Diet And Fitness News You Need To Know

So there is a list of the Top 10 Most-Hated Foods in the US.  Of course there is.  Kitchen Daily did the dirty work.   Guess what's #1?  Brussel sprouts.  Try them roasted with balsamic vinegar.  You'll never look at them with disdain again.

Image via ThorPorre

As for the others hated food items:

• Garlic - LOVE the flavor.  The breath we're left with?  Not so much. 
• Cheese Fondue - not sure I've ever had it! 
• Tofu - again....huge fan.
• Celery - I love this veggie in all forms: raw, juices, with peanut butter on it. 
• Oysters - one of life's delicacies. 
• Mayonnaise - I hate it. 
• Mushrooms - one of my favorite things to eat. Grilled portobellos? Oh my. 
• Licorice - yep.  Gross
• Cilantro - I don't get the hatred for this fine herb.

Here's what else caught my eye in the diet and fitness world this week: 
Have you taken a break from exercise and are looking to get back into it?  If so, go slowly.  You can't expect to pick right back up where you left off.  Learn how to tackle exercise after a workout hiatus.

Change your attitude about exercise, change your weight.  Thinking of exercise as "playtime" can be an effective in helping you lose weight.  If you think of it as fun rather than a workout, you might be less likely to compensate your calorie expenditure with extra food.  Confused?  Read this. 

Are you vegan?  Gluten-free?  Not down with dairy?  Keeping kosher all the time?  Here's how to maintain your diet without coming off like a jerk.

How about 10 vices that are good for you?  Chocolate, booze and coffee....I'll take it.

How To Have A Healthy Cinco de Mayo

Tex-Mex doesn't have to be a fat-laden cholesterol bomb. In fact, I contend we have gotten out of control as to what counts as a quality Tex-Mex meal with too many chips to start and pounds of crappy cheese to glop on top of them.

At heart, Tex-Mex and Mexican food features beautiful produce, whole grains, healthy fats (hola, guacamole!) quality meats and a hint of cheese. Look at the lunch I had at Rosario's in San Antonio. It's has a rainbow of vegetables. Sure it's got a cheese-filled pepper but I didn't even touch that after filling up on the veggies. 

Restaurant diet tip: If you're eating Tex-Mex in a restaurant, ask for fresh corn tortillas with your salsa and guacamole. Tear your tortilla into four triangles and use that for your chips and salsa appetizer. You will eat slower and consume fewer empty calories. (Tweet this)

Healthy Tex-Mex At Home

You can make delicious and creative Tex-Mex dishes at home.  In honor of Cinco de Mayo, here are five outstanding Tex-Mex recipes, featuring simple ingredients, that will have you forgoing greasier offerings in no time:

• Chicken Enchilada Casserole - I have made this and received RAVE reviews from the family.
• Chicken with Avocado, Tomato and Cucumber Salsa - a wonderfully fresh option for summer.
• Double Bean Burritos - substitute a whole grain or spinach tortilla for flour tortilla.
• Chicken Chilaquiles - haven't tried this but it looks delicious!
• Veggie Tostadas - a gorgeous veggie-filled dish that will leave you satisfied and guilt-free.

ICYMI
It wouldn't be Cinco de Mayo without margaritas.  Here are 7 delicious margarita recipes that will satisfy any tequila craving.

I love this Nacho Casserole recipe from Mind Over Munch!

Get My Favorite Diet Tips
Eating corn tortillas in a Mexican restaurants is one of my favorite diet tips that helped me lose more than 50 pounds and keep them off for more than a decade. Get my free ebook, "The 10 Easiest Diet Tips: Simples Strategies To Help You Lose Weight & Maintain Your Weight Loss For Good". It's yours when you sign up for my weekly newsletter, The Real Skinny. Once a week (usually on a Wednesday) you will receive diet and fitness news (like this) aimed at helping you make fat your bitch. For good.

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How to Lose Weight Eating Chocolate

Dark chocolate is key!

Chocolate is wholeheartedly part of a healthful diet.  

Let's pause for a moment and do the happy, chocolate dance!

Okay, moving on.

