Can you lose weight without the “diet”?

Did you make a resolution to drop a few pounds in 2018?  Or are you thinking about summer, swim suits, shorts and want to just drop the few pounds you gained over the holidays?  Are there some “habits” you can adopt to help you take off some weight without going on a crazy diet?  Just listening at the gym, one hears all kinds of myths and crazy diets people go on to lose weight.  Many of these diets result in you losing more nutrients than pounds.  Many people are trying the Whole30 diet and then surprised to hear that the U.S. News & World Report has ranked it as one of the worse diets to be on in 2018.  In fact, the experts ranking the diets tied the Whole30 diet with the Raw Food Diet “as the worst of the worst for healthy eating.”  Probably because the diet bans grains, dairy grains and beans so you are cutting out important nutrients like calcium and vitamin D from your day.  Probably a good thing it is only a 30 day diet and not a diet to be followed for a long period of time. Then there’s “ketosis” diets that restrict the carbs to “burn the fat”.  Surprisingly, some athletes have tried this diet thinking it would improve athletic performance. Kind of surprising since one of the side effects of the keto diet is fatigue – just what an athlete needs or wants.  Some dietitians describe the risks of a keto diet as: loss of muscle, extreme fatigue, and damage to the heart.     

So instead of a quack diet, what are some habits one can try to lose a few pounds?  Not a diet plan, but changing some old habits.   Here are some of the suggestions from the article:  10 ways to Start Losing Weight, No Matter How Unmotivated You Are.

    1.    Eat for Hydration – not just water but there are foods that help hydrate you.  Fill up on food rich in water like fruits, vegetables or broth. 

a.       Broth soup before a meal – a study in “Appetite” found having a bowl of broth 15 minutes before your meal will cut back on the number of calories you eat at the meal.  The broth helps fill up your stomach before you take that first bite.

Enjoy some broth before a meal

b.      Salad – start your meal with salad first.  Get some of the lower calorie food into your stomach first.  Not a salad loaded with a high calorie dressing, but a low-cal dressing of your choice.  Skip the fat-free dressing as you need some fat in the dressing to absorb the nutrients in the salad.

      2.   Protein – at breakfast and at every meal.  Cereals like oatmeal or Cheerios are a great breakfast choice but adding protein to breakfast will help you feel  fuller longer.  I make my oatmeal with organic milk and not water.  This boosts the protein in my morning breakfast. Making a smoothie? Add a scoop of protein powder to the smoothie. Make the smoothie with yogurt or real milk.  Or use the fa!rlife milk which provides more protein and calcium but is made from real milk.  (Read more about fa!rlife milk and why the nutrition advisor for Men’s Health magazine recommends it to his clients as a post workout drink at What is fairlife milk?) 

A healthy post workout drink

           3.   Give up the baggy clothes – yes, when you have put on a few pounds, the sweat pants or “comfortable” pants will feel better. But if you are wearing baggy pants every day you may be ignoring that waist band that is getting a little tight. And you may be putting on some weight and not even realizing it until you get back into your “real” clothes, the go out of the house clothes.  Even dressing up for Sunday church may help you realize a few pounds have snuck onto your frame.

  4.    Buy the Pre-portioned snacks/food.  One of my daughters likes to pack the 100-calorie dessert cookies in her lunch.  She can enjoy the “treat” without going overboard on calories.  I like the 100-110 calorie bagels as I know exactly how many calories I am eating.  Buy the smaller chip bag, not a large bag that seems to be calling to you from the cupboard.  One good thing about eating at Subway is that their chips bags are a normal serving size. No need to tempt yourself, buy the pre-portioned snack. Yes, you pay a little more but you won’t be as tempted as you can eat the whole bag and not feel guilty.

Buy the 100 calorie packs

  5.    Add exercise to your day with small goals at first – Yes, it would be nice if you went to the gym every day and worked out for an hour a day. But probably not happening.  So tell yourself, “this week I will take a 10 minute walk after dinner on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”   Then take the 10 minute walk on those days.  Get someone in the family to join you or take the dog for a walk.  Mark each day you do this on the calendar.  Better yet, buy some gold stars and each day you walk, put a gold star on the calendar as it is a gold star day if you met your exercise goal.

Five “habits” to try this week.  Next week, we’ll look at 5 more healthy habits to try out.  None are “quacky”, none will cost you to lose muscle mass or become fatigued like some quack diets do.  But just building some muscle in your eating habits by changing bad habits like switching from sitting on the couch after you eat to taking a 10 minute walk after dinner.

 Sources:  Whole30, keto diet ,10 ways to Start Losing Weight, No Matter How Unmotivated You Are., fa!rlife milk, What is fairlife milk?   Image source:  Fairlife milk, Nabisco cookies, Broth, bagels