Life and body: a perfect diet

Like most teenage girls, weight is something that crosses my mind every once in a while. Perhaps too often for my own good.

Dieting.

I hate that word, but I nevertheless force myself into the process it defines quite often. I haven't tried any book diets or any special diet food. Instead, I get tips and advice from various health journals/websites and improvise from there.

What works best?

A combination of the following:

-Eating in moderation.
Everyone tells you this. Everyone knows this. Yet almost no one does this. Why? Because when we see a plate full of food, it's really, really hard to stop yourself in the middle and tell yourself, "That's it, I'm done. No more." It's so hard to leave half a plate of food just lying there, wasted!
Although this is the hardest thing you can do, it also works best. Eventually, if you give it enough time and patience, you won't find yourself craving the same gargantuan amounts of food as before. You'll be used to, and content with, eating smaller portions. What's the best way to get yourself into this habit, though?

-Use smaller plates.
Don't try to force yourself to leave half of your meal on the plate. It doesn't work unless you have a very strong will, and even then, it probably won't work every time. Instead, you can play a trick on your brain. Instead of using a larger plate and filling it with food that you will feel compelled to eat every last cubic centimeter of, use a small plate. When you fill it up with food, it still looks like a good, filling meal. Allow yourself to finish every last bite. You'll feel satisfied, but not overly full (oftentimes, if you feel you're still hungry after eating what seems like a reasonably sized meal, it's a false alarm - the feeling will go away in about 20 minutes). This way, you can trick yourself into eating smaller portions - just don't let yourself refill the plate once you've emptied it. I've found this works well because it's easier to stop yourself from getting a refill than from stopping yourself from finishing what's right in front of you.

-Don't eat after 7.
My mom always used to tell me this, but I never paid much attention. Now, I'm on a new diet, and this is one of the key parts.

Some good snacks to eat without compromising a diet are (especially if it's after 7):

-Nuts - just not too many. Good for making you feel less hungry, and you only need to eat 3 or 4.

-Fruits - eat as many as you want. Nothing bad, diet-wise, will happen to you if you eat a few apples, bananas, etc. when you're hungry. I like them even more than nuts - I can eat a wider variety of them and more of them. And I guess they just taste better :-)


The most important part of the diet I've found to be most successful is LESS SUGAR. I am a crazy sweet-tooth - and I've found this to be my one downfall in maintaining/losting weight. The first step is to remove desert from the daily menu. It sounds horribly cruel, but it works very, very efficiently. I once found I lost about 5 pounds in a week because I took sugar out of my diet entirely. As hard as it sounds, it's harder to do. In order to ease myself into the sugar-free diet, I still put sugar (a lot - *guilty grin*) in my tea. I also eat a lot of the sugary but low-calorie and fat-free meringue(sp?). It's delicious and takes away all of my cravings for any of my usual deserts. Then, after a while, I stop eating meringues and drink juice instead of tea. Natural sugars are fine - I just stop eating unnecessary, added ones.

Of course, nothing works better with the aforementioned suggestions than exercise. I'm a dancer, and I have to admit that I don't go to the gym much since dancing takes up most of the time I have for exercise. Occasionally, I run around my neighborhood when I'm taking a break from dance.

Oh, by the way, speaking of dance - I highly recommend it as a very, VERY good way to loose weight (especially if you combine it with a diet, or with the tips abovce). Ballroom dancing, specifically: it's really, really fun and a great way to meet people. What can be better? You're moving around, not even noticing the fact that you're burning calories, and at the same time you can be conversing with your dance partner.

Wow, I think this might actually be one of the longest posts I have ever written on any one of my numerous blogs.

Well, this about does it.

Hope it helped.