10 Easy Diet Tips

By: Kristin Urbauer

Break Studios Contributing Writer

Learn 10 easy diet tips to achieve weight loss and improve your health. Easy diet tips make the weight loss experience successful without taking time and energy away from daily life. Start seeing the weight drop almost effortlessly as you make small changes to your diet.

  1. Eat breakfast. Easy diet tips such as this one keep your diet on the right track by avoiding problems before they occur. Skip breakfast and you will likely be ravenous by lunch and willing to eat just about anything. A healthy breakfast with some protein and complex carbohydrates revs the metabolism, gives you energy and keeps you full through the morning.
  2. Enjoy a snack. Small, frequent meals and snacks keep you from becoming too hungry and reaching for the nearest food. Try to eat something nutritious every three to four hours.
  3. Sip some water. Water fills you up, keeps your metabolism operating at it highest levels and helps your body flush out fat and toxins during weight loss. Drink a glass before every meal or snack and after workouts to easily reach the 8 glasses daily recommended by nutritionists.
  4. Take a multivitamin. This easy diet tip takes virtually no time or effort. Use your multivitamin as insurance for a healthy, well-functioning body, not an excuse for poor eating habits during the day.
  5. Play with your kids or walk your dog. A little physical activity burns calories, improves your mood and raises your metabolism. Follow this easy diet tip by taking a quick 20-minute walk and you will burn approximately 100 calories.
  6. Make healthy choices when on the go. It can be difficult to choose good foods when you are running all day. Plan ahead and bring your own snacks, stop at a convenience store for a piece of fruit instead of a bag of chips, or run by the grocery store for a healthy, pre-packaged snack such as tuna and crackers.
  7. Know the secrets to eating out without gaining weight. Ask for salad dressing and other condiments on the side. Have some soup to fill you up before the main course and skip the appetizers. Share an entree with a friend or ask the waitress to put half of it in a take-home container before bringing it to you. Skip dessert or make a healthy choice such as fresh fruit.
  8. Stop eating a few hours before bed. Most unintended snacking occurs in the hours between dinner and bedtime when people sit down to relax for the day. Make it a rule not to eat during this time and you may save yourself several hundred calories every evening. This easy diet tip gives your body some time to finish digesting food from your last meal, so you will sleep better as well.
  9. Get rid of the unhealthy foods in your house. You may choose to munch on chips or cookies if they are sitting in your cupboard, but you are unlikely to actually make a trip to the store for these foods. Keep healthy snacks such as fruits, vegetables, pretzels and air-popped popcorn in your kitchen instead.
  10. Drink less alcohol. An alcoholic beverage adds 150 calories or more to your daily intake. Furthermore, alcohol relaxes both you and your willpower, making poor food choices more likely.
Posted on: Jul. 31, 2010