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Did You Resolve to Lose Weight in 2011?

This is probably one of the most common resolutions on New Year's Day in the USA and many other countries where food is plentiful.  How many people carry through with it?  Probably not too many, according to US statistics. 

There's right ways to do it and wrong ways.  Bad efforts include drugs and supplements, starving oneself (usually followed by pigging out), bulimia, laxatives, and criticism or nagging from others. 

Good ways are easier and healthier.

1. Store your large dinner plates, soup bowls and dessert plates for company.  Actually put them out of reach.  Buy smaller plates for dinner use.  Use cereal bowls instead of soup plates and use teaspoons, not soup spoons.  Find tiny dishes for desserts.  I get small plastic dishes used for favors at Walgreens and use them for pudding and other such treats.  I even have a set of tiny spoons!
    
2. Don't put the serving dishes on the table.  Leave them on a kitchen counter, where diners would have to get up for a refill.  This goes double for bread and butter.   Don't even put butter on the table. Go for thin sliced bread and lite "butter".  When a meal calls for crusty bread, or bread and butter, serve it on a small plate for each person.
    
3. Drink a full glass of water before each meal.   Keep a pitcher of cold filtered water on the table, and serve each person a glass of water before the meal.  If your habit or culture calls for wine with a meal, try serving it AFTER the meal instead.  Drinking wine with a meal often leads to more eating.
    
4. Serve less carbs, and make those that you do serve ones with fiber, whole grains if your family will eat them.  Try mixing part whole grain and part refined at first if you meet with resistance.  Serve LOTS more veggies and salads.  Find ways to serve them that your family will accept, even if it raises the calorie level a bit.  Go for clear soups when you can, rather than cream soup or thickened stew.
    
5. Cut the fat!  Trim ALL fat from meats before cooking.  Leave skin on when roasting poultry, but remove it before serving.  Find a decanter for your cooking oil that dispenses much less at a time.  Buy REALLY good Teflon cookware.  I can personally recommend the WearEver Premium Hard-Anodized 12-Inch Sauté Pan or the other Hard-Anodized choices; 8-Inch Saute Pan, 11-Inch Griddle, or even a 10 Piece Cookware Set. I've had my sauté pan for two years.  As per instructions, I don't cut anything in the pan, or scrape with a metal utensil or scrubbing pad, but I do often use a metal spatula to turn things.  These pans are practically indestructible, and will allow you to cook using cooking spray or virtually no fat at all, with little change in flavor.
    
6. Excess weight usually begins in the grocery store.  STOP buying sodas (even non-caloric - they tend to increase a desire for sugars), fruit drinks or cocktails, chips, cookies, ice cream.  Use skim or 1% milk in coffee or tea, rather than creamers - you'll get used to it (eventually).  Make sugar-free gelatin desserts chock full of fruit; nutritious puddings, iced tea, or fresh, bottled or frozen real fruit juice. Cut out most prepared frozen dinners.  They are generally higher in salt and fat and lower in nutrition.  
   
   If it's not in the house, they can't snack on it (at home, anyway).  You'll be less tempted too.  Chocolate covered nuts or raisins are a better choice than candy bars.  Nuts are a better choice than chips.  Try apple slices with a tiny slice of cheddar, or carrot or celery sticks dipped in peanut butter, or in low-fat sour cream mixed with salsa.
    
7. Resist the vending machine or fast food place for lunches at work.  Pack a delicious lunch.  Tupperware has GREAT lunchware, and you'll eat healthier and save money too. Do it, even if you have to use a paper bag!|
    
8. Walk.  Take the stairs instead of the elevator.  Park further from work or school.  Try to take a walk several times a week; you'll see interesting things, meet new people, burn calories and improve your overall strength and health.

In other words, trick yourself into losing those unwanted pounds and keeping your New Year's resolution.