Budget: Weight Management

Aren't you tired of the word "diet"? When most people hear the word diet they psychologically freeze up; it becomes a job. For many people dieting equals denial. For the next 3 weeks why not try my simple method to "BUDGET" your food intake while still enjoying eating. This method has been successful for me as well as my clients to manage and maintain a healthy weight. The idea is to have a weekly budget for your food as you would for your finances. We have so many different eating habits and cravings that have been developed over the years that for most of us it becomes impossible to change them all at once. However if you have a weekly budget you can maintain your BUDGET much easier than trying to stick to a very rigid daily diet. For example you can splurge with a night on the town with your friends as long as you remember to balance your BUDGET for the rest of the week. This means you need to take off some of the extra eating for the following day or two to make up for your big night out. Remember an extra 3500 calories = an additional one pound on your scale. Seeing is believing. How about logging your food intake for one week. No cheating, this log belongs only to you to get a handle on your habits. The best way to log is to record your eating times as well as portion size. By reading your log only at the end of each day you will be able to get a better "mental picture" of your eating habits. At the end of each night take a red pen and underline ONLY your bad choices or areas of needed improvement for that day. Keep a running weekly total of your "red lines". The idea is to reduce the number of red lines each week so that you're continually making progress and tightening up your BUDGET. Remember, this is not another "fad diet" or an additional "job", it’s simply a way of getting you on track to a more healthy lifestyle.