As promised…..
3. Taste’s Good!
This is by far the hardest of all the tips. At least for me, staying away from my favorites that are really bad for you and finding substitutions was and continues to be hard. You have to remember, you get one free day a week and you can allow yourself whatever your heart or stomach pleases. So, don’t think of it as elimination, just scheduling your treats.
Admittedly, I am a carb addict. I adore poptarts, ice cream, and dare I say chips and dip. So the first thing I did was write down a list of the top 20 things I adored and thought I couldn’t live without. These 20 items became etched in my mind. The second thing I did was simply NOT buy them. If they weren’t in the house I wasn’t tempted to eat them.
Keep in mind these food items were the things I personally thought were “good eats”. It was hard to pass the shelves of poptarts to buy oatmeal, and, I cringed when I went to buy yogurt and had to pass up the chip dips. But, it did get easier every time I did it.
To substitute a good gooey candy bar, I bought protein bars. There are some tasty ones out there and they are packed with protein, fiber and are lower in calories.
To cut the chip addiction I bought the bag of mixed lunch sized bags, and, I chose the variety pack I wasn’t to fond of. This way I could have a little one serving bag instead of ripping open that big bag a devouring the entire thing in one sitting. I also ate a lot of microwave popcorn. Read those labels to. Some of the “theater, extra butter, seasoned” types have way to many calories. Go for the light ones.
Finally, soda pop. This one is a hard one on those of us who have grown up with it. I had developed a love for diet Dr. Pepper. After doing my research, I discovered that these diet drinks are indeed lower in calories, but full of sodium and your body just gets confused. 
It taste like real soda and our bodies know that soda has approximately 200-300 calories per serving, so you drink the diet and your body thinks it got a calorie punch and when it can’t find the calories it actually makes you hungry. You instinctively will need more calories and you WILL get hungry. Which means you will eat. So, put the diet back on the shelf and grab single serving prepackaged cans, small ones if you can find them and ONLY drink one a day. Promise me you will just drink one?! It works, cutting down your soda consumption will cut down your calories and that means weight loss!
It can be done. And in the end, when you reach your weight loss goal you can still use this rule, you will be use to it. Don’t forget you have a free day…and you can have your taste good things on that day.
Thanks for listening. I hope I’m helping? To date, I have lost 68lbs…that’s almost 70, and it wasn’t so hard. Little tips and tricks, plus my Zumba.
Tomorrow, condiments, take them or leave them and how to substitute good ones for bad ones.
