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More tips to help you jump-start your diet:

• Try to keep temptations out of sight. This tip is "easier said than done" if you have children, roommates, or a hungry spouse at home.

  If you must have food in your house that triggers you to overeat, try to hide it, or have another family member hide it.

  Try to encourage your spouse and kids to "eat healthy" to keep those “bad” things out of the house. Keep nutritious foods within easy reach. For example, keep a bowl of fruit on your kitchen counter instead of filling up the cookie jar. With the incidence of childhood obesity exploding, teach your family about the food pyramid, food groups, and recommended daily nutritional guidelines.

  Try not to keep any food on your desk at work. Even low-fat, sugar-free candies add up when you have several each day.

• Enlist the help of your co-workers by starting a diet club, weekly lunch group, or health-food book club.

• Make sure that you’re making wise choices. Don’t eat “empty calories.” When you reduce the amount of food that you consume, it’s especially important to make that food count.

• You'll be tempted to cut your calories way back but DON'T! Keep your calories hovering around 1200 for a minimum guideline. If you are especially active, add more calories. When you cut back too drastically, you will slow your metabolism, thus slowing your weight loss. You must fuel your body for it to work efficiently!

• As much as possible, try to eat foods in their natural state, without excessive additives.

  The shorter the food chain the healthier the food! Explore the Mediterranean diet which has long been considered one of the healthiest diets on the planet. Adopt their practice of focusing on fresh foods instead of processed foods. Try some of the many free Mediterranean diet recipes that are easily available.

  

• Try to make it a hassle to overeat. Personally, I will not go out of my way to eat, will rarely hop in the car to go get something to eat (other than at mealtime), and will not eat foods that are labor intensive. The downside of that is that if I’m in the mood to overeat, I’ll eat some pretty mundane foods before coming to my senses.

  If you wrap your trigger foods individually and perhaps even freeze them, you may think twice before going to the trouble to indulge. For example, you’ve made delicious homemade lasagna (or cake, pie, etc.) and you find yourself taking a bite every time you pass it. A good tip is to try wrapping it in individual serving sizes and/or freezing it. While you may go to the trouble of unwrapping and eating one more piece, you probably won’t cut loose and open them all.

  Whatever you can do to give yourself that moment of rationalization, will probably work to your benefit.

• A popular tip is to try eating off smaller plates. We’ve all seen those comparisons that show us where portion sizes have doubled or tripled in the past thirty years.

  We eat with our eyes first, so fool yourself into thinking that your plate is full by using smaller plates. Splurge on something pretty that you will want to use. Individual plates of all sizes can be easily and inexpensively purchased at Target, Walmart, and TJ Maxx.

  Imagine your plate divided into sections with smaller sections for your protein and whole grains and a larger section for your vegetables.

Continue on for more tips to help you make your weight loss journey a success!

If you have more tips you'd like to share, please contact me!

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