ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Being on a Diet does Not have to Equal Deprivation

Updated on June 26, 2011

Depriving yourself of the foods you love to eat is no way to lose weight.

 

What you need to do is eat smaller portions of those foods, choose a few each day (don’t eat everything all at once) and enjoy what you are eating.  What I am trying to say, is no one wants to eat carrot sticks and melba toast all day.  You need to find balance and variety so that you don’t become bored with your diet.  If you love to eat bagels with cream cheese, try buying a lower calorie bagel and light cream cheese.  Eat just half of the bagel, because they are notoriously dense in carbs.  That way, you get to eat something you enjoy and at the same time, you are not throwing all of your weight loss efforts out the window.

 

Personally, I enjoy chocolate, a little too much.  It is not a good idea for me to buy a “family size” bag of M & Ms or anything along those lines.  I can, however, find a small bite size portion near the check out at my local grocery store.  They now have those 100 calorie portions of chocolate bars, etc.  Sugar free is another great choice when it comes to chocolate, but watch the fat content.  Even though something is sugar free, sometimes it is a trade off for higher fat.  Also, don’t think that you can eat endless amounts of something because it is sugar free, because these items are sweetened with “sugar alcohols” which will cause you to spend a lot of time in the bathroom.  This is a real bummer, pun intended.

Breakfast - It Really IS the Most Important Meal of the Day

 

You need to make sure that you eat a good breakfast with some protein, like eggs.  Your metabolism needs a jump start in the morning since you haven’t eaten anything all night while you were sleeping (hopefully, unless you are a sleep – eater).  Breakfast is just that “break fast” – breaking the fast that you have been doing all night long.  Slicing up vegetables and fruits so that they are handy to grab as snacks is also a great way to stop the “munchies”.  You can make a really great low calorie dip for the vegetables with light sour cream or no fat sour cream and adding in a low sodium soup mix.  Onion or vegetable soup mixes by Knorr are very tasty.

Grocery Shopping Takes a Little Planning

 

On your next trip to the grocery store, keep these things in mind.  Shop around the “outer square” when possible.  This is where the fresh produce, whole grain breads and meats are.  You don’t need to enter the centre aisles with the high salt, high fat, high sugar, processed foods are kept.  Eat a snack of some sort before you go to the store so that you won’t throw impulse items into your cart.  Have a list written out beforehand so you know exactly what you need and buy only what is on the list.  Not only will this help with not buying the wrong things, it should help to cut down on your grocery bill.

Boost Your Metabolism

 Most importantly, don’t starve yourself all day and then eat everything in sight when you get home from work.  This is the best way to gain weight and eat all the wrong things.  Try to eat 5 – 6 smaller meals and don’t make dinner the biggest meal of the day.  If you can eat your dinner before 7:00 p.m., this is ideal, as you won’t be “sleeping” on those calories.  Choose some lighter fare such as a lean meat paired with a salad.  If you eat less food more often, this will boost your metabolism and help you to lose weight.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)