[willow650]

I have the book Scale Down and I love it. I have read it several time and more and more truth gets ingrained in me everytime I read it. It has taken at least 2 readings to get out of the all or nothing, diet mentality that has always resulted in failure. I just thought someone else might enjoy this article.

Danna Demetre: Dialing Back Your Diet
Watch Your Weight

As we look forward to the Christmas holidays, we don’t have to look forward to gaining extra pounds. Danna says the trick to keeping weight off is to think in terms of a total life change in how we think about food. A lifestyle change is something that you can do most days of your life without too much effort or deprivation. Everything else is just a diet.

Danna offers 25 ways to cut calories every day. A sampling of these tips includes the following:

* Try frozen grapes or blueberries for a fun snack.
* When you dip veggies or other snacks, dip sparingly. It adds up fast.
* Hard candy or mints are low in calories and satisfy the sweet tooth. They also take about 3-4 minutes to eat.
* Leave the cheese off your sandwiches and save at least 100 calories.
* Never eat regular mayonnaise. Cut low-fat mayo with Dijon mustard to decrease calories and increase flavor.
* Reduce the frequency of red meat in your diet and increase the frequency of fish -- your brain and heart will love you
* Low-fat frozen yogurt and fruit sorbet with berries have fewer calories than most ice creams
* Avoid the guacamole and stick with low-calorie salsa. If you can’t resist the avocado, mix it with generous amounts of salsa and fresh vegetables.
* Croissants contain about 300 calories from fat. They’re not worth it. Stick with your favorite fresh bread.
* Substitute ground turkey for beef. Brown and rinse with hot water in a colander to remove excess fat.
* Add an extra two cups of beans to your turkey or chicken chili to increase fiber and decrease calories
* Bake a big, fluffy potato and stuff with low-fat cottage cheese and chives and top with a little sharp cheddar. It is very satisfying.

You can read the entire article here:

http://www.cbn.com/700club/guests/bi...re_120804.aspx

[PhotoChick]

It's a good list but I'm not entirely sure I agree with all of it.

* Hard candy or mints are low in calories and satisfy the sweet tooth. They also take about 3-4 minutes to eat.
Hard candies are not THAT low in calories. I love butterscotch candy and 3 pieces have 70 calories. 3 peppermint discs are around 60 cals. Even 3 sour apple Jolly Ranchers are 68 calories. Even if you suck on them and let them dissolve slowly, you could conceivably consume 200 or 300 calories a day in hard candies using this advice. And aside from that, I can go through a bag of hard candy in 30 mins flat. I don't suck on them. I crunch them (I crunch ice too - I know it's a bad habit, annoying, and bad for my teeth, but I do). And for many people hard candies can set off horrific carb and sugar cravings. Hard candy is, IMO, a bad suggestion.

* Avoid the guacamole and stick with low-calorie salsa. If you can’t resist the avocado, mix it with generous amounts of salsa and fresh vegetables.
Avocado, and therefore guacamole, is a great source of healthy fats and lots and lots and lots of really good vitamins and minerals. I wouldn't advise eating several avocados a day (although I could easily! ) but I wouldn't advise cutting them out of your diet either. In fact I'd go back to the mayo tip and say replace mayo with mashed avocado or guac. 2 T of avocado has about 1/2 the calories of the same amount of mayo and is a much a healthier, tastier option!

* Add an extra two cups of beans to your turkey or chicken chili to increase fiber and decrease calories
Beans are really good things. They're high in protein, high in fiber, and very very very filling. I definitely agree that adding them to chili or soups can be a great idea. But they do NOT decrease calories. 1/2 cup of pinto beans from a can is 80 calories. Adding 2 cups of beans to your chili adds 320 calories. Nothing added to a meal is going to "decrease" the calories of it - and while I know what she was trying to say, the concept isn't sensible.

* Bake a big, fluffy potato and stuff with low-fat cottage cheese and chives and top with a little sharp cheddar. It is very satisfying.
Be VERY careful about that "big" fluffy potato. I think that most of the time potatoes get a bum rap when dieting. A plain baked or boiled potato can be a really healthy option for most people (those who aren't carb sensitive). But a single serving of baked potato (that's about 4 oz, that's about a potato the size of a woman's fist or smaller) is 110 calories. A truly BIG potato - like the big Idaho baking potatoes you get in the grocery store, are often double or even triple that size. I've gotten potatoes from the store that were easily a pound each ... and that's 4 times the size of a "medium" potato at 4 oz. So you eat a "big" fluffy potato and all of a sudden you're consuming nearly 500 calories - not counting the cottage cheese and sharp cheddar.

Just my thoughts on what is otherwise some pretty good advice!

.

[JayEll]

I think there are a lot of good points and alternatives in that article! I don't agree with all of them, but they seem to me like a great starting point for thinking about food in a better way. Thanks a lot for posting it!

Jay