Quick summary: My wife, Franziska Bishop, is a Master’s level nutritionist who writes a really awesome nutrition blog 
www.justalittlechocolate.com . For this post I am going to be brief and quickly tell you 7 tricks that I have picked up from my wife that have been immensely beneficial to my ability to maintain optimal health.
1.) Drink a full glass of water before you eat… better yet try and drink water with regularity.
- When you drink a full glass of water before you eat you will feel full faster… you are therefore far less likely to overeat… and most people are not drinking enough water to stay properly hydrated anyway.
- This is also a great rule for people who drink too much alcohol… drink a pint of water for every beverage that you consume (note: don’t over drink liquid… you can die from drinking too much liquid). This will help with hangovers, will increase the oxygen in your blood, and should help limit your intake.
2.) Wait ten minutes before going to get seconds. If you are full… stop eating.
- There is a delay between when you are full and when you feel full… often when you wait ten minutes you will find that you are full and do not want or need to eat more.
3.) Avoid diets that are too dramatic and encourage you to give up all of your favorite foods… make your nutrition goals realistic… starting with small achievable goals will help in building up the momentum and motivation which accompanies success.
- Firstly, it is not necessary to give up all the food that you like to be healthy… write down your favorite foods and try eliminating the foods that are not particularly important to you… keep your favorite food and enjoy with moderation.
- Second, If you set up a goal that is unrealistic you are more likely to fail… failing makes you less likely to believe in yourself the next time you set a nutrition goal = you become even more likely to fail. If you set yourself up for success you will increase your hope and your motivation.
- If your diet is too much of a sacrifice than you will be unlikely to maintain the diet… you might get fast results but you are likely to lose those result rather quickly.
4.) Eat a piece of fruit when you need a snack… if you need more food after the fruit then you can consider a bit more.
- (This one was the hardest for me and was probably the most helpful… I will eat an apple or an orange as an after dinner snack (if hungry)… I never need more even though I crave cereal or cheese bread before I eat the fruit.)
5.) Eat a little something about every 3 or 4 hours to keep you metabolism going. Eating small meals with greater frequency is better than large meals with less frequency.
- Fasting turns your metabolism off… eating less frequently therefore will be counter productive to your weight loss goals.
- Think of your metabolism like a fire… if you keep that fire lively and really cooking it will be better able to burn up anything that you put into that fire.
6.) Have a salad with dinner.
- We use my mothers very simple salad dressing = olive oil, rice wine vinegar, and Lawry’s salt.
7.) If you make your food at home it will likely have fewer calories and will likely be healthier for you.
- Restaurant portions are huge.
- It is advantageous for restaurants to use too much salt and fat (oils butter etc) as the fats aid in clean up (an oily frying pan is easy to clean) and flavor and the salt also aids in flavor and it encourages the consumption of beverages that the restaurant will gladly sell to you.
Do these tricks with consistency for one month and they will become a habit.
Do these tricks sound all that hard to do?
I work out 4-5 times a week and basically use just the nutrition tips above… works for me and those who know me would not label me as having a restrictive relationship with food.