According to a recent study in the journal Nutrition, individuals who ate about an ounce and a half of chocolate per day had a lower BMI, less body fat and had a trimmer waist than those who ate less. (Tweet this)

RELATED: The Best Diets of 2016

Study author Magdalena Cuenca Garcia says that the catechins in chocolate are believed to help regulate hormones related to obesity.  Catechin levels rise proportionately with cocoa content, meaning the darker the chocolate, the better. Milk chocolate contains added sugar, it's not good for you. That's candy and it's crap. Dark is the way to go.

Note that it is a small portion of chocolate, about an ounce and a half or a single square. A decadent, complex dark chocolate square is a substantial treat when savored.

The Chocolate Diet
I dropped about five pounds to prepare for a photo shoot while enjoying a square of dark chocolate every, single day. This "diet" included the Easter holiday on which I ate substantially more than a square...more like an acre. While I was in Paris, I joked that I ate the cheese, chocolate and wine diet. You know what? I lost weight. Four pounds to be exact.

Sample meal plan that helped me drop five pounds in seven days:

• Breakfast: two scrambled eggs with small sprinkling of cheese and four or five strawberries.
• Lunch: broth-based soup or a salad.  Sometimes I was on the run and simply had a Pure Protein bar with a tangerine. 
• Snack: handful of raw almonds with five apricots or an apple and peanut butter.
• Dinner: canned salmon with dijon mustard (I love this) with half an avocado and a cup f steamed broccoli or cauliflower.
• Dessert: one square (maybe 2) of dark chocolate. 

I worked out, generally, 30-60 minutes every day with a mix of aerobic exercise and weightlifting.

I never felt deprived or hungry.  In fact, I felt great because I wasn't overindulging or eating too much.  It was nice.

UPDATE, 2/2016: while my weight fluctuates 3-4 pounds every month, I have maintained that weight loss. Meaning, I am fitting into my skinny clothes. Yes, I still eat a dark square of chocolate (or two) almost every day.

Delicious Chocolate Treats To Try

World Market Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Bar

I recently fell in love with World Market's Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Bar.  At 64% cocoa, it's the perfect blend of sweet and salty that satisfies a craving. I also dig any combination of orange and dark chocolate like Lindt's Excellence Intense Orange Chocolate. Have you tried dark chocolate dipped orange peels? They're ridiculously good.

Dark chocolate-covered strawberries? That's a healthy indulgence home run! The strawberries deliver some filling fiber while the chocolate satisfies your sweet tooth. They also take a while to eat which means you will eat more slowly.

What dark chocolate treats do you love? Please share your favorites in the comments section.

RELATED: Learn The Secret To Losing Weight & Building Muscle At The Same Time

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A Closer Look at The Parisian Diet

Eat sumptuous food and lose weight? On The Parisian Diet you can do it.

La Duree

Parisian Diet mastermind Dr. Jean Michel-Cohen is a popular French nutrition expert. He released a cookbook Light French Recipes: A Parisian Diet Cookbook here in May.  There are three phases to the diet:

• The Cafe Phase - a kickstart, lasting 8-10 days which includes plenty of liquids
• The Bistro Phase - a 2-3 week period in which you consume fiber and protein-rich meals
• The Gourmet Phase - the longterm phase you maintain until you reach your ideal weight. 

The main tenets of his diet are simple:

• Quality, not quantity - meaning smaller portions of food.  No supersizing.
• Savor your food and avoid mindless eating.  A meal is a ritual in which to celebrate, not chow down at your desk.  I have a bad habit of doing this. 
• Don't deprive - skip a salad if you don't love it!  Instead eat a smaller portion of something you love rather than a large salad you'll hate consuming. 

It's somewhat along the lines of Mireille Guiliano's French Women Don't Get Fat.

I tend to lose weight when I visit France (and any other foreign country, for that matter).  But what's interesting when I visit France is that I indulge.  Granted, we usually walk about five or more miles a day but there isn't one bit of restraint.  We eat cheese, drink wine, eat desserts, macarons and sumptuous, multi-course meals.   Here's the thing: the portions are small and the ingredients are fresh.

Here is a typical Parisian vacation diet, in pictures.

Breakfast

I visited Eric Kayser every morning to pick up pastries. 

This was my daily breakfast which is a departure from my normal routine of a green smoothie, oatmeal or toast and peanut butter.  We would get four pastries: one for me, my husband, my daughter and one to share.  Notice how these aren't huge.

Lunch

Lunch at Ma Cocotte

This was a normal lunch.  We would usually also have salad and dessert....and a few more glasses of wine.

