose weight and keep it off will center on what you eat.  ***
Impulsiveness:
People who are overweight are frequently impulsive eaters.  That is why it is so important to plan out ahead of time your meals, and the frequency of how often you eat (e.g. 3 meals or 6 meals).  When most overweight people get hungry, their will-power lowers and they are more likely to reach for fast food or ready to eat junk food; they are less likely to plan out and spend the time cooking healthy food. 

Try to plan out what you eat a day ahead of time.  You will be less likely to act impulsively.  Also, know the good menu choices at your favorite places to eat so if you do act impulsively, you already know the better choices.  Finally, make sure you have quality food choices around the house to snack on and try to limit allowing not-so-good foods into the home.  We all act impulsive sometimes.  The key is to limit the impulsive behavior of lessen its effects with good food choices.


Empty Calorie foods (aka. Junk food)
Empty calorie foods are foods that lack worthwhile nutrition.  Every food has nutrients, but some foods provide such little nutrition and are packed with so many calories, they are considered to be empty calorie foods.  For example, a large slice of cream pie might be 700 calories and be loaded with refined carbohydrates.  This is not what you would normally want in your diet.  Much of the snack food you find at grocery stores are empty calorie foods.

Hidden calories in food and sales gimmicks:
Some foods are higher in calorie than what you may expect.  It may be due to the way food is prepared or other ingredients added to the basic food.  For example, one brand of honey-mustard salad dressing is 350 calories per 2 tablespoons and another brand is 50 calories.  Many people use 4 tablespoons on a salad; so 700 calories vs. 100 calories on top a salad.  Which would you choose?

See the following article for more information: Hidden Calories and Sales gimmicks

Plan meals
For most people, life can become busy.  And the busier life becomes, the less likely we are to spend time planning out nutritious low calorie meals.  It helps to have your meals planned out ahead of time; even before you go to the store. This will also help you not to impulsively buy comfort foods.  It can also help you decide ahead of time which cooking method to use (e.g. deep fired chicken vs. baked chicken).

Cheat Days:
Don’t be obsessive.  Don’t be anally retentive.  If you are at a birthday party, have a small piece of cake.  If you feel guilty, go exercise a little more or cut out a few calories over a few meals (high bulk, low calorie meals).   If you want to successfully loose and keep off the weight, you need to learn to live a happy life with occasional excesses.  Learn how to deal with them.

Remember, most all rules in life have exceptions. Be good 90% of the time and cheat the other 10%.
Being able to occasionally eat junk foods you miss is a physiological break from the stress of trying to eat healthier. 

Not only will the occasional cheat day help you keep your desire to live healthy on most other days, it will also help keep you losing weight.  Many people who lower their calories stop losing weight because their metabolism senses the lack of calories coming in and reduces energy consumption.  Keeping your calories jumping around prevents this.  Hint: this is a phase 2 strategy called “calorie cycling”.

Just one word of warning, a cheat day is not a license to eat unlimited amounts of high calorie foods.  The key is planning when to cheat and how much.

Learn to like new foods that are good for you:
Explore, invent, and play with new recipes and foods that are healthy and that you like.  Start replacing meals that are not so good for you with meals that are good for you. Start by trying to eat one healthy meal a day using the guidelines above. 

Make a list of good foods you like and take it with you to the grocery store.

Read and re-read:
Read this section every week for the next three months.  The better you understand what helps you, the better your chances are of meeting your goals.

Next: Fitness Pg1
Quote: 
Unlike other addictions, you can’t go cold turkey with a food addiction.  In fact, you have to keep taking this drug (food) for the rest of your life. 
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