When someone tell you that they can’t lose weight, you can ask, “What do you think you’re doing wrong?” Almost everyone can think of one aspect of their eating behaviour that’s keeping them from achieving their goal.

Let’s take the use of margarine as an example. Say you put a tablespoon of margarine (plus jam) on two slices of toast in the morning. That’s 180 calories’ worth of margarine. Then you use margarine for your turkey sandwich at lunch. That’s another 180 calories. At dinner you add a small dollop of margarine to your cooked vegetables or pasta. That’s 90 more calories. Eating those same foods without the margarine would save 450 calories for that day, which is the calorific equivalent to four miles (6.4km) of running! Margarine may not be your particular problem. It could be salad dressing, soft drinks or a particular snack food which you enjoy. Cutting out one of these can make a huge difference. ” – courtesy of my company’s staff welfare department.

The above is  what I’ve been going on and on about – eating right. Most will think that its going to be hard to follow whatever is stated above. But nobody meant for us to follow strictly what is recommended. The trick is to start somewhere, something small and less significant and then slowly work your way up the ladder. Its kind of like learning something new.

“We got to learn how to stand on our feet before we can start walking, let alone running.”

Here’s a tip of how I got myself started – somewhere.

What I had done was taking out the options of adding cheese on my sandwich or salads. I would also opt for less fattening salad dressings, such as balsamic vinegiratte instead of ceasar or thousand island. Though like I had mentioned before, toast bread with loads of butter was sooooo….tempting, I would try my very best to resist the temptation to eat the whole bun by breaking it into halves, and then giving the other half to somebody else who can afford to a little more carboh in them. I would then allow myself to only have half of that half-a-bun and spread as little butter as possible (coin size) on the bun.

It was hard of cos – initially – but after time, I had learned to pick up the habit of being aware of how I am eating. Soon enough it become clearer and much much easier. Seriously, it helps.

Salad without dressing.

“How can anyone eat that?” Yeap! Thats how I will do my salad these days. No salt. No cheese. I would use minimal olive oil, herbs, mustard, and lemon juice to create taste. I had read in Shape magazine, that having too much salt in your diet actually affects your weight (it increases your calorie input, in some ways), thus we are at a higher risk of developing heart related problems. The magazine suggested that we replace salt by adding basil leaves to our dishes, I was skeptical at first, but I tried anyway.

Almost immediately, I was impressed and amazed at how basil leaves alone could add so much taste to a dish without having to add any salt at all! It had then spun off a new hobby for me, to experiment with what ever herbs I could find in the kitchen, to replace the salt as seasoning and to add flavoour. It was a fulfilling and fruitful effort.

Frankly, I realised now, that in the lifestyle that we are in, we have undermined the brilliance and ability herbs can enhance our meals. We depend too much on processed stuff like salt or msg to make our food tasty. However, if you really must have, try to adjust and limit the amount of salt you put into your dishes, as much as only a small pinch (pea size).

Low fat yogurt or greek yogurt

You could also use low fat yogurt or even greek yogurt, if you REALLY must have some dressing of some sort. In fact, yogurt makes the salad even more appetising to eat. Besides, being lower in fat as compared to salad dressings, having yogurt in your meals actually adds on the benefits of increasing your calcium intake and improving your digestive system, because of the acidophillus and live cultures it contains. Its a 3 in 1 salad dressing replacement!!!