Dinner
The final meal of the day was either one of two things: a blowout dinner or not much at all.

Dinner at Maxim's

Dessert at Maxim's

Treating my daughter like a queen! 

We celebrated my birthday in 2013 at Maxim's at around 10pm one evening.  Sure it's touristy but it was a wonderful experience.

Crepes, cheese, champagne and fruit for dinner

On other nights, after having a large lunch we would eat a smaller dinner featuring what you see above.  The thing about dinners in Paris is that there is no late night snacking, something I struggle with at home.  Once the kitchen is closed, it's closed.  No more food after dinner.

The ubiquitous bottle of wine

We had wine at almost every meal.  Generally a bottle split between the two of us.

Oreos! Mon dieu!

Don't think the French are perfect.  Look what I found at the grocery store...processed food!

The Takeaway 
The Parisian Diet isn't a new concept.  It's one that most nutrition experts advocate: eat real food, smaller portions of it, be mindful when you eat and enjoy your food.

Whether in Paris or not, that's something most of us can do every day.

What foreign eating principles do you like? I love the Mediterranean approach to eating. Please share your favorite foreign diet concept in the comments section.

Buy the Books Mentioned in this Post:

Is Your Afternoon Snack Making You Fat?

Do you have that love/hate relationship with the vending machine?  I do.  I'll be starving at 3 or 4 and, if I don't prepare for a snack attack, will let the vending machine win.  Whether it be a bag of M&M's bar (I could a party size one, btw) or bag of chips, vending machines usually offer crap.

A recent British study (granted, done by a berry company), noted that 4:12pm is the time of day most Brits are likely to wreck their diets.  This isn't much of a shock at all.  If you eat a 250 calorie sugar-filled candy bar or 300 calorie bag of chips and throw on a 150 calorie soda with that, you're doing some diet damage

So you how do you fight back?  Preparation is key!

Bring snacks to work.  Think of it as your Desk Diet.  Here are some snacks, which hold up to sitting unrefrigerated on your desk or in a cooler in your car, that won't sabotage your diet:

• Apple and string cheese - one of my favorite snacks
• Five dried apricots and a quarter cup of raw almonds
• A slice of whole wheat bread or pita with natural peanut butter and raisins
• A serving size of all-natural crackers with a piece of string cheese 

I like bars.  They're easy and portable.  You can buy an entire box of bars and stash them in your desk.  It's an easy "set it and forget" way to fight the vending machine.

Here is a selection of some of my favorites that are all under 250 calories: 

Also drink a lot of water or herbal tea throughout the day (I LOVE Kusmi Tea).  Staying hydrating really does help you ward off hunger.

Healthy Tex-Mex at Home

I'm on a mission to change the way we approach eating Tex-Mex food.  Sure, you can still enjoy quesadillas, nachos and chimichangas.  Occasionally.  If Tex-Mex is a staple of your diet, think 3-4 times per week, make it your goal to eat the healthier options that are available.

Don't believe that's possible?  You're wrong.  Try an all-natural margarita.  You won't go back to the fake, corn syrup-laden nuclear green garbage or skinny slop.

Eating out?  Enjoy these delicious appetizers.  What about your entree?  Here are multitude of options to satisfy your craving.

Don't want to deal with the hassle of going out?  Try some of these great at-home recipes.


Prepare Your Pico

Image via Hajor

Have a bowl pico de gallo on hand.  It's easy to make and a wonderful accompaniment to any Tex-Mex dish or as a topping for your salad.  The simpler the recipe the better.  This one is great.

Nacho Casserole

Recently I made a wonderful Nacho Casserole from Mind Over Munch.  I swapped lean ground turkey for the ground beef and baked blue corn tortillas for original.  It was awesome, impressing my hard-to-impress Tex-Mexpert of a brother.

Nachos
You can make a simple nacho recipe with baked chips, low-fat Mexican blend cheese, beans and jalapenos.  Add sliced grilled chicken.  Top with nonfat Greek yogurt and serve with salsa and guacamole or sliced avocado.

Enjoy Enchiladas
Craving enchiladas?  Cooking Light has a FABULOUS Cheesy Enchilada recipe.  I even blogged about how wonderful it was.

Image via CookingLight.com

Alas, I have lost my photos from the experiment.

