Try Trading This For That...

To satisfy a sweet tooth, trade that slice of hot apple pie for a steamy skim latte dusted with apple-pie spice. Calorie savings: 200

Stave off winter’s chill with a third of the calories—and 4 times more filling fiber—by replacing your standby cup of creamy New England clam chowder with hearty minestrone. Calorie savings: 180

For a satisfying on-the-go breakfast, grab a bowl of piping hot oatmeal with almonds instead of a sausage, egg, and cheese on a bagel. Calorie savings: 335

4 Easy Ways to Keep Your Waistline in Check Over The Holidays

1. Pencil in physical activity. Treat exercise as you would any other important event—a party, a business meeting, a date—and write it on your calendar. And this doesn’t mean you need to make a trip to the gym. If you’ve nixed the trainer and gym membership to save your pennies, go outside and walk or run for 20 to 30 minutes; before your morning shower is a great time to do this. Think about what you want to wear, eat, and accomplish that day. You’ll start your days with a renewed sense of purpose and empowerment that will help keep you on track.
2. Plan your meals ahead. Doing so is a great want to control cost and calories. Do you have leftovers from a healthy dinner you made? Bring them for lunch. Or grab staples like yogurt, oatmeal, cottage cheese, and fresh fruit from your fridge and pantry and bring them to work for breakfast and a snack. Not only will you eat healthier and save money, but you’ll feel prepared to turn down office fare like donuts and bagels at breakfast, the never-ending spread of mystery sandwiches for lunch, and those ubiquitous holidays gifts of chocolate, cookies, and cupcakes that seems to arrive at the same time daily. And if the 1:00 lunch meeting is absolutely unavoidable, peruse the restaurant’s menu ahead of time and arrive knowing what you want to order.
3. Don’t arrive hungry… to holiday dinners and parties, that is. Many people forgo food before an event to save up calories, but being ravenous upon arrival makes it that much easier to binge and that much harder to select healthier options in the face of temptation. And we’re all familiar with the allure of those mini quiches, tuna tartars, bite-size burgers, bacon-wrapped scallops… Need I go on? Make it a point to have a healthy (and satisfying) snack before heading to the bar or party. My favorites include a Luna or Gnu bar, or two fiber-rich crackers with a wedge of Laughing Cow Light cheese. And don’t forget: Ladies, wear something fitted like a little black dress and gentlemen, buckle your belts one notch tighter—the more aware you are of your body, the less you’ll eat.
4. Celebrate with limits. It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of the holidays, but set boundaries for yourself when it comes to the never-ending supply of canapés and alcohol. For each hors d’oeuvres you grab, take a napkin and aim not to exceed four. As for alcohol, I am not about to advise you abstain entirely. That’s simply not realistic. However, make it your modus operandi to alternate your elixir of choice with a glass of water or seltzer with a lime. Not only will you save calories (and money if it’s not an open bar), but you’ll also maintain control over what you eat.

Goodbye Summer; Hello Skinny

Did you have a shocking morning? Did you try to zip up those back-to-work pants and find that a gruesome little bulge followed you home from vacation along with the sand in your shoes? There’s something about summer.... the margaritas, the lobster with drawn butter, the caftans. It’s all too easy to find that the relaxed days and long evenings encourage a bit less self-discipline. Some people can put on as much as ten pounds between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Really!

But don’t despair. My team of dietitians at Nu-Train and my book, The Wall Street Diet, can help you get back on track and into your skinny-jeans by Columbus Day.

Here’s what you have going in your favor: there’s a snap in the air and you’re more stimulated and focused. It’s back to business! So start your fall strong and get into your best shape ever. Here’s how: Take a look at your routine and your diet and see where you could use some improvement. Some quick tips are below:

Get back to Phase Eating
Phase Eating is a tip that I explain in detail in The Wall Street Diet (on page 30). Phase Eaters eat the same thing for breakfast and/or lunch for weeks on end. Why? Because for many people variety can prompt overeating. If a meal is simple and automatic - say yogurt and fruit or an egg-white omelet every day for breakfast; a chicken Caesar salad with light dressing for lunch - you won’t be tempted to overindulge. Phase Eating can work at dinner too when you can find a couple of frozen dinner entrees that you enjoy. When you get home after a long day of work, you can pop something into the micro and be enjoying your meal before you even have a chance to consider dialing out for Chinese or pasta. Phase Eating can help you shift your focus from food to family, work and activities and it’s a great technique for shedding excess summer weight.

Limit Alcohol
Many people drink more in the summer and they often drink more highly-caloric frozen type drinks. Many of my clients have had great success when they’ve skipped their alcohol, or limited themselves to one drink, when they’re trying to get back in shape after summer. Just skipping two glasses of wine daily can add up to 5.76 pounds lost in three months. Most people can do this without difficulty. Skipping alcohol can also help you boost energy levels and increase your focus and productivity at work. (For more detailed tips on skipping alcohol, see The Wall Street Diet, page 135.)

