Weight Loss Superfecta

If you are a fan of horse racing, you are familiar with the
exotic bet called the Superfecta. It requires that you pick the
first four horses to cross the finish line. Depending upon the
size of the field and the odds of the winning horses, the
pay-off is frequently tremendous.

Approaching our weight loss efforts with a bettor’s attitude,
we’re going to pick four sure winners in the dieting game. To
improve our chances, we going to “box” our choices, meaning that
they can finish in any order as long as our picks run first,
second, third, and fourth.

1. Restrict your eating to mealtimes.

We often control ourselves relatively well when we sit down at
the table. Whether at home or eating out, we have put some
thought into the food on our plate and have made a conscious
decision about what we will allow ourselves.

It is what happens between actual meals that is often our
downfall. We act without awareness or forethought,
absent-mindedly picking on leftovers or items just “hanging
around” – candy, potato chips, last night’s unfinished bowl of
popcorn, a last lonely cupcake. With little genuine memory of
doing it, we have doubled or tripled our daily caloric intake
and completely subverted our best intentions. Whether you eat
twice a day or “three squares” stick to that, and keep your
teeth firmly clenched for the rest of the time.

2. Increase your activity.

Most of us who are overweight hate exercise. We always manage
not to find time to perform a daily routine or join a gym. It is
true that you can increase your energy expenditure during the
day by such changes as using the stairs instead of the elevator,
parking as far away from the store or market as possible, or
walking over to a coworker’s desk rather than calling him on the
telephone. The problem is that these suggestions, so often
voiced by the weight loss specialists, have little effect,
especially in the short term. If you honestly believe that a few
extra steps a day is going to make you buff, you are in big-time
denial my friend.

Increasing your activity levels to the range where they will
really help your weight goals is going to take genuine and
regular effort. If you can’t stand the thought of calisthenics
in the morning, try these.

a. Don’t just take the stairs, use them. If you work on the
third floor of a six story building, walk up to the roof and
then back down to your floor. If you have a two story home or an
upstairs apartment, make sure you keep leaving things behind so
you are forced to go up and down the stairs at least three or
four times before you get in your car and drive off.

b. Park your car in the back 40 at the supermarket and then
leave your wallet under the seat. When you reach the store,
you’ll have to walk all the way back to get it. When you’ve
loaded your groceries into your trunk, push the basket all the
way back to the store’s front door – now you’ve walked the
distance four times instead of just once.

c. Use your break or lunch time to walk around the block. Then
convince yourself that you might have dropped something and
retrace your entire trip.

d. Turn on music when you clean house or wash the dishes. Dance
constantly while you try to finish your chores without breaking
anything.

e. When you watch television, only put an ounce or two of water,
or coffee, or tea, in your cup or glass. Get up for a refill at
every commercial. During the evening, you may get up and down
fifty times which will keep you limber as well as burning
calories.

Some of these ideas may take so much time that you’ll throw in
the towel and choose an early morning exercise routine instead,
knowing that then you don’t have to worry about this silliness
all day!

3. Think small.

We gain weight because of the types of food we eat and the
amount we eat. For now, we are going to concentrate on the
quantity of our intake – calories DO count.

Start thinking small at the market. Yes, the food producers give
us a price break if we buy the “economy” size (they have a
vested interest in keep our appetites unfettered). We can save
even more by buying in bulk. At this stage in our weight loss
program, we are less interested in saving money than in saving
our diet. Buy the smallest available size of everything.

When you start to prepare your meal, estimate how much of each
item you need, and then reduce by 25%. Use dessert instead of
dinner plates. A portion of food looks much bigger when it’s
threatening to spill over the edges.

As you start to eat, cut your food into small pieces. Not
bite-sized pieces, mind you, but more like pet food morsels or
large peas. Then eat one at a time, making sure your mouth is
totally empty before taking another piece.

You will find yourself feeing full (and rather bored with the
whole procedure) long before your little plate is empty. The
thought of a second helping may even make you nauseous.

If you are eating out, try to order a child’s plate, a senior
menu size, or just an appetizer. Never order a complete meal
when a la carte dishes are available – the rest is just “filler”
anyway.

4. Always have a pleasant diversion on hand.

The less time you spend interacting with food, the less you will
eat. Set up your schedule to allow yourself as little time to
eat as possible. If you have an important meeting at 1 PM, don’t
take time for lunch until 12:45. At 1 PM, stop and clear
everything away. If you want to watch a special television show
at 7 PM, don’t start eating dinner until 6:45. At 7 PM, dump any
uneaten food into the garbage pail and turn on your show.

If you didn’t have time to finish your meal, more power to you -
you’re that many calories ahead. And remember that this tip must
be combined with your earlier agreement not to eat between meals.

If you’re home with nothing special to do, identify some fun
non-eating activity and schedule that right after you start to
eat so again you are forced to stop earlier than your stomach
demands. Schedule yourself to start a new book, surf the
Internet, read a favorite catalog, visit a neighbor, or sit down
with the kids to discuss their day.

Never find yourself at “loose ends” with nothing better to do
than eat. Make a list of things you enjoy so there is always
something to tempt you away from the table.

Mix and match these four suggestions as you move along in your
journey to slim. In any order, in any degree, in any rotation,
they will help carry you across the finish line to reap your
well-earned rewards.

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