Saying No To Side Orders

 I have been working on making some dietary lifestyle changes.  I hate saying that I am on a “diet” because “diet” to me connotes something temporary, and my problem is changing a lot of bad habits.

The course I am taking has been really helpful.  The seminars are about not only eating habits, but exercise and the psychology behind your past diet failures.  I tend not to be one who likes to sit and discuss what is keeping me from succeeding, self-esteem and blah, blah, blah.  I know my problem.  I LOVE food.  I eat when I am stressed out and I have a stressful life.  The things in my life that I am stressed out about I can not change, so I have to find some other way to deal with it other then wanting to tap into my son’s cookie jar.

The dietician has been giving a lot of helpful advice and I am doing better about getting my butt off the couch and into a Spinning class.  I have lost about 10 lbs.  I wish I had lost a little more, but I also have gained a 1lb. of muscle, so that is promising.

Joy Bauer from the Today Show often has a lot of advice on dieting.  Some I tend to cringe at; a veggie-tofu burger can not take the place of a juicy hamburger.  Joy, though often has some helpful hints that come in handy.  One such hint is not worrying so much about the main portion of your meal, but the sides and condiments:

Mayo, salad dressing, coleslaw, hash browns, butter spreads, French fries and sour cream. It’s easy to pack on the pounds from consuming too many calorie-laden condiments and side dishes. But fortunately, a few easy swaps will enable you to maintain flavor while losing a significant amount of calories (and inches!). 

Lunch

• Original meal: Turkey/cheese sandwich with 1 TB mayonnaise, ½ cup scoop of coleslaw and French fries w/ ketchup.
• Better meal: Turkey/cheese sandwich with mustard, ketchup or reduced-fat mayonnaise, one cup of vegetable soup, sliced lettuce and tomatoes, plus pickles.

Savings on just condiments/sides = 520 calories

Joy goes through a days worth of meals and by just changing up the condiments and sides takes off 1745 calories from the day.