Nobody likes being fat. Duh…!

However, though the epic goal of “eating well and exercising” is an honorable, compelling one we ALL strive for, it usually results in a lost battle… and ends in most of us giving in and eating too much.

Despite all the governmental controls & warnings on food and fitness, despite the millions of weight control products, drinks, foods, and programs, people are fatter than they have ever been in history.

Obesity is arguably the biggest health problem our world faces, and is the root cause of many contemporary diseases and health problems.

To put it bluntly, food is killing us.

So… the time to recover is NOW! No more excuses… no more delays.

Don’t be the person whose dreams never come true. Be the kind of person who achieves… who amazes everyone when you do, and who causes them to wonder how you did it!

There are lots of exercise programs designed to help you lose weight and/or to build muscle tone. Most of them require A LOT of time and dedication.

I’m sure all the gadgets and exercise programs have been “wonderful” for people around the globe, but they are expensive and too hard to follow, long-term.

Certainly, no disrespect meant to the gorgeous Marie Osmond and her weight loss achievements, but something should make us wonder about the true purpose of companies selling food plans, supplies, equipment, and programs that are only available through the advertiser.

Being overweight is not a crime.

You are not of lesser value as a human being by being overweight. If you look around, you’ll find that many of your closest friends are overweight, and you love them just as much.

But the fact remains that being overweight can significantly impact your health, lessen your life enjoyment, and lower your self-esteem.

And that is why, in today’s post, we’ll rediscover – how to eat like a girl!

How To Eat Like A Girl?

Well, first and foremost, fit girls eat small portions. They don’t gobble their food. They eat food slowly and purposefully. They savor their food. And, they eat stuff like salads.

And if YOU want to be that fit girl, then you need to re-define what a meal is.

A meal is NOT the big plate of food restaurants serve. In America (and many other places in the world), food is all around us. The tastier, the better. (Notice, I did not say “the healthier, the better”.)

The “meal” has become that portion of food we can fit on a plate.

Or even worse, a “meal” is what we put into our stomachs until we feel “full”. So that, we become ‘stuffed’ – each meal, every day, which is why we see an increase in obesity each and every year.

Eating good, tasty food is a pleasurable experience, and yes, it is highly encouraged to eat tasty food.

But, we need to love ourselves more than the food we’re eating, so we don’t eat massive amounts. Eat about the size of your own fist for a meal.

A meal should not be a large portion of food, and you should NEVER eat to get “full”.

Isabel Del Rios, author of the Beyond Diet program says “If we lived in a world where food was scarce, eating to stock up might make sense, but we live where food is plentiful. We will not starve, regardless how much our stomachs growl at us. A meal should be the amount you need to sustain life.”

Read that again. There is a lot of truth in that simple sentence.

Another thing fit girls do is, they eat more than three times a day. In fact, they have five or six meals a day. Who decreed we should always eat three meals a day? The Government?

Studies have shown eating five, mini-meals a day is healthier and often results in a smaller, overall intake for the day.

This is because your stomach will always be in a semi–satisfied mode. You’ll never give yourself a chance to binge because you’ll never be that hungry in the first place!

Now, eating small portions does take some getting used to because you’re changing your definition of a meal.

In addition to changing your behavior, this eating style changes the way your brain thinks about food, eating, and portion size.

Your body will tell you, “You must eat more or you will starve.” But, you won’t. A meal under this “fist method” may be a cup of cereal with skim milk (instead of two bowls with whole milk).

A meal now may be half an apple, instead of a whole apple.

A meal may be one slice of thin crust pizza, instead of 3 or 4 slices of pan crust pizza like we used to eat.

Foods to eliminate…? NONE!

This is the beauty of the “rules plan”. Because you are never over-eating, you can practically eat whatever you want and not deny yourselves anything.

You just eat smart, know when to quit eating, and eat only in small portions over time. You never eat to the point of feeling stuffed.

Foods To Limit

Even though you don’t need to eliminate any foods, you do need to eat smart and healthy.

You should try to be reasonable and avoid certain foods as much as possible.

For example, try to avoid breads whenever possible, which means eating hamburgers without buns (use large lettuce leaves to hold the meat instead). You can avoid processed sugars and artificial sweeteners as much as possible, but not natural sugars like fruit.

Sodas? Once a week is fine. But careful, they are actually proven to be addictive. A great alternative is flavored, sparkling water. They are great because they have no sweeteners, no sugar, some taste, no calories.

