Change Your Eating Habits

When you first think about beginning to diet you are sure to have thoughts about how you are now going to be relegated to only eating green lettuce and carrots. Losing weight doesn't have to be about necessarily changing your entire diet, but is more about changing your eating habits and changing your lifestyle.

One of the easiest ways to change your eating habits is to limit the portions of food you intake, particularly when it comes to foods that are very high in calories. Foods like cakes, cookies and other sweets are high in calories. In addition, fried foods like fried chicken or French fries also contain very high calorie counts.

Pay careful attention to what is in the foods you are eating and limit your intake of foods and drinks that are high in added sugars. Added sugars provide additional calories and do not provide many of the beneficial nutrients that your body needs like fiber, vitamins and minerals.

To figure out if a particular food is high in added sugars or not, take a look at the ingredient list for that food. Foods that are high in added sugars will list a sugar as one of their top two ingredients. Common added sugars are items such as corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, maltose, dextrose, honey, fruit juice concentrates and maple syrup.

An easy way to start eliminating such foods it to replace them with bright-colored types of foods such as fruits, grains or vegetables that are red, green, orange or yellow. Also it is helpful to choose foods that naturally have high fiber levels which will help you feel full with fewer calories. If you are not sure that a food contains what you are looking for, always be sure to check the ingredient label.

If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation. Women should have no more than one drink per day and men two. Alcoholic beverages supply many, many calories but few nutrients. A regular twelve ounce can of beer contains about one hundred and fifty calories, a five ounce glass of wine has a bout one hundred calories, and one and one half ounces of eighty proof distilled spirits about one hundred calories.

In the beginning watching what you eat can surely be a bit of a hassle, but with steady practice you will soon see the benefits this change in your eating habits will produce.