Diet Tip #14: Go Green One Night a Week with 7 Easy Veggie Dinner Ideas

Or red or purple or orange, whatever color floats your boat.

One night a week have a vegetable-based dinner.  That's it!  It's so much easier and more delicious than you think.

We know we need to eat more vegetables but we don't do it.  This gets you in the habit.

Stumped on what to make?  Here are some ideas:

• Spaghetti squash with tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and basil.
• A veggie-based soup - I love my kale, lentil & sweet potato.
• A mish-mash of steamed vegetables - broccoli, sweet potato, cauliflower, brussel sprouts....you get the idea.  Top with any seasoning you like. 
• A huge veggie salad - use a dark lettuce and go wild creating a big vegetable mix featuring onions, tomatoes, avocado, carrots, celery, beets, mushrooms, olives, artichoke hearts, whatever rocks your veggie world.
• Steamed cauliflower with mustard - I could eat this as a meal almost every day.
• Deep dish polenta pizza, recipe courtesy of Cooking Light. 
• Eggplant Mexicano, recipe courtesy of Readers' Digest. 

Diet Tip #13: Nix the Artificial Sweetener

You might think you're doing yourself a favor using artificial sweeteners to make your favorite beverages sweeter. You're not.  Not only are you ingesting fake crap, you might also be making yourself fatter.

Studies show that artificial sweeteners stimulate your appetite and can increase your cravings for carbs.

So what can you do?  Nix the fake sweet stuff.  Don't replace it with sugar just nix it.  Have your coffee or tea without sweetener.  Novel concept, right?

I pitched this idea to a friend looking to lose weight and she asked "But how can I sweeten my drinks?"

My advice?  Let your appetite mature.  We're no longer children.  We don't need sweet drinks, sweet tea, sweet juices or sweet coffee all the time.  Once in a blue moon?  Fine.  Every day.  No.

Once your taste buds get accustomed to coffee with milk or naturally brewed tea without sweetener, fake or real, you will cringe at the taste of the pink, blue or even the yellow stuff.

You won't miss it all.  Promise.

Diet Tip #12: Don't Diet to Lose Weight

Mediterranean Diet Pyramid/Courtesy OldwaysSpt.org

If you're looking for an overall approach to eating, try the Mediterranean Diet.  It's so easy to adopt and a realistic way to eat, not diet, for a lifetime.

To succeed at losing weight, don't diet. 

What does this mean?  First and foremost, studies show that if you do radical changes to lose weight in a short period of time, you're probably going to fail.

Instead, adopt a different approach to eating.  Simple as that.  A quick change will not result in longterm weight loss.  Focus on making smart food decisions that your grandmother told you to do:

• Eat more vegetables and fruits
• Limit the amount of sugar and processed foods you consume 
• If you can't pronounce, don't eat it
• Don't drink your calories water and herbal tea are your friends

This is all easy to do.  You can still enjoy your favorite indulgences (cheese fries, pizza, hamburgers) once or twice a week, not once or twice a day. 

Diet Tip #11: Eat Vegetables as Snacks

For some reason, I was starving at 10am today.  Maybe because I didn't have much dinner Wednesday night but even after a substantial 7am breakfast my stomach was growling only three hours later.

It's easy to fall into the trap of a carbohydrate rich snack.  Vending machines offer them and they're more convenient to grab and go.  I love crackers as much as the next person but they're not a good diet staple.

We also know that our diets need to include more vegetables and fruits.  Snacking is a perfect time to incorporate them into your diet.  Vegetables might take a few more minutes to prepare but the payoff is worth it.

Here are some easy snack ideas to satisfy your appetite AND get more vegetables into your diet:

Edamame

• Edamame - okay it's a soybean but it's green....and not crackers.  It's actually what I had for a snack today at 10am. 
• Baby carrots with hummus 
• Red bell peppers and hummus - a perfect snack match 
• Raw cucumber slices - don't knock these until you try them, they're delicious.  You could eat the cucumber whole.  Be prepared to be the butt of a few jokes, though. 
• Celery with any type of dip or topping - salsa, greek yogurt with spices or topped with peanut butter and raisins (LOVE ants on a log) 
• Raw or lightly steamed broccoli with salsa - another one of my favorite snacks

Diet Tip #10: Use Your Non-Dominant Hand

This simple diet trick is along the lines of putting your fork down between bites and is just as effective.

What is it?

Use your non-dominant hand when you eat.  If you're right-handed use your left hand and vice versa.  It's much harder than you would think.

Using your non-dominant hand forces you to eat more slowly, something which is proven to help you lose weight.  A study by TCU determined that those who eat slowly consume 88 fewer calories than speed eaters.  That's not a ton per meal but over time....there's a theme here....it adds up.

The Takeaway
Use your non-dominant hand while you're eating and while you're at it, put down your fork between bites.  This won't take away from the enjoyment of the meal.  On the contrary, eating slowly will likely enhance the experience.

Diet Tip #9: The 2-Bite Rule in Restaurants

Are you a member of the clean plate club?  I was for years.  At dinner my parents consistently told me to clean my plate, regardless of my hunger level.

Don't leave your plates empty

Sure, there was some "eat your vegetables" thinking in that directive but so many of us were told to finish everything on our plates as children.  That thinking has subconsciously carried over into adulthood and we now feel compelled to eat everything put in front of us.  At least I do.

Today's diet tip: when you go out to eat, leave at least two bites of your restaurant entree on your plate.  That's it. Most restaurant portions are too big to start.  You could really get away with asking them to bag half of your dish at the beginning of meal, that IS if you're ordering an entree. You know I am a fan of ordering two appetizers in restaurants.

Leave a few bites, better yet take half of this home

Anyway, if you order a big entree leave two bites on the plates.  It's just a few calories but it adds up over time. And remember: put down that fork between bites.

All of these tactics are incredibly effective.

Is Your Salad Making You Fat?

We have the best intentions when we make a salad or order one in a restaurant. We think we're being virtuous ordering those greens with a bit of cheese and a few croutons.  How about some bacon bits and ranch dressing? Before you know it you have a salad on your plate that has more calories and saturated fat than a hamburger.

You can get fat eating salads. Really. If you add creamy salad dressing, cheese, nuts, dried fruit, croutons and bacon bits, you're adding hundred, if not thousand, of calories. Dr. Oz warns us of the fat salad, too, claiming that some women get half their daily calories from salad dressing.  Salad dressing = the emptiest of calories.

Okay, so how do you avoid the fat salad? Simple. Don't use that nasty salad dressing from a bottle or the fattening dressings they offer in restaurants. When I was fat, I lived on fat-free salad dressing.

Use salsa, balsamic vinegar or olive oil with a bit of salt and lemon as your dressing. Simple as that. (Tweet this).

Other Things to Nix
While we're at it, forgo the croutons and bacon. They are both empty calories. And if you're going to have cheese, have a flavorful one so that you need less of it. No cheddar or Monterey Jack. Have some feta, blue cheese or goat cheese. These all add a lot of flavor without a lot of calories.

Feta cheese

The Takeaway

• Don't eat bottled or restaurant salad dressing. Use salsa, vinegar (I love balsamic) or olive oiul & lemon. 
• Nix the croutons, bacon bits and bland cheese. 
• Opt for flavorful cheese, if you must have it, like feta, blue cheese or goat cheese. Just a bit to add some complexity.  

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