Next, generally, “white” foods are best to avoid, except cauliflower, which is great raw or cooked.

Don’t fall victim to what is known as the “Subway lie” – where people who think eating often at Subway will help them to lose weight. Think about how much bread is in every Subway sandwich. The small, 6″ sub is worth two meals, not one.

With the sandwiches’ calorie-heavy dressings and meats, the average Subway isn’t particularly as healthy and “weight controlling” as the company’s marketing would have you believe.

Salads are normally a healthy option, but not if you eat a huge salad with lots of cheese, meats, dressing and croutons. Mega salads at some restaurants would amount to a day’s volume of food.

Some salad junkies complain their diet didn’t work. But, it wasn’t the diet that failed. It was the volume of food, time of day, and the ill-advised items included on the salad.

But I Have A Job And No Time For Cooking And Stuff

Well, fret not. Here’s a great idea for working people.

Cook your meals twice a week on Sundays and Wednesdays. Puts meats, salads, fruit, whatever, into Tupperware containers and brings them to work so you always have something good to eat.

This way you’ll automatically avoid buying fast food when the hunger pangs set in.

If you absolutely cannot cook, buy a weeks’ worth of healthy, frozen meals, and put them in the office refrigerator. Eat only one frozen meal each day.

Yes, it’s absolutely okay to eat out sometimes, if you stick with eating very small portions and take home the rest. Here’s a list of foods that are NOT fattening.

Never order appetizers plus a meal, and almost always split a normal restaurant entrée, which saves money and is more appropriately-sized. (Most restaurant meals are double or triple the amount you should be eating.)

A Bonus Guideline – Never Eat Past Seven

It has been observed in studies that eating food late in the evening causes us to put on the extra pounds.

The body’s metabolism slows down during the night and going to bed with food in your stomach only ends up with extra pounds on your body. Naturally, if you work nights, you’ll need to adjust to avoid eating three to four hours prior to sleeping.

This may be one of the most difficult things to follow, as the small bowl of ice cream, soft drink, or nightcap sounds so good to finish off the evening.

Plus, it’s way too easy to justify ourselves here. We might think, “I’m only eating some ice-cream”, or something else “healthy”.

But asking yourself, am I stuffing myself with food… just to fuel my body, or it is for something else, perhaps feeding an emotional issue?

In the end, we feel worse, because we don’t look as good as we’d like to, we feel heavy, we are less active than we’d like, we are out of shape, and our health deteriorates.

We simply cannot make progress if we eat late in the evening. In fact, eating after seven o’clock reverses the gains we made earlier in the day by eating well and exercising.

Learn to like going to bed hungry.

Again, for emphasis, learn to like going to bed hungry.

Learn to feel good about what you’re doing. It might sound cruel to some, but think of those uncomfortable pangs of hunger as positive reactions to your shrinking stomach. The hunger pangs are your stomach’s walls collapsing onto each other. Over time, your stomach itself will shrink.

A smaller stomach enables you to feel full faster and losing weight is easier with a smaller stomach. Accept the slight hunger pains as a simple discomfort.

If you think you are truly famished, address your hunger during the day time. Drinking water often (not juice, soda pop, or anything with sweeteners), helps quell the hunger pains.

Keep a glass of water at your bedside. Many a times, simply a good helping of plain water is all you need.

If you MUST have something to eat after seven o’clock while you are shrinking the size of your stomach, allow yourself to eat one handful (one handful!) of baby carrots, cauliflower, or celery (not all three, choose one).

The baby carrots, cauliflower or celery help reduce the hunger pains without adding many calories.

Not eating after sunset, it’s a battle your brain and stomach must wage. Make the issue less about how you feel, and more about what you know to be better for your body.

Every morning, apart from having a sumptuous breakfast, when you wake up, say this phrase three times, “I’m glad I went to bed a little hungry last night”. Even if you blew it the day before, say it anyway. The repetition helps you remember the coming night to achieve the goal of going to bed a little hungry.

Conclusion & Take Away

Losing unwanted weight is all about small actions multiplied by numerous days.

Learn to say, “No thank you”. Practice saying it in different ways in front of the mirror. Ask your spouse, partner to help you think of creative ways like; “I’m not hungry”, “I’ve had dinner already, thanks”, “I’m already full, thanks anyway”.

It’s your body, and if you have a weight problem, NO ONE is going to help you overcome it.

You must do it yourself.