Don't Diet, Change Your Life

We have had a lot of people ask us lately what the best weight loss program is. A to of people swear by commercial based diets like NutraSystem, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers, but we are a firm believers that we don't have to pay to lose weight.

We often refer to a great success that we had with an actual lifestyle change in 2006 when we lost almost a hundred pounds. We didn't diet, we just simply changed our way of thinking about food. We're not saying that this is a diet breakthrough, but we often see plans similar to our lifestyle change and hear success stories behind the changes.

We decided to give you ten rules to live by to change your life:

1. If you want the chocolate cake, EAT THE CHOCOLATE CAKE. This rule is so important because often we get ourselves on a diet plan and then we "cheat," sneaking a favorite food that doesn't show up anywhere in the allowable food list. Then we feel guilty.Then we binge. Then it's bye-bye diet and hello sweat pants to cover up the bulge. So eat the cake,or the cookie or the Snickers bar. And don't feel guilty about it, but be aware of your portion size.
2. Do not count calories, fat grams or anything else. Be aware of the food groups and do be watchful of the amount of sodium in your diet. 
3. Drink a LOT of water. We're talking 8 glasses a day minimum. No excuses. How can you not like water, it doesn't taste like anything?
4. Stay away from artificial sweeteners (this is a new one, folks, not from 2006 but from, like, yesterday). They've been shown to make us crave sweets.
5. Eat veggies fresh or frozen, never canned (exceptions for me are always corn and peas... which aren't really good for us anyway,but that's a whole 'nother blog!).
6. Drink milk instead of fruit juice. This may sound dumb, but skim milk has protein, fruit juice is usually loaded with sugar,
7. Eat read meat only once a week. Become creative in dishes using chicken or fish. One of our favorite recipe sites is Allrecipes.com. Eating the same foods will often make our taste buds crave something different, so it's cool to be creative.
8. Switch to whole grain. This is especially cool because a lot of whole grain foods are loaded with extra flavor as well as nutrients. 
9. Eat REAL BUTTER. Margarine is chemically produced and is not good for us. Matter of fact,stay away from anything labeled "diet" or "low calorie." You'll thank us later.
10. Take the stairs. I'm not saying that an exercise regimen isn't good for you, but anything that gets us moving is a good things. And park way at the bottom of the parking lot when you go to the mall or WalMart. Any extra steps you can add to your regime will be a positive thing.

And there you have it, ten ways to change your life. Trust us, you WILL lose weight if you stay positive, eat healthy and get out there and exercise!