This year, I’m resolving to get that habit back. Exercise is one of the simplest ways you can improve your health and fitness level. Walking, running, all those activities were easier when I was maintaining an active lifestyle.

One way I’m going to accomplish my goals is to begin using my Home Management Tips Calorie and Food Log Spreadsheet again. I didn’t use it much in 2008, but now that I’m gearing up to lose more weight, I know it will give me the motivation and accountability I need to keep me on track in 2009. My Simply Daily Food Log can also keep up with a daily calorie count, but I want to be able to watch my progress on pretty charts and graphs.

This year, I’ve also convinced my husband to try losing some weight with me. What helped me convince him to participate? John Tesh does a radio program called Intelligence for Your Life. On one particular night Tesh was discussing how to be successful at keeping your New Year’s Resolutions going. He mentioned that losing weight with a partner made you much more likely to succeed. We were both listening to that program that night, so when I wanted to convince my husband to participate in my efforts to lose some weight, I told him I really needed his help and we would both be more likely to stick to it if we did it together. He agreed. I don’t know how much John Tesh had to do with it, but I sure don’t think it hurt anything to have someone backing me up.

What about you? Do you want to lose weight or become more active? What have you resolved to do this year that will have the biggest impact on your health?

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Resolve to be healthy this year

My weight-loss story

Successful weight loss is difficult to achieve, but far from impossible. Over a period of 18 weeks I lost 20 pounds. My secret?

I counted calories for 18 weeks. Truthfully, as I learned better eating habits, counting became something I do only when I’m concerned that I might have eaten too many calories on a particular day.

My family looked at me strangely (and some laughed) when I pulled out the measuring cups, even at my in-laws’ home, but this is one of the big secrets that helped me lose twenty pounds.

I can blame my weight gain on the usual suspects. I’d never had weight trouble until I had children. Pregnancy and then nursing kicked my appetite into the nether reaches of space. After my second child, the weight didn’t come off, and I carried around 30 extra pounds for a few years. Then I added another 10 to that over the next 4 years.

Then one day I woke up and knew that if I didn’t lose weight now, I might never lose weight. I still don’t know what exactly made a difference this time but I could feel the change in me. I still feel it today.

I have 20 more pounds to lose, but I see it coming off at a slow and steady pace. And because of this, I know it will stay off. My eating habits have changed. I don’t need as much food to feel full, and I don’t crave “the bad stuff” nearly as often as I used to.

—Lynn, homemanagementtips.com executive editor

My tips for successful weight loss

1. Count calories

Yes, it’s restrictive and time consuming, but if losing weight is a serious goal, it’ll take some serious commitment. Keep a food diary. I use a spreadsheet to track my progress. I also recommend FitDay. I’ve used the program (the online version) and it is excellent. I only wish I had found it when I was actively working to lose weight.

You can download a copy of my simple daily food log and calorie counting spreadsheet.

If you’re ready for something a little more robust, check out my low-cost Calorie and Food Log, which tracks your foods, your calories and your weight. I even have charts built in so you can get inspiration from a quick overview of how you’re doing.

2. Measure, measure, measure

Until you see with your own eyes just how much food you’re eating, you’ll never understand why you’ve gained weight. I used to think I didn’t eat that much more than I had before I put on my extra pounds. Measuring my food and drink helped me see that I was wrong. And doubly important, when you start putting calorie counts with visible, recognizable portion sizes, you look at food in a whole new light. Related article >

3. Never give up

There’s never a day where you can say “I’ve messed up, so I guess I’ll have to try again
tomorrow.” Try again today. Now. I’ve stopped myself halfway through a cookie before. Don’t feel guilty for throwing the rest away. Your stomach isn’t a garbage disposal, so why should you treat it that way? Besides, who are you really helping when you “finish your plate”? Certainly not yourself.

4. Until you get past the sugar cravings, keep a low calorie, sweet snack on hand

My choices? Fudge bars at 110 calories each, and orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream bars at 90 calories each.

