Tips for cutting a significant number of calories out of your diet.

Every Wednesday is Tip Day.
This Wednesday: Tips for cutting a significant number of calories out of your diet.

Last Wednesday I posted a list of tips for cutting calories without dieting—in fact, without really noticing.

This Wednesday, as promised, I’m posting the more draconian rules I follow. Well, I usually follow them.

1. Don’t eat bread from a restaurant bread basket.
2. Don’t eat hors d’oeuvres.
3. Don’t eat anything at a children’s party.
4. Don’t order dessert.
5. Don’t eat cheese, except feta in salads.
6. Don’t use salad dressing (instead of dressing, I put feta cheese and artificial sweetener on my salads—sounds horrible, but it tastes good).
7. Don’t eat bagels.
8. Don’t drink alcohol.
9. Don’t drink juice.
10. Don’t finish my entrée, or order an appetizer.
11. Don’t eat Nutritious Creations chocolate-chip cookies.

You might thinking, “Life without cheese, without wine, without pigs-in-a-blanket? How joyless, how cramped, how bland! And a person who can put artificial sweetener on a salad is clearly insane.”

All true. Here’s why I follow these rules:

I have plenty of indulgences. I eat other kinds of treats, like candy; I could give up the candy and drink orange juice, but I prefer candy.

One of my most important Secrets of Adulthood (scroll down the left column for the whole list) is: “What's fun for other people may not be fun for you -- and vice versa.” I just don’t enjoy food as much as most people; giving up cheese isn’t a huge sacrifice for me. I realized I was often eating and drinking things I didn’t really want, because of social convention. I gave up alcohol (mostly) because I don’t particularly enjoy it, and also because I’m such a lightweight; I’m affected for the worse by even one glass of wine or beer.

I dread the prospect of dieting. Following these rules doesn’t seem like a diet to me, because I eat all I want of other foods that I like better than what I’m giving up.

I realized that it was easier for me to give up certain foods entirely than to eat them in moderation.

In the end, it comes down to this: it makes me happier to maintain a certain weight than to eat certain foods.

Comments

[Monica Ricci]

Spoken as only a Non-Foodie could...
~Monica (just messin' with ya Gretchen) :)

[shuchetana]

wow, good luck! Actually, I try to follow some similar rules (but I keep caving in on the "no juice" rule). I try not to drink carbonated drinks. Also, I've heard that artificial sweetener is supposed to be very bad for you...

[Tracy]

I'm totally with you Gretchen. I also find it easier to just give up things altogether than to "eat just a little." And it seems to me that a lot of your rules are really about taking control of your eating in situations where other people are trying to dictate what or how much you should eat. (Like, my God, the size of entrees in most restaurants!)

I like alcohol -- wine, some beer, and scotch, but fortunately can't drink more than one or two. And Twix candy bars -- my current treat. But I'm allergic to wheat and not eating bread or pasta or cereal really cuts out a lot of calories!

Another great tips post.

[Willie Hewes]

A lot of the time I just order entrees for a main meal. Restaurants (especially inexpensive ones) should really start offering 'small portion' options, I always end up looking over the children's menu.

No way in hey am I giving up cheese though. But candy? Take it away.

Good post. I guess there's plenty of 'indulgences' that I don't even particularly enjoy. Might as well give them up. Hm...

[Ashley Cecil]

People look at me like a traitor when I order a salad without dressing or don't eat the rice on my plate. I've gotten over it and decided it's more humorous than anything else because I think they're upset I'm practicing restraint when they're not.

I do like cooking for people "my way" and not telling them how healthy and low calorie the food is until after they're eyes light up and they say, "oh my gosh, this is wonderful!"

[Melissa]

so this is the thing- as a strict vegetarian I fully understand practicing restraint and the idea that "whats fun for me may not be fun for you". But what bugs me about this list is that it is a list of 11 DON'Ts. its so negative and very much what people with weight problems despise seeing when looking for weightloss tips.

Its good that it works for you- and I have my own list of similarly strange ideas about food- perhaps its just writing them all out as a DON'T is so unappealing for me.

[Kelsey]

Interesting list... you're right, food rules should be very individualized. As a type 1 diabetic, candy is obviously not part of my diet, but cheese (with it's zero carbs) is a stable!

I like the idea of coming up with a list of food rules, I'll have to start thinking of mine. Thanks!

[Gina]

Don't eat fake foods -- artificial sweeteners included. They are not healthy for you at all. It's not food, and your body gains no benefit from it.

[KCCC]

Interesting list. I do agree with the idea of "simple rules" - but yours aren't ones I could deal with. :)

Here are the ones I use: http://www.nosdiet.com/ Simple, straightforward, and they really work for me. Not quite the same all-or-nothing approach, but "extreme moderation" as their author says.

You might like the rest of the site as well - he calls it "Everyday Solutions," but I think of it as "habit management strategies." Some good stuff.

PS - Not sure I've posted here before, but I have really enjoyed your site. :)

[HB]

I don't mind this list, I like the idea of so much self-control tho.

But any easy way to cut calories is to eat the whole-wheat version of everything. Whole wheat crackers, bread, pasta, pita. This is very healthy for you because of all the fiber and it fills up your tummy quicker.

[TasterSpoon]

Reminds me of one of those sayings a roommate put on the fridge: "Nothing tastes as good as it feels to be thin!"

Haven't come to that conclusion - I'd rather exercise more and eat what I like, and I like to eat. But when I run out of time to exercise, then what?

Cutting out the empty food seems like a good place to start. A friend once put it this way, "Do you want to be a station wagon or a Lamborghini? You don't put crap gas in a Lamborghini, do you?"

[HP van Duuren]

Wow what a list!

I wonder if it is good to withhold
your body from food, this might cause a risk that it gives your body signals that it has to store fat for 'dry-times', creating possible 'jo-jo effects' or creating a dis ballance.

I am very happy to eat all of the eleven 'dont's' you mention, still have a firm 'sixpack' tummy. I do however excersise frequently.

So I think that frequent excersise might be an important aspect to put into the equation, to keep in shape. Although It can't hurt to have some knowledge about what kind of foods the calories are in, if you are inclined to eat to much calories.