Change Up Your Exercise Routine
Have you been playing tennis? Jogging on the beach? Riding your bike? The change in weather could mean that these activities will no longer appeal. Or perhaps you’ve been going to the same exercise class at the gym for the past year. Or maybe you haven’t been exercising at all. Fall is a good time to re-assess your exercise goals. Maybe a session with a personal trainer or finding an exercise buddy or perhaps joining a gym for the first time will be the motivation you need to keep active into the winter months.

Streamline Your Fall Wardrobe
Nothing makes y ou feel better and more in control than looking good. Adding a few pieces to your fall wardrobe is a great way to reinforce your weight loss goals. But remember, wearing form-fitting clothes help to keep eating in check. Ban the leggings and loose dresses and look for things that hug your body. My clients frequently tell me that this tip is extremely helpful: when they’re well dressed in form-fitting clothes that flatter them, they’re much less likely to fall prey to the kind of mindless eating that can sneak on the pounds.

Lazy Summer Diet Tips

Summertime and the dieting is lazy! That's right. The hot, humid days of mid-summer encourage us to take the easy route. And if you think dieting always has to be a challenge, you'll be happy to learn some of my favorite lazy dieting tips which will help you cut calories effortlessly. These simple suggestions can turn mindless eating into mindless losing. Adopt just a few of them and by the time you're ready for your fall wardrobe, you'll be that much closer to your goal weight.

Most of us eat too fast and our brain doesn't have time to register that we're full. So we keep eating! A simple trick to break out of this pattern is to put your knife and fork own three times during a meal. Stop. Take a breath. Join the conversation. You'll eat slower and you'll consume less.

Drink water with your meals. If you're eating in a restaurant, have the goal of three fill-ups in the course of the meal. If you're sipping water, you're not eating; You're getting closer to your daily water intake goal (see The Wall Street Diet, page 38 for tips on water drinking) and you're filling up on non-cal fluids rather than more fattening things.

Order two appetizers for dinner. This is a great, lazy way to a healthy, low-cal dinner. Skip the heavy entrees and go for two light, tasty appetizers instead. You'll cut calories and you'll keep pace with other diners who might be having an appetizer plus an entree. See The Wall Street Diet, page 129, for some recommended appetizer choices. A couple of good bets include fresh gazpacho, shrimp cocktail, caprese salad (mozzarella and tomato) or steamed mussels in white wine and garlic.

Wear fitted clothes. This is a great mindless way to keep your eating goals at the top of your 'to-do' list. Nothing says "eat light" like a pair of snug pants and/or a belt. It's a constant reminder that you don't ever want to feel stuffed and that eating light feels right.

Kill your cravings. If you're going out to eat or expect to have a nice dinner at home but you're hungry enough to eat a buffalo, put a lid on your appetite with a pre-dinner nibble. Many of my clients do this routinely and swear it's a lifesaver. Have two Fiber Rich crackers and a large drink of water about an hour or so before dinner. You'll be master of the menu as you order healthy selections and push the bread away.

Pop a breath strip. The taste of peppermint, or any mint, kills appetite. So enjoy a breath strip at any time during the day when you want to avoid a snack. If you're headed to an office birthday party, trying to fight late-night cravings or facing a breakfast buffet that's
a carb carnival, a breath strip can put the brakes on your mindless indulgence.

That was easy, right? Reaching your goal weight can be as simple as adopting some simple strategies that help keep you on track. You can find a host of these strategies in The Wall Street Diet.

How to Turn Snacks Into Your Secret Diet Weapon

Let's face it: the pothole in every dieter's road to success is hunger. We don't eat just because something tastes good: we eat because we're totally starving! That is why I want to convert you to the Wall Street Diet approach to snacks. Strategic snacking is one of the most effective weapons you have against a poor food choice or (shudder!) a binge. When you keep your hunger in check with an appropriate snack, you're making it much easier to stick to your healthy food choices. But there's a key word here - strategic. If you snack mindlessly (and sometimes stress or fatigue can promote mindless snacking) you'll be adding extra calories to your daily intake without accomplishing your goal of minimizing hunger.

Here are my top Strategic Snacking Tips (you'll find many more in my book, The Wall Street Diet).

Know yourself. Some of my clients have told me that strategic snacking has enabled them to lose weight that they've never been able to lose before. But other clients learn that they don't need snacks at all. How do you tell? It's simple: try going from lunch to dinner without a snack. If you find that you are able to make good choices at dinner and that you're not utterly starving, you probably don't need a snack. If, on the other hand, you're desperate to eat just about anything by the time 5pm rolls around, you are a good candidate for a mid-afternoon snack. I've got lots more details on how to figure out your eating style in The Wall Street Diet (pages 19 - 44). In general, most people who feel they need a snack do well to have a single mid-afternoon snack. People who require more calories because of size or activity level might also choose a mid-morning snack and/or an evening snack. Again, the key is to know yourself and limit your snacking to what's useful and strategic in helping you reach your goals.

