The Negative Calorie Diet: Day 8

Weigh yourself before you eat anything! If you stuck to the program and didn’t cheat, you really lost some weight! Now the hardest part… maintaining your success! So, I really want you to think about what you’re gonna have for breakfast. Instead of hash browns, try some cantaloupe.

The trick here is to start slowly changing your eating habits. Tip: Once you’re off The Negative Calorie Diet, try to maintain a daily intake of 60 to 70% Negative Calorie foods of the total amount of foods you eat.

This is where the majority of dieters fail. After they do a terrific job of sticking to a diet, they resort back to their original eating habits. If you do this, it’s only a matter of time until you put the weight back on. This is the “yo-yo” effect you always hear so much about.

If you want to maintain your new found weight, you’ve got to start re-programming yourself into new, healthier eating habits. Think before you eat. If you must have a burger at the local fast food establishment, order it without mayonnaise. Use more mustard instead of mayonnaise and ketchup. Get a smaller burger and ask for extra lettuce, tomato, and onions. See how it works?

You’’re in charge now! Instead of that ice cold soda, have a glass of ice-tea or fruit juice. Instead of cookies and ice cream, try strawberries and bananas. Be creative! You’ve got more than a hundred foods to choose from.

When you dine out, try to stick more to Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian restaurants. They use a lot of Negative Calorie foods in their dishes. If you watch yourself, even Italian and Mexican food restaurants can keep you in the Negative Calorie mode.

Prepare plenty of raw vegetables from the list as snacks to keep you going. It takes a little work, but if you can keep your supply maintained and available, you’ll have a much better chance of keeping the weight off. Most people are simply not prepared. Most of us really don’t mind eating healthy. It makes us feel good. We know we’ve done something wonderful for our body. The problem is our schedules. We make time for appointments, we make time for each other, we make time for everything. Everything but eating right that is.

Pick your day of the week to maintain your new found weight by making that day your food preparation day. Cut up your fruit and vegetables, seal them up and toss ‘em into the fridge. Prepare enough for the whole week. Figure out how much you’ll need for each day and get to slicing and dicing!

Use non-stick pots and pans to prepare food that you used to fry. For instance, I love fried potatoes as part of my breakfast routine, but one day, I tried frying my potatoes without any kind of oil, butter, or margarine. I cut up my potatoes, threw ‘em in the frying pan, and after they were a little warm, started adding some water. For seasoning, I added Italian seasoning, garlic and onion powder. They almost came out like regular fried potatoes! In fact, I think they were better.

You’re limited only by your imagination. Try frying vegetables from the list in a mixture of water and beef or chicken broth. They’re great! Steaming vegetables is a great alternative to boiling and frying. Buy a wok!

Instead of salad dressing, keep using apple cider vinegar. You can also mix some nonfat yogurt with some water and apple cider vinegar and your favorite seasonings. This makes excellent vegetable dip and salad dressing.

When you bake a cake or brownies, add applesauce instead of oil. It really works! When you prepare spaghetti, forget adding hamburger, sausages, etc. Add black olives and mushrooms instead of meat. If you’re like me and have to have garlic bread with your pasta, use sourdough bread instead. Mix a very little bit of olive oil instead of butter or margarine with a few fresh cloves of garlic and bread!

The point is to start really looking at your foods before you eat them. A lot of the foods we eat aren’t really that fattening. It’s the way we cook them! Throw your cooking oil away! Get some extra virgin olive oil and use it sparingly. Honest, you don’t need much.

I really love to make my own french fries. I like to cut extra large wedges and fry ‘em up. One day, I decided to take my medium size non-stick pot and throw my wedges in without oil. I turned the heat up to medium and added salt, pepper, and my favorite, Italian seasoning. No oil! In about 15 to 20 minutes, they had browned very nicely. I pulled them out. Kind of a cross between regular french fries and a baked potato. It was great! Try it! Be creative!

Start making the change slowly. Figure out little ways to cut the excess fat and calories out of your eating habits. Start by cutting everything you do in half. For instance, cut your usual fast food intake in half. If you usually have a burger twice a week, now have it only once.

If you’re used to drinking two sodas a day, cut it down to one. If you eat candy, cut that in half. If you must fry some potatoes, cut your usual oil amount in half. Instead of a bowl of ice cream, half a bowl.

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