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You will find nothing on this posting about “a specific diet” – so regardless of WHAT food plan you are using, there might be something here for you . . .

It takes something like 3 mos (or is it 3 weeks???) to MAKE a habit but only 3 days to loose one. These daily/weekly habits have helped me fine tune and get most from my efforts. Feel free to take what is helpful and leave the rest. I may not have all the "facts" exactly right - but you will understand the gist of it (I hope).

You can think of this listing in two ways:

The first way is to think of it as a check list for sloppiness (that's what I do). Have you picked up any bad habits that are catching up with you? Did you just plain “forget/loose” something?

The second way is as a baby steps listing – things to slowly add to your life, a little at a time.

1. Eating Whole Foods as Close to their Natural State As Possible
Benefit – lower salt and additives, healthier.
Time Saver – flash frozen vegetables and fruit
What I have to share:
Please be sure to check ingredients to see that they are just frozen and have nothing added. My husband shared with me that green beans are supposed to actually be fresher if they are flash frozen than if you buy them fresh from a store. I have just plain stopped buying fresh, because I don’t have time to snap them. I love green beans and eat them almost every day – cold in salad, hot with dinner, etc. now that they are handy in the freezer.

2. Drinking Water
Benefit – hydrates body, flushes fat, helps you to feel full
Time Saver – use pitcher, bottles or other set measure to be sure of daily total
What I have to share:
I drink 2 one liter bottles in winter and 3 one liter bottles in summer.

3. No bits and bites
Whether you eat 4 times a day or 6, only eat at set meals times.
Benefit – those bits and bites can really add up and are easy to “forget to count”
Time Saver – plan meals for the day
What I have to share:
I was the QUEEN of eating while I cook. I cook a lot because I have kids eating different things at different times. I was also the QUEEN of eating while I drove, watched TV, shopped, etc. I have totally stopped all this. I am only eating at meal times. I put my food on a plate.

4. Weigh and Measure Food
Benefit – so you don’t over or under estimate.
Time Saver – keep kitchen scale and lots of measuring cups handy at all times.
What I have to share:
Debbie the Shrinking Knitter had a good post on this the other day – she realized that the calorie counts she was using did not reflect the size of the food she was eating.

5. Balance food within your calories/count
Benefit - Get the most food for your calorie count possible. Nutrition.
Explanation: At one point, before Kay, I discovered that I needed to look at the mix of my calories. I was eating about 1200 calories. I was able to UP them to 14-1600 by working on the ratio of carbs to protein to fat. I could eat at the higher calories level if my ratio is 40-40-20. There is an excellent illustration of this concept in the middle of Eating Thin for Life.
Time Saver - I built at little excel sheet that totaled calories and then totaled grams for each of the 3 categories, and then figured my percentages at the bottom. This was helpful – because I could plug in my planned day in advance and play to get the ratios right.
What I have to share:
Kay’s plan does this for me – so I don’t keep track now – just follow her formulas. This is one of the complaints that everyone seems to have about WW – so if following WW, it might be worth a LOOK to see if you are balanced within points.

6. Get enough variety in your exercise
Benefit – Change burns more calories. (Your body adapts to what it is used to and you don’t reap as many benefits if you stay the same. )
Time Saver - get most out of your exercise time.
What I have to share:
I have found this to be true for myself. Plus I don’t like to get bored – mixing things up every 3 mos seems to help motivate me.

7. Use Weight Resistance
in your exercise program 2-3 times a week with at least a day of rest in between.
Benefit – women need more upper body work than they get in daily life – strength, bone density, posture, burns calories.
Time Saver – that whole “muscles keep working” all day thing
What I have to share:
I think this has made a big difference in my tone and the whole “sucking up the excess skin thing.”

8. Some Form of DAILY Cardio, cardio, cardio
Benefit: burns fat, circulation, heart health, etc
Time Saver – add arms to whatever you are doing to get most from your workout. Check heart rate to make sure you are in your range and stay in your range for whole workout. Consider a monitor if you have trouble with too high or too low.
What I have to share:
45 minutes of DAILY Cardio - This is the ONLY way I loose weight.

9. Sleep
Benefit: see AFG blog from a couple days ago - Frances posted about all the benefits of sleep.
Time Saver - you probably can't eat while you sleep . . .
What I have to share:
I don't sleep as much as you are "supposed to". I have been thinking about it this way: If I wake by myself when I am supposed to - that is enough sleep for me. If my alarm has to wake me - I am probably not getting enough sleep for me.

10. Daily Peace of mind
Do the best that you can, and then be happy with what you do.
What I have to share:
I used to replay everything that had ever gone wrong. Every wrong that had been done to me. This was a factor of my unhappiness with myself. Am I happy now? Not necessarily HAPPY – but not Unhappy. This is growth for me. I used to spend much more time worrying about something (paying bills, exercising, doing task, etc.) than it took to just DO it. I am trying to just DO IT and move on,


PS - Colleen - my Personal Trainer cheerleader – actually started this listing, I have added things to it. What else can you add?????