A Healthier Quesadilla
I love quesadillas but not the calories and fat that accompany them.  You can make a wonderful version that is figure friendly.

La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Whole Wheat Tortilla

Try La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Whole Wheat Tortilla with either some low-fat Mexican blend cheese or shredded string cheese.  Add whatever veggies you like: broccoli, peppers, mushrooms, you get the idea.  Nuke it in the microwave for a minute.  Once it's done throw some spinach, avocado and salsa or pico de gallo on there.  Maybe some jalapenos.  It's better than you think.  Promise.

The Takeaway
From portion size to the stupidity of the menu items (bacon guacamole?) I am still trying to figure out how Tex-Mex got so out of control.  At it's core, Mexican food is comprised of wonderful produce and lean proteins.  Sure there are some starchy carbs in the form of corn tortillas and rice but think of those as complements to your meal, not the bulk of it.  Enjoy the cheese, too, but take the same approach with it as you do the starches: have it complement the the meal, not dominate it.

Once in a while blow it out.  Have those cheese enchiladas smothered in sauce, Bob Armstrong Dip or chile rellenos.  Enjoying those are a part of the Tex-Mex experience.  Don't make it a daily thing.

Healthy Options in Tex-Mex Restaurants: Entree Edition

Could you eat a jumbo chicken burrito slathered in queso every day?  How about cheese and spinach enchiladas with ranchero sauce?  Me?  Yes and yes.

But we know that eating that way on a consistent basis is not the foundation of a quality diet.  Given that we eat Tex-Mex so much in Texas, it is worth finding qualities staples at our favorite restaurants that keep our diets on track and don't have us eating 1000-calorie meals.

Image via FernandoMexicanCuisine.com

Monday we focused on margaritas.  Tuesday we tackled starters.  Now let's enjoy our entrees. You can eat relatively healthy entrees in Tex-Mex restaurants.  Order fajitas with light cheese and no sour cream or salads without cheese and fried tortilla strips are always a good choice.  Grilled fish tacos are also a nice option.

Always consider splitting an entree.  When you order a guacamole or other healthy appetizer, you have already enjoyed a fair amount of food.  The Tex-Mex portions are typically huge and big enough to share.

Let's dive a bit further with specific menu items at area restaurants:

Image via www.UncleJulios.com

Uncle Julio's 

• Ensalada Grande - delicious with the grilled portobello mushroom and salsa for dressing. 
• Soft Taco Plate - get black beans instead of refried.
• Vegetable Fajitas - ask for no butter.
• Mesquite Grilled Salmon 

Mi Cocina 

• Rico Salad - comes with fajita chicken or steak.  Try the spicy blue cheese dressing on the side or just enjoy salsa with your salad.  
• Tacos al Carbon - typically a good choice at any restaurant.
• Pauley's - sub the beef with chicken and borracho beans in place of refried beans.  
• Tilapia Vera Cruz or Salmon a la Parilla - both quality seafood dishes.
• Quinceañera Salad 

Fernando's 

• Tacos de Pescado - nix the cheese. 
• Pechugo de Pollo - again, nix the cheese, enjoy it with their delicious green salsa.
• Ensalada de Espinaca - enjoy with chicken or shrimp. 
• Jorge - get it with chicken and corn tortillas.
• Carne Asada - nix the sour cream.

Mattito's  - they make it easy with a ❤ next to their "healthier" items.

• Lite Fajitas - these are served with broccoli and cauliflower.  Delicious!
• De Marisco Salad - shrimp, salmon or scallops over a bed of greens.
• Pollo con Salsa Maiz - chicken with a tasty black bean sauce and a healthy serving of veggies.
• Enchiladas de Hongos - sauteed mushroom enchiladas served with a spicy Cascabel sauce, black beans and corn pepper salad.

Rafa's

• Veggie Enchilada Plate - order it with black beans and veggies, top with green tomatillo sauce.
• Pechuga Parilla - nix the cheese and substitute the refried beans for black or whole beans. 
• Veggie-Jitas - ask for black or whole beans instead of refried beans.
• Steve's Steak Tacos 
• Snapper a la Feliz

Blue Goose - I might have tried my very first margarita here...when I was 15....might.

• Chipotle Chicken - order with charra beans instead of refried. 
• Chicken Toluca Salad - nix the jack cheese and bacon. 
• Verde Enchiladas - this is big enough to split.

