Daring Young Mom writes about how to lose weight and asks for comments. Some of the answers are serious, such as “don’t graze. Only eat sitting down. And don’t do anything else but eat.” (That last actually doesn’t work for me. If I only eat, I eat a lot more because I’m paying attention to the food.) Some are less so, such as “Dye all your food blue. Go into a coma or onto Survivor.”

Some thoughts on how to lose weight:

1. Start your morning with caffeine. Green tea is the best, if you can drink the stuff.

2. Quit eating at 7 pm. (Assuming you have a semi-normal day schedule.) The later you eat, the more likely the stuff is to end up as excess because you aren’t doing enough to use it up.

3. Eat smaller portions. This can mean several things. Eat smaller meals. Eat on a smaller plate. Even eating five times a day can help, if you eat around 300 calories each time. (You use up about 100 calories on the eating/digesting. So 1500 calories with 300 calories to digestion or 1500 calories with 500 to digestion.)

4. Add steps to your day. If you normally take everything upstairs at once, don’t. Make several trips. If you are the parking spot guru, give up that close one and walk a little farther. Go down every aisle at the grocery store, if you can manage not to buy the bad stuff. Take the dog out for a walk instead of just letting her into the backyard. This is in addition to 30 minutes of “exercise” a day.

5. Lift weights. If you lift weights you will,
gain muscle.
lose fat.
gain bone density.
look fitter.
tone up.
The only way you will look horrific because of lifting weights is if you take lots of steroids or more testosterone than the average teenage male has in their system.

6. Add veggies and limit refined sugars. Add a huge helping of veggies to each meal and only eat half of the refined sugars you would normally have. For example, when I’m making spaghetti, I make myself a salad and skip the garlic bread. Switch to whole wheat (not enriched whole wheat flour, but whole wheat) instead of processed foods. It takes your tummy longer to digest.

7. Don’t eat lots of veggies that turn to sugar quickly: peas, carrots, potatoes, corn.

8. Buy smaller or individual packets of your junk foods, if you are going to have them in the house. Buy the boxes of Oreos that come in 100 calorie packages instead of the cheaper, but far easier to abuse, Oreos bag.

9. Eat slowly. The slower you eat, the more likely it is that your tummy will send your brain the full signal before you’ve polished off enough calories for a sumo wrestler.

10. Make a list of 1o things that make you feel better and post them on the fridge. When you are tempted to eat because of a bad day, read the list and go do one of those. My list includes “have sex, walk, read a book.”

11. Drink water. Lots of water. If you have enough that you are sufficiently hydrated, your body will not hold on to so much water weight. You can lose up to 10 pounds just from drinking water. But you have to do it every day. Drink at LEAST 64 oz a day. But then drink half your pound weight in ounces of water. (If you weigh 150, drink 75 oz of water.) Tea will work. Flavored water will work. Soda does not count.

12. Don’t just measure your weight. Also take inches measurements. Five inches off my waist is a great motivator to keep up the good work!

13. Fall in love. I know some people lose weight when they’re sad, but I don’t. I did, however, drop 15 pounds in three months without any effort at all when I first fell in love with my husband.

16. Eat protein at every meal. It’s harder than fat to digest and it helps you build muscles and bones.

17. Don’t skip any meals at all. You’ll be starving later.

18. Eat the least amount of carbs you can manage at breakfast. It will help you not have sugar cravings later in the day.

There you go. Tip Tuesday from DYM and me.