Finally, if you have extra weight on you that you want to lose, start losing today. Every day that you continue with bad eating habits makes them that much harder to change.

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Weight Loss

Counting calories is the simplest and most reliable way to lose weight. If you count accurately and stick to the calorie level your body needs to lose weight, you will drop pounds.

Unfortunately, one calorie will not fill your stomach as quickly as another. The single most important factor when losing weight is to keep your stomach full. If you can do that, you’ll have a highly increased chance of being successful at weight loss and at weight management.

I learned the this common sense principle on my own. Eat more food, but eat fewer calories. Since then, I’ve come across several books that support this idea and give good advice about how to use it to lose weight. Each calls it by a different name, but in the end, it’s all the same principle.

Eat more food, eat fewer calories

When I began counting calories, the first thing that caught my attention was how often my little daily splurges cost me BIG calories. Also of note was how I began substituting lower calorie items for those splurges and how much more food I was able to eat during a day as a result.

Examples of ways to cut calories and eat more food

Little Debbie™ snack cake = over 200 calories

OR

Apple @ approx. 100 calories + Kiwi @ 46 calories + 1/2 Cup of Light Peaches @ 50 calories = approx. 196 calories

3 Musketeers candybar (advertised as “45% less fat”) = 260 calories

OR

Grapefruit @ 64 calories + 2 Pineapple Slices @ 60 calories + 1 Cup of Grapes @ 100 calories = 224 calories

For LESS calories you get to eat a LOT MORE food and you get a lot more nutrition too.

Recommended books to help you eat more and cut calories

The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan : Feel Full on Fewer Calories

Volumetrics discusses many ideas that match the same principles I’ve learned on my own weight-loss journey. I picked up the book for the menu plan, because I wanted to incorporate more variety into my diet. I had found, as I’m sure many people do, that I relied on too many of the same foods day after day to meet my calorie needs.

I recommend the book, because it explains in detail the reasons why satiety is so important when trying to lose weight or to maintain a weight. The menu plan is sensible and easy to follow or substitute.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Barbara Rolls, Robert A. Barnett
Trade Paperback
336 pages
Harper Paperbacks
December 31, 2002
ISBN No. 978-0060932725, 0060932724

Barbara Rolls, PhD, and co-author Robert Barnett present Volumetrics, a long-term, sensible approach to weight loss based on the breakthrough concept that you can feel full while eating fewer calories.

Dieters everywhere have the same complaint: they’re hungry all the time. Now this revolutionary book, based on sound scientific principles, can help you lose weight safely, effectively, and permanently without those gnawing pangs of hunger.

With Volumetrics, leading nutritionist Barbara Rolls, PhD, has devised a plan to give people what they’ve always wanted: a way to lose weight while still feeling full and satisfied. By concentrating on energy density (the amount of calories in a given volume of food) and its relation to feeling replete, Rolls and co-author Bob Barnett guide the reader towards a more rewarding and manageable lifetime approach to eating – one that doesn’t include deprivation. Unlike many fad diets, their ideas are based on a solid body of scientific research, revealing the many factors that determine how much we eat, and hence how much weight we gain. From this research, Rolls and Barnett have created a clear program with tasty recipes, menus, and eating recommendations that can help anyone lose weight safely and effectively.

The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan introduces the concept of “energy density” — concentration of calories in each portion of food. Here you’ll learn how to avoid high energy — dense foods, and how such different nutritional factors as fat, fiber, protein, and water affect energy density and satiety. You’ll discover which foods, eaten under which circumstances, allow you to consume fewer calories and still be satisfied. And you’ll get to know the hidden calorie traps, seemingly innocuous foods that can sneak unwanted calories into your body. Finally, the authors offer 60 sensible, tasty and easy recipes, plus an integrated program of exercise and behavior management that can be sustained over a lifetime.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., professor and Guthrie Chair of Nutrition at Penn State, is past president of the Obesity Society and has served on the advisory council of the National Institutes of Health’s Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. She is the author of Volumetrics, three professional books on food and nutrition, and numerous academic articles.