Meet the Snacks. OK, so you know you really need a snack to help keep you on track. What do you choose? I have lots of snack recommendations in The Wall Street Diet but here's a condensed version:

If you need a mid-morning snack: Choose a light snack of no more than 80 calories. This might be an apple. 6 ounces of Dannon Light & Fit yogurt, one Laughing Cow Light cheese and a Fiber Rich cracker.

If you need an afternoon snack: The Wall Street Diet (pages 311 -312) includes a complete list of recommended afternoon snacks. They are all up to 200 calories. A few good choices include: a Larabar, a Luna bar, a Nature Valley Granola bar, a 1.3 oz bag of Glenny's Soy Crisps.

If you need an evening snack: An evening snack should be less than 80 calories and it should be eaten right after dinner. A few good choices include Tofutti pops, Edy's Fruit Bars, a frozen Dannon Light & Fit yogurt.

Watch your Weekends. Weekends can be a tough time to diet. You're off schedule. You're socializing and spending time with friends and family. Snacks can play a big role in helping your stick to your eating goals. I suggest you keep lots of healthy snacks on hand for weekends. It's better to over-indulge in a healthy snack than to lose control at a brunch buffet! Some good choices include all the snacks mentioned above a well as low-sodium V-8 juice with lemon over ice, sugar free hot chocolate, cut up cucumber or peppers, soy crisps and herbal teas. For more tips on weekend snacking, see The Wall Street Diet (pages 190-191).

Don't be a health-snack-nut. Have you noticed all those portion-controlled healthy snacks that fill the supermarket aisles these days? What could be wrong with a whole-grain, organic snack? Well, first there are the calories...Even portion controlled snacks can pile on calories. Many of my clients tell me that they find it impossible to stop at one little snack! Moreover, for many dieters, the practice is worse than the calories. Once you get accustomed to downing a nibble here and a bite there it can be a hard habit to break. So limit your snacks to my Wall Street Diet recommended choices and enjoy them strategically, not mindlessly!

Travel Light:How to Turn Your Next Business Trip Into a Spa Trip

Here’s a fresh idea that can change your whole approach to travel. Many of my clients swear by this strategy. Think of your trip – whether for business or pleasure, for two days or a week – as a spa trip. You’ll be away from the usual distractions of your home and family life and it’s your opportunity to focus on…. You! Begin with your flight. A few of my clients use air travel as a ‘cleanse’. They request only hot water and lemon to drink and they fast (unless the flight is quite long). They arrive at their destinations refreshed and light. In fact, an interesting recent study from Harvard researchers published in Science reveals that skipping food in the air may help beat jet lag. It seems the body has a ‘feeding’ clock in the brain and skipping food prompts you to stay awake until you can eat. So what could be better: more alert and more slim! I have lots of details on how to turn an ordinary trip into a Spa Trip. See pages 160 – 165 of The Wall Street Diet.

Travel Light: Eating Well While Enroute

It’s not hard to eat well en route no matter what the sky demons throw at you. Consider the time of day that you’ll be traveling as well as the duration of your flight.

Breakfast. If you’re grabbing an early morning flight, you need to be prepared for a terminal breakfast. I have lots of very specific tips in the The Wall Street Diet on how to find an excellent breakfast at the airport (see pages150-151) even if nothing but Hudson News is open. Here’s my famous “One-Stop Breakfast”: Dash into Starbucks or any coffee shop for a venti skim latte. Yes, it really is half of a healthy breakfast. It’s a shot of espresso along with roughly 9 ounces of milk that will cost you about 200 calories. The second stop is a piece of fruit. Grab a banana or any other fruit. There. You’re done! And you won’t be sitting at the gate or on the tarmac, starving!

Lunch and dinner are really nutrition twins when it comes to travel. The two top choices are a sandwich (choose a turkey on whole wheat with mustard and lettuce) or a chicken Caesar salad with a light balsamic vinaigrette dressing. You can find these at most any airport. Starbucks, which is everywhere, make a good stop because they list the calories on their packaged sandwiches. (In The Wall Street Diet you’ll find detailed airport-by-airport “cheat sheets” on where to eat at most major airports in the world. See pages 261-303.)

Snacks. Don’t forget snacks. They’re lifesavers for when you’re stalled on the tarmac or delayed in the terminal. I have a full list of recommended snacks in The Wall Street Diet. (See pages 153-155.) Excellent snacks include cut up veggies or a piece of fruit or Crispy Delite fruit or Nature Valley Fruit Crisps. An energy bar such as Luna toasted nuts and cranberry, Balance honey yogurt or Kashi TLC granola bar make good choices. Good protein choices include Justin’s nut butter and 2 Fiber Rich crackers or 2 mini Babybel Light or Laughing Cow Light and 2 Fiber Rich crackers.