Small Changes to Lose Weight without "Dieting"

Diet?  What does that mean to you?  For many, it means depriving yourself of "bad" foods, limiting intake so you feel hungry all the time, and most of all short-term because you could never sustain it.  Your "diet" should be the way you eat on a normal basis, something that creates the lifestyle you want to live.  As the saying goes, "You are what you eat."  That is why key to long-term success is to make a full lifestyle change that will sustain you and your family no matter how busy your schedule becomes or what other challenges you face.  Here are some small but important lifestyle changes that you can implement to begin living a healthier lifestyle and lose some weight.

Take Your Time
Reinvent yourself as a slow eater, even if it means setting a timer for 20 minutes and "enjoying" your meal until the timer goes off.  This is one of the top habits for slimming down without a complicated diet plan.  Paced meals offer great pleasure from smaller portions and trigger the body's fullness hormones.  Wolfing your food down in a hurry blocks those signals and causes overeating.

Sleep More, Weigh Less
Sleeping an extra hour a night could help a person drop 14 pounds in a year, according to a University of Michigan researcher who ran the numbers for a 2,500 calorie per day intake.  His scenario shows that when sleep replaces idle activities - and usual mindless snacking - you can effortlessly cut calories by 6%.  Results would vary for each person, but sleep may help in another way, too.  There's evidence that getting too little sleep revs up your appetite making you uncommonly hungry.

Serve More, Eat More Veggies

Serve three vegetables with dinner tonight, instead of just one, and you will eat more without really trying.  Greater variety tricks people into eating more food - and eating more fruits and vegetables is a great way to lose weight.  The high fiber and water content fills you up with fewer calories.  Cook them with a little olive oil or no added fat and season them with lemon, pepper, fresh herbs and as little salt as necessary, rather than drowning their goodness in high-fat sauces or dressings.

Go for Whole Grains
Whole grains such as brown rice, barley, oats, buckwheat, and whole wheat also belong in your healthy waight loss strategy.  They help fill you up and stay full longer with fewer calories and may improve your cholesterol profile, too.

Skip the Bacon
Pass on those two strips of bacon at breakfast or in your sandwich at lunch time.  The simple move saves you about 100 calories, which can add up to a 10 pound weight loss over a year.  Other sandwich fixings can replace the flavor with fewer calories.  Think about tomato slices, banana peppers, roasted red bell peppers, grainy mustard, or a light spread of herb goat cheese.

Build a Better Slice of Pizza

Choose vegetable toppings for pizza instead of meat and you will shave 100 calories from your meal.  Other calorie-saving tricks:  go light on the cheese or use reduced-fat cheese and choose a thin, bread-like crust made with just a touch of olive oil.

Cut Back on Sugar
Replace one sugary drink like regular soda with water or a zero-calorie seltzer and you will avoid 10 teaspoons of sugar.  Add lemon, lime, cucumber, mint, or frozen strawberries for flavor and fun.  The liquid sugar in soda (High Fructose Corn Syrup) appears to bypass the body's fullness cues.  One study compared an extra 450 calories per day from jelly beans vs. soda.  The candy eaters unconsciously ate fewer calories overall, but not so with the soda drinkers.  They gained 2.5 pounds in four weeks.

Limit Alcohol

When an occasion includes alcohol, follow the first drink with a nonalcoholic, low-calorie beverage like sparkling water instead of moving directly to another cocktail, beer, or glass of wine.  Alcohol has more calories per gram (7) than carbohydrates (4) or protein (4).  It can also loosen your resolve, leading you to mindlessly inhale chips, nuts, and other foods you would normally limit.

Go for Green Tea
Drinking green tea may also be a good weight loss strategy.  Some studies suggest that it can rev up the body's calorie-burning engine temporarily, possibly through the action of phytochemicals called catechins.  At the very least you will get a refreshing drink without tons of calories.

Eat at Home
Eat home-cooked meals at least five days a week to live like a thin person.  A Consumer Reports survey found this was a top habit of "successful losers."  Sound daunting?  Cooking may be easier than you think.  Shorcut foods can make for quick meals, such as pre-chopped lean beef for fajitas, washed lettuce, pre-cut veggies, canned beans, cooked chicken strips, or grilled deli salmon.

Catch the "Eating Pause"
Most people have a natural "eating pause," when they drop the fork for a couple of minutes.  Watch for this moment and don't take another bite.  Clean your plate and enjoy the conversation.  This is the quiet signal that you are full, but not stuffed.  Most people miss it.

Get Food Portions Right
The top habit of slim people is to stick with modest food portions at every meal, five days a week or more.  "Always slim" people do it and successful losers do it, too, according to Consumer Reports survey.  After measuring portions a few times, it can become automatic.  Make it easier with small "snack" packs and by keeping serving dishes off the table at meal time.

Go Meatless More Often
Eating vegetarian meals more often is a slimming habit, according to WebMD's "recipe doctor," Elaine Magee, MPH, RD.  Vegetarians weigh up to 20% less than meat eaters.  While there are several reasons for this, legumes play an important role.  Bean burgers, lentil soup, and other tasty legume-based foods are simply packed with fiber.  Most Americans get only half of this important nutrient, which fills you up with fewer calories.

Burn an Extra 100 Calories
Lose 10 pounds in a year without dieting by burning an extra 100 calories every day.  Try one of these activities:

Walk 1 mile, about 20 minutes.
Pull weeds or plant flowers for 20 minutes
Mow the lawn for 20 minutes
Clean house for 30 minutes
Jog for 10 minutes

Resource:  WebMD

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?
Stuffed pork tenderloin sounds pretty complicated right?  Well, Here is a quick and easy way to make a stuffed pork tenderloin, beef tenderloin or even stuffed chicken breast.  The part that makes stuffed dishes complicated and very messy is the pounding.  By using this cutting method, you save the time and mess and have a very fancy looking dish on the table any night of the week.

To prepare a pork tenderloin or beef tenderloin, place tenderloin on cutting board.  Hold the knife blade flat, so it's parallel to the board, make a lengthwise cut into the side of the tenderloin one-third of the way down from the top, stopping short of the opposite edge so that the flaps remain attached.  Rotate the tenderloin 180 degrees.  Still holding the knife parallel to the cutting board, make a lengthwise cut into the side opposite the original cut, starting two-thirds of the way down from the top of the tenderloin and taking care not to cut all the way through.  Open up the 2 cuts so you have a large rectangle of meat.  Use the heel of your hand to gently flatten the meat to about 1/2 in thick.

Place a thin layer of filling on the flattened tenderloin, leaving a 1-inch border. Possible fillings include two pieces of prociutto and a half cup of grated Parmesan cheese or thinly slice ham swiss cheese or even spinach and goat cheese.  Caramalized onions and blue cheese would be a delicious stuffing for a beef tenderloin.  The options are endless, use your imagination.

Starting with a long side, roll up the tenderloin so the stuffing is in a spiral pattern; then tie the roast at 2-inch intervals with kitchen string.

Before searing and roasting, lightly brush with olive oil and rub with a mixture of herbs, minced garlic and salt and pepper.

Heat about 1 1/2 t olive oil in saute pan on high.  Sear all sides of the tenderloin and then place in a 450 degree oven until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees.  Pork tenderloin will take about 20 minutes.  Remove from oven, cover loosely with foil and let rest for 5 minutes before removing kitchen string and slicing.

A chicken breast can be prepared similarly, by slicing only one time half-way down, without cutting all the way through.  open the breast and flatten before filling.

Here's to fresh, fast, and fantastic food!