The Takeaway
Again, go ahead and enjoy quesadillas and nachos, once in a while.  If dining out in Tex-Mex restaurants is something you do a few times a week, make these healthier choices.  Your waistline will thank you.

How to Find Healthy Options at Tex-Mex Restaurants: Appetizers

Patio season is here and in Dallas/Fort Worth that also means the season of Tex-Mex and margaritas has officially arrived.  But if you're not careful, you can blow your calorie wad on frozen margaritas and chips before you even order your food.

The buzz about "The Tequila Diet" got my little pea brain swirling: how did Tex-Mex get so fatteningly wrong?

Mexican food, at its core, is pretty healthy.  A Mexican diet is full of beautiful produce, seafood and quality meats. Sure there is corn and fried chips but you can forgo them.  I was married in Mexico and actually lost weight the week I was there while enjoying wonderful food from authentic Mexican chefs.  Here is a sampling of what we enjoyed:

Steak, halibut and vegetables

Grilled shrimp with mango salsa

Salad with parmesan crisp

Ceviche 

Tex-Mex takes some liberties with cheese and fried items but I am fully convinced that you CAN find healthy Tex-Mex options and avoid a 1200 calorie meal at MOST restaurants if you look and ask nicely.

Let's start with starters 
I get it.  The fried tortilla chips come on the table and before you even order a drink, you have eaten a basket. You don't even want to know how many calories and fat that are in a basket of chips.

Corn Tortillas
Order non-fried corn tortillas to go along with your salsa and use that as your "starter".  If you really MUST have chips, take five (it's a nice simple number - that's the only reason I picked it) and break the chips in half.  Dunk each one in the salsa and savor it.  Eat slowly and you will enjoy the experience even more.

Guacamole
I order guacamole just about every time I eat Tex-Mex.  It's a wonderful starter.  I usually have that along with tortilla soup or a salad at most restaurants.  With your guacamole, employ the same corn tortilla strategy but tear your warm corn tortillas into quarters.  Top each quarter with some guacamole and salsa.  It's a delicious starter.

Want something even more calorie friendly?  Ask for a sliced tomato and enjoy that with your guacamole.  It's better than you think.

Seafood
Try ceviche.   Fernando's and Mi Cocina both offer great these amazing appetizers.  Mi Cocina's ceviche is a fresh, delicious blend of citrus juices, shrimp, avocado, mango and jicama.  YUM!

Another great starter is the shrimp appetizer so many restaurants serve.  Pepe & Mito's has a nice shrimp cocktail while La Calle Doce makes a delicious shrimp campechana.

Soups
Don't like seafood?  Soups are an outstanding option.  A cup of tortilla soup WITHOUT the cheese and tortilla strips is a great starter.  Matt's Rancho Martinez has a veggie laden tortilla soup that has big chunks of carrots and cauliflower.

The Takeaway
There is no problem indulging in nachos, quesadillas and queso occasionally.  As often as we eat Tex-Mex in Dallas/Fort Worth, it's not smart to indulge that way meal after meal.  Making the produce, seafood and lean meats the bulk of your Tex-Mex diet will help keep your weight in check while enjoying the patio, margaritas and people watching.

Wednesday we'll focus on Tex-Mex entrees.

The Tequila Diet? Really? Maybe.

Oh my.  This could be the diet that is custom made for patio-craving, Tex-Mex fans across the country, particularly in Dallas/Fort Worth.

Patron Silver

A new study has found that agavins, the natural sugar found in the agave plant (the plant that produces tequila) can aid in weight loss and help fight diabetes.

Researchers fed mice a standard diet but added agavins to their water.  The mice that consumed the agavin-laden water ate less and had lower overall blood glucose levels.  The study suggests that regular consumption of agavins, say in a sweetener, could help people battling diabetes and assist in weight loss.

There's no agavin sweetener (these sugars are different from agave syrup), so we'll just have to stick with tequila for now which isn't a bad way to indulge in alcohol.  Why?  Because if you're not doing teenage-style tequila shots, you can't slam it.  Tequila is a sipping cocktail.

A Healthier Margarita
Margaritas can be a full-on fat pill when you drink the syrupy sweet sugar bombs.  Additionally, those pre-made low-cal margaritas, sorry SkinnyGirl fans, are just terrible.  Any time I drink them, I have the worst hangovers.

