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10 Ways to Curb Your Snacking Binges
By: Renee Kennedy
When you're dieting, the thing that can really wreck
a healthy eating plan is that awful feeling that
comes over you to just grab a huge bag of potato
chips and polish it off while watching your favorite
sit-com.
We've all been there before!
There are things you can do to help yourself avoid
the ugly urge to snack uncontrollably.
1. First things first:
Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Plan to have healthy snacks throughout the day. Do
not skip meals or planned snacks. Skipping nutritious foods
will make you feel uncontrollably hungry!
2. If you can, avoid purchasing any unhealthy snacks.
There are so many "good-for-you" snacks on the market
today, there is really no reason why you should have
a cupboard full of ring-dings and cheesecurls.
Start learning to read the back of the packages
of foods - look at the fat content - if it says that the
fat content is over 5% per serving - look for a
different snack.
3. Here's a list of healthy snacks that are low in fat content,
but still high in satisfaction (and I'm not talking about
carrots and celery!):
- pretzels (watch the sodium content, though.)
- graham crackers
- any type of low fat crackers - (there are many different
varieties - read the back of the packages to make sure
that they are low in fat. Again, be wary of the salt content.)
- low fat cookies
- popcorn without butter (you can buy butter flavored salt.)
- a cup of fruit with non-fat cool whip on top or a
spoonful of honey.
- fat free pudding
- a stick of sugar-free chewing gum
- a couple pieces of licorice
- a cup of raw veggies with non-fat salad dressing for dip
(ok, so you may have to eat a few carrots.)
4. Treat yourself to scented candles. When you
feel like you need a snack - light the candles and enjoy
them! This actually does work - I've tried it.
5. Instead of a snack, have a drink. Try a
non-caffeinated herbal tea with a spoonful of honey.
There are several drinks on the market with no caffeine
and no sugar - buy a lot of that stuff - different kinds - and
keep it on hand. Before you go for a snack - drink 8 oz. of
your favorite drink, then decide if you really need a snack.
6. Take up something you can do with your hands --
crochet, knitting, puzzles, cross-stitch, sewing, playing piano,
paint your nails and toenails, weed the garden, do a little
housework, look at a magazine for the fashions you
will buy when you're thinner...
In other words, get your mind off food and onto a healthy
hobby.
7. Don't watch TV. TV encourages snacking -
you're sitting there, you feel like you should be doing something -
so you go for the snack. Also, most of the commercials
are about food. Stay away from TV, take up reading
or another activity in number 6 above.
8. When you're finished with a meal or a planned snack,
brush and floss your teeth - this will help you stay away
from food for about an hour.
9. THINK - just take about one minute to think about
what you are doing. Go look at yourself in the mirror
during this minute. Ask yourself, "Do I really want to
eat this and PAY the CONSEQUENCE?"
10. Use your NutriCounter - Every time you eat something -
input it into your NutriCounter - This will help you keep track
of what you've REALLY eaten. Snacking and nibbling
can be the death of a healthy diet. Here's info on the NutriCounter:
http://nutricounter.com
Last month, we had a fabulous testimonial from
a satisfied NutriCounter user. Here's what he has to
say about keeping track of what you eat:
"I already have a NutriCounter, it has done wonders for me.
In April, I had my gallbladder removed (I'm only 33). I am 6' 4"
and was 304 lbs., in pretty good shape. After my
operation, I started to watch what I ate, the doctor said it would
be a good idea. Writing everything down was a real pain, although
I thought it was working well.
Then I purchased the NutriCounter. Wow! I was eating about
1200 to 1600 more calories and about 30 to 60 more grams of fat.
Writing down the info was not even close to what I really was
taking in. The best news is I'm 251 lbs. now, I lost 53 lbs. so far.
Just wanted to say thanks." Corey Susz -- PA
About the Author
Come and visit the NutriCounter web site for more
information on how nutrition influences weight loss, diabetes, pregnancy, heart disease and more!
http://nutricounter.com
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How to Benefit from the Mind-Body Connection
(excerpt)
You are about to gain insight into the
mind-body connection. The number of
people who truly understand these principles on our
planet are relatively few.
There is an undeniable connection between our minds and
bodies, you can learn to use this fact to your benefit.
Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of "Love, Medicine and
Miracles" was once a distraught cancer surgeon until he
began to understand the greater principles of the mind-
body connection. He felt dragged down by the artificial
barriers that existed between patient and doctor, and the
helplessness he often felt as a result of his inability
to effectively serve those patients. Eventually, those
barriers were disintegrated by Dr. Siegel's recognition
and growing understanding of the mind-body connection and
how it could serve his patients and himself.
Dr. Siegel, or Bernie as he began to have his patients
refer to him, had some
startling realizations as a cancer surgeon. He found that
there were actually
quite a few people in the world that successfully beat
the statistics on cancer
survival. He began to recognize that a patient's ability
to defeat something as
serious as cancer had to do with the patient's mind and
attitude about their
disease.
If you would like to see the rest of
this article, please go here:
http://www.tobeinformed.com/repository/mind-body.html
copyright 2004 - David Snape
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