Raising Maine

Perhaps you've heard that the word DIET is an acronym for "Dare I Eat Today?" The T is interchangeable. Some use the word TODAY, others use the word THAT. Either way, the anagram is a good one because that's exactly what a diet is. It's a means by which you restrict your food.

While reducing calories is necessary for weight loss, it's not necessary to eat so little you never experience the feeling of comfortable fullness and satisfaction. You can reduce your calories without having to stop eating favorite foods. Diets not only restrict calories, but also restrict certain foods or even food groups.

Diets are something you are either on or off. Your state of being on or off a diet has everything to do with what you eat or in some cases, whether you eat at all. No wonder it's so hard to stick to a diet. No wonder that weight lost by dieting is regained quickly after the diet ends.

For anybody looking to lose a little or a lot of weight, I suggest you stop dieting and start living. What does that mean? Quite simply, it means make calorie control part of your lifestyle. Losing weight demands a calorie deficit; maintaining weight demands calorie balance. Calorie control can fit your life and fit it in the manner that you like to live it. For example, if your life calls for frequent visits to fast food restaurants for meals, have no worries. No need to steer clear of the golden arches!

I have a simple formula for you to make your life and your calorie control compatible. You will categorize foods into three groups. Group 1 is GO FOR IT foods. Group 2 is GO EASY foods and Group 3 is GO CAREFULLY foods. Telling the difference between the three groups is easy.

Group 1 GO FOR IT These foods are foods that you can eat until you feel full and be confident that you didn't eat too many calories.
Check the nutrition facts label. Look for the grams per serving and the calories per serving. Any food that has fewer calories per serving than grams is in Group 1. For example a serving of baby carrots is 85g and 35 calories. All fruits and vegetables fall into this group in their natural state. When cooked with other ingredients added (especially fat and sugar) they might not be Group 1 foods. A serving of artificially sweetened, fat free yogurt is 113g and 50 calories. These foods fit very nicely into Group 1.

Group 2 GO EASY It's necessary to pay attention to portions and account for the calories. If you don't pay attention to your fullness sign you could eat more too much to support your weight goals.
These foods have more calories than grams per serving, but the calories do not exceed the grams by more than twice as many. For example: a 4oz serving of lean beef (7% fat) is 113g and 170 calories. A serving of whole-wheat spaghetti is 140g and 174 calories. A 2/3C serving of mashed potatoes is 73g. The calories are 100. These are Group 2 foods. The calories exceed the grams but not more than twice as many calories as grams.

Group 3 GO CAREFULLY
These foods have more than twice as many calories as grams. Some of these foods may have a lot more than twice as many. Go carefully means you enjoy these foods infrequently, but there's no need to cut them out altogether. A Pizza Hut personal pan cheese pizza is 249g and 640 calories. Before enjoying the group 3 foods be aware that since there are so many calories per serving it's easy to eat too many calories before recognizing you are full. If you really want to enjoy these foods without putting your weight management in jeopardy, it’s a good idea to eat small servings occasionally and not to indulge in these foods when you’re really hungry. Being too hungry when you eat foods from this group makes it easy to eat too many calories before you recognize that you’re full. It’s been found that eating a large salad or having a bowl of a clear, broth-based with vegetables and/or wild rice (not creamed) first is an effective way to be satisfied with a small serving of Group 3 foods.

Although this is a simple way to approach food choices, it requires a little extra work until you learn which foods fit which group. It mostly means reading labels. For foods without labels you will need to use your computer to get nutrition information. Don’t let the work stop you; the work pays off! After a while you’ll develop a sense for what foods fit into what group. Then you will be confident about managing your weight without dieting. That’s what I call living!