Make an all-natural margarita, using good tequila, and you will never drink from a pre-made mix again.  All you need is three ingredients:

• 1.5 oz tequila
• 2 tsp agave nectar 
• 1 oz lime juice (approx 1/2 of a lime) 

Mix the ingredients by swirling or stirring, to dissolve the agave nectar.  Add enough ice to your favorite margarita glass.  Serve with a salted rim, if desired, and a lime wedge. 

Diet Tip #21: Make Sure You Eat Enough to Lose Weight

If eating less helps you lose weight, then eating a LOT less will help you lose weight faster, right?

Don't starve in anticipation of a big meal

Not so fast.

When your body doesn't get enough quality nutrition, it switches into starvation and conservation mode.  Meaning, it slows down your metabolism so that when you do eat, your body will burn the calories at a slower pace.  This helps you conserve what energy your body does have.

Additionally, if you are eating next to nothing the likelihood of you bingeing and blowing it all is high.

We've been there haven't we?  We're going out to a big dinner and we decide to eat next to nothing during the day.  Yet when we get to dinner, we devour the bread basket or chips and salsa and make bad food choices.  We end up eating way too much and feeling guilty about it afterwards.  This, in turn, makes the experience unpleasant.

Now, we've all seen the skinny folks who starve themselves.  That's borderline eating disorder and a completely different issue.

I'm focusing on consuming adequate amounts of quality foods, to help you be as healthy as you can be and maintain a good weight that's right for your body.

Diet Tip #20: Check for Sneaky Sugar

Tuesday we focused on snack swaps you can make when you're craving sugar.  Today let's be more proactive.

Sugar can be the devil.  It's a devil I love and battle every day.  Excessive sugar can damage your heart, cause diabetes and much more.  It's not like one cookie killed anyone.  Moderate indulgences are fine but it's hard to be moderate when it comes to the white stuff.

That legal crack is everywhere.

If you start checking nutrition labels you will be shocked when you learn about the amount of sugar in some of your favorite foods that you thought were naturally sugar free.

In fact, among the changes the FDA recently suggested the White House make regarding food labels was to address added sugar.  Most food labels only list "Sugar" which is a combination of added and natural sugars.  One proposed change is that the amount of added sugar be clearly labelled. This will help you determine how much sugar comes from a natural source and how much is added.

Still, it's good to check for what I like to call "sneaky sugars".

Any time you see a word ending in -"ose" that's added sugar.  Dextrose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, glucose?  All forms of sugar.  Beware of other forms such as cane syrup, cane juice, corn syrup, malt syrup, honey, molasses, fruit juice concentrate or brown sugar.

Then there are foods you wouldn't think have much sugar but do:

Fat-free salad dressings, crackers, bread, spaghetti sauce, instant oatmeal (a sugar BOMB), yogurt (another bomb), frozen dinners, cereals, ketchup and barbecue sauce.

Look at these two examples from my cupboard:

On the left is a box of All Bran cereal while on the right is a box of Back to Nature Crispy Wheat crackers, two things you generally wouldn't consider "sweet" food items.  The cereal has six grams of sugar per serving while the crackers have four. 

This barbecue sauce has nine grams of sugar per serving. 

How much should sugar you consume? 

The American Heart Association recommends nine teaspoons for men and six for women per day.  You can blow your wad in a regular 12-ounce soda when you realize it has 10 teaspoons of sugar.  

The thing is, sugar is listed in grams on most nutrition labels.  A gram and teaspoon are two different units of measurement.  A gram measures mass (aka weight) while a teaspoon measures volume.

How do you know how much you're consuming?  In general, there are about four grams of sugar per teaspoon. 

4 grams of sugar = 1 teaspoon 

The Takeaway

Again, moderate consumption of any of these items won't hurt you.  It's the cumulative effect and overindulgence that does damage.  Just be mindful of your overall sugar consumption each day.

I'll be fighting that battle against the White Devil right along with you.

Diet Tip #18: Brush Your Teeth

If you're fighting a craving, brush your teeth.  Doing this signals your brain that you won't be eating for a while.   Brushing your teeth also gives you that minty fresh breath, something that doesn't mix with chips, candy or whatever it is you might be craving.

Brush those teeth to fight cravings!

I am a nighttime eater.  This trