~Slimming Step 2: Changing your diet~

I always see girls/ women/ models who want to stay slim and their method was to eat only fruits or skip meals and exercise like mad.

This is not the healthy way of slimming down or staying slim.

In order to slim down successfully, your diet should be balanced and also equally distributed throughout the day.
What I recommend you to do is to eat small frequent meals instead of 2 or 3 big meals.

If you are thinking that you cannot control your appetite (you just keep craving for food) and that it is impossible to keep to small meals, I have a suggestion.

Eat food with low energy density.
What does this mean?
This means eating food that are more filling and yet do not give you so much calories.

Foods, such as desserts and candies, are high in energy density. This means that a small volume of them has a large amount of calories. You should avoid eating these more than twice a week.

Foods like vegetables and fruits, have low energy density. These foods provide a larger portion size with less calories.

What makes food less calorie packed and more filling?

• Water. Many fruits and vegetables are high in water, which provides volume but not calories. Grapefruit, for example, is about 90% water and has just 38 calories in a half-fruit serving. Carrots are about 88% water and have only 52 calories in 1 serving.
• Fiber. High-fiber foods, like vegetables, fruits and whole grains do not only provide volume, but also take longer to digest, making you feel full longer.
• Fat. Most fruits and vegetables do not contain a lot of fat. Fat raises energy density. One teaspoon of butter contains almost the same number of calories as 2 cups of raw broccoli. This implies that you may eat a lot of vegetables in a salad but if you add a lot of mayonnaise dressing (not low-fat one), you are still getting a lot of calories. So mind the dressing!
  

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Your best food choices

Changing lifestyle habits is not easy but not impossible.

The first step is knowing which foods to choose.

• Vegetables. Most vegetables are low in calories but high in volume. E.g. salad greens, asparagus, green beans, broccoli and zucchini.
• Fruits. All types of fruit fit into a healthy diet. But whole fresh or frozen fruits are better choices than fruit juices and dried fruits, which are concentrated sources of natural sugar, which means having a higher calorie content. And try to eat with the skin (edible), e.g. apple, grapes.
  
• Carbohydrates. Most carbohydrates are either grains or made from grains, such as cereal, rice, bread and pasta. The best type is whole grains because they're higher in fiber and other important nutrients (like vitamins B). Examples include whole-wheat bread, whole-wheat pasta, oatmeal, brown rice and whole-grain cereal. These may taste horrible (to me) but I am slowly getting used to the taste. Start with mixing brown rice and white rice.
  
• Protein and dairy. These include food from both plant and animal sources. The best choices are foods that are high in protein but low in fat and calories, such as legumes (beans, peas and lentils, which are also good sources of fiber), fish, skinless white-meat poultry, fat-free dairy products and egg whites.

Remember! Eat sweets, cakes and high-fat foods in moderation because many of these are high in calories but low in volume.

Most important Question: How to make it work for you?

I am not asking you to start eating grass. You just have to replace some of your high caloric food with healthier choices like fruits and vegetables.

Here are ideas to make this eating plan work for you:

• Take more fruits and vegetables in your meals. E.g. Reduce your carbohydrate intake by halving your bowl of rice and replacing that half with vegetables. Or ask for more vegetables in your fishball noodle soup and do not finish all the noodles. Decrease the meat portion on your plate and increase the serving size of vegetables.
• Experiment with new food combinations. E.g. Toss some mandarin orange and peach slices into a salad. You may find some new tastes you love that fit within your eating plan. Check this website for low-calorie recipes.
  
• Start with soup or salad. Begin lunch with a vegetable-filled soup or a large salad with a small amount of low-fat or fat-free dressing. These foods take longer to eat and curb your hunger. Next, serve whole grains, an extra portion or two of vegetables, and a small serving of lean protein for your main course.
• Snack with fruits instead of titbits whenever you feel hungry in between meals.
  

By eating larger portions of foods less packed with calories, you stop your hunger pangs, take in fewer calories and feel better about your meal, which contributes to how satisfied you feel overall.

Check out this webpage.
http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Calorie-Cutting-Tactics/Detail.aspx
It includes some tips that are not inside this entry.

Next step is Exercise!
Stay tuned...