Stress Management

Losing That Extra Weight

Strategies for Successful Slimming

6. Eat breakfast and lunch

One of the big mistakes people do is to skip breakfast and lunch and eat a big dinner. This is not good. When you skip breakfast and lunch, you will end up in overeating later in the day. The problem with having a big dinner is that we are mostly sedentary after the dinner so there is no way for the body to burn off the excess calories; so they get stored as fat. When we eat breakfast and lunch, the calories get burned off for producing energy as we are very active during the day. People in Mediterranean and Asia tend to have the biggest meal of the day at lunch time. The dinner tend to be very simple for them. This does makes sense.

"When you undereat, the next meal will make you more hungry," observes Dr. Callaway. "Don't compensate for a heavy dinner by skipping the breakfast and lunch. All it will do is to make you take a large dinner on the following day. The more you cut back, the more you're going to eat later." 

7. Don't Take Too Big a Bite That You Cannot Handle 

It is important that we set up realistic goals when it comes to our expectations of how fast we can lose weight and what we can and cannot do. If you try to do too many things in too short a time you are apt to come up with disappointments that will mean to death of the whole program. 

Experts on behavioral modification say that it's too hard to make a long term commitment. A one-day commitment, is more manageable and easier to implement.

We can learn from what successful recovery programs do to make changes a part of life. The key to success is that it is much easier to break a bad habit or an addiction if you just focus for one single day on altering your behavior. 

"Change isn't about making a giant resolution for a year but about making better choices every day. If you want to lose weight, you order salad instead of fries, walk to the store instead of drive, take the steps instead of the elevator," says Regina Brett, a columnist for Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Start with something really simple. Just do one thing positive every day--it may be to eat breakfast or take a ten-minute walk. Once you do it successfully you will be motivated to take the next baby step. 

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