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The Common Sense Diet

There is no lasting glory in rapid weight loss. Most of the diets currently introduced to our society offer a round of misery for temporary results. The truth is that no one can enjoy life and sustain a weight loss by only eating one kind of food or participating in a boring diet.

Shedding pounds quickly by force of will and deprivation will most likely lead you nowhere. Dieting should not be complicated, boring or depriving. No one should have to pay obsessive attention to carbs, fat, calories or any other units. Approaching your ideal weight is a natural and intuitive progression, a course of fine-tuning that requires both discovery and moderation. So leave your calculator out of reach and use your common sense when making dieting decisions. Eating with your head and senses will be far more beneficial than any diet book you will find on the shelves of a store.

Below are some tips to slim down using the common sense method:

Make small and incremental changes: If you currently are drinking whole milk, you might want to consider consuming reduced fat milk instead. If you drink too much juice, you can cut the calories by diluting it with sparkling water. The same rule applies for sodas, if you can’t live without it, at least favor the diet version. In addition, try to bargain your junky food by healthier substitution. As an example, choose dark chocolate over milk chocolate or give up your ice cream and enjoy a delicious yogurt with berries, nuts and honey instead. Little things do add up.

Use your judgment: Is there any food you consider eating excessively? What could you live without or at least less of? For instance, if every night you need to get a beer after work, then try to only drink half of it. If you are going to eat out in a very nice restaurant, then please yourself with the main entree but skip the bread and eat only a few bites of your dessert. If you are craving pizza, then go for it, but add more vegetables and skip the wine. Use your judgment to make rational and reasonable decisions.

Reduce your portions: In today’ society, especially in North of America, portions are out of control. For years, we have been accustomed to overeat and it is getting really difficult for most people to recognize when they are not hungry anymore. To be safe, the best advice is to reduce portions incrementally. When eating in a restaurant, share the main entrance with your friend or ask for a box before touching the food. After a while, you might even find that half of a plate is too much food at one setting…then, reduce your portion to 1/3 of the plate. The same rule applies when you eat at home, reduce the portions of everything that you eat, just slightly to start with, until you find your satisfying point. Being in tune with our body is certainly not an easy task; it will require trials and errors.

Select Quality over Quantity: Too often, we tend to eat food complulsively without truly appreciating the actual pleasure. This situation happens commonly when we eat poor versions of something of better quality, such as processed cheeses as compared to an artisanal cheese. Learning to replace the junk with goodies will bring you a true feeling of satisfaction. The rule of "more is less" has never been more appropriate! 

Drink lots of Water: Drinking water is one of the most powerful ways of controlling one’s weight. Drinking 8 glasses of water will not only hydrate your body, eliminate toxins and improve your skin, but it will help you control your appetite and lose weight. This tip is probably the easiest to apply and the results are definitely worth the effort.

Keep moving: Exercising while dieting will help you lose weight a little quicker and in an easier fashion. Exercising, however, does not necessarily imply going to the gym and spending hours on the treadmill. Walking on the street, using the stairs instead of the elevator, cleaning, shopping or doing outdoor activities are great steps to break a sweat and shed some extra pounds. Therefore, you should pick an activity that you enjoy, stick to it and have fun. The results will come before you even have time to realize it.