5 Simple Ways to Stay Slim

By Rachel Johnson, Ph.D, M.P.H., R.D., "Five Small Steps," April/May 2006

Daily decisions that make healthy changes stick.

READER'S COMMENT:

"We count our calories, we count our fitness minutes, why not the numbers on the scale? We have to be accountable for maintaining our weight...there's no feeling sad about it...an 8 pound weight gain from not looking at the scale for 10...

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3. Don’t waste calories on bad food

Think about what you are eating. I was on an early-morning flight to Chicago not long ago and was served a croissant breakfast sandwich. Knowing it was loaded with calories, my first thought was to just eat half. I took a bite. The croissant was greasy and tough, the egg was tasteless and the ham was still frozen. Yuck. I decided to eat the honeydew and cantaloupe and skip the sandwich. I saved the tasteless calories for something more enjoyable later. Turned out that night I had a fabulous meal in a great restaurant and knew I could indulge a bit because of the choice I made earlier in the day.

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