She holds the endowed Guthrie Chair of Nutrition at Penn State, has been president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity and the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, and has served on the advisory council of the National Institutes of Health’s Institute of Diabetes and Digestion and Kidney Diseases. She is the author of three professional books on food and nutrition and more than 170 academic articles.

Coauthor Robert A. Barnett is an award-winning journalist who specializes in food and nutrition. He is the author of Tonics (HarperPerennial, 1997), coauthor of The Guilt-Free Comfort Food Cookbook (Thomas Nelson, 1996), and editor of The American Health Food Book (Dutton, 1991).

The Flavor Point Diet : The Delicious, Breakthrough Plan to Turn Off Your Hunger and Lose the Weight for Good

Update: I bought a copy of this book when my library was having its annual book sale. Again, I liked the menu plan. After reading The Flavor Point Diet, I have no problem recommending it to a friend—in fact, I’ve already recommended it to several.

Let me say right off that I haven’t tried the Flavor Point diet, nor read the book. I saw the author do an interview with CNN, and as he discussed the high points of his approach with this diet, I saw a few correlations with things I’ve learned on my own.

If The Flavor Point Diet includes planned meals that are healthy and nutritious, it’s bound to allow you to eat fewer calories and feel fuller. But then again, any good diet should do the same. Because the big secret to losing weight is to learn how to eat smarter and healthier, and to learn how to make better choices.

David L. Katz, Catherine S. Katz
Hardcover
304 pages
Rodale Books
December 2005
ISBN No. 1594861625

FROM THE PUBLISHER

What if there were a weight-loss diet that allowed you to eat your favorite foods and be completely satisfied, without ever counting calories or restricting food groups again? What if this diet was supported by scientific research from the prestigious Yale Prevention Research Center and was clinically proven to help you shed excess pounds quickly and safely, improve your blood sugar, lower your blood pressure, and reverse other key markers of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease?

That diet is here! From Dr. David Katz, acclaimed director of Yale’s Prevention Research Center, ABC News’ chief medical correspondent and O Magazine’s nutrition columnist, comes THE FLAVOR POINT DIET, a mouthwatering, groundbreaking diet drawn from cutting-edge science that maximizes your eating pleasure, optimizes your health, and guarantees permanent weight loss. By combining foods selected by flavor, this research-based breakthrough method tricks your brain into being satisfied all day long, so you don’t eat when you don’t need to. Following “flavor themes” by week, day, meal and dish, you’ll learn to reach the Flavor Point—the moment at which you feel completely full and deliciously satisfied—sooner, so you can shed pounds faster! Just follow the delectable step-by-step menu plan and you’ll lose up to 32 lbs in 12 weeks.

Boasting 12 weeks of menu plans, over 150 new recipes, and testimonials (with before and after photos) from Dr. Katz’s clinical studies, the book also offers substitution lists, helpful tools, dozens of tips on how to adapt the plan to fit each reader’s personal tastes and lifestyles, and a complete blueprint for using the scrumptious new method for life. Plus,there’s no need to prepare alternate meals for the rest of the family—it’s nutritionally healthy for all, even for kids!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

David L. Katz, MD, MPH, is one of the nation’s foremost authorities on nutrition, weight control, and the prevention of chronic disease. He is co-founder and director of Yale’s Prevention Research Center, medical correspondent for ABC News, nutrition columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine, and the author of a syndicated health/nutrition column for the New York Times. He lives with his wife, Catherine, and their five children, in Connecticut.

Catherine S. Katz, PhD, is a neuroscientist by training, and has made significant scientific contributions to the area of olfaction and its link to memory and learning. She is also an expert cook whose culinary talents have been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine; Child Magazine; Men’s Health; Women’s Health & Fitness; and several books.

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The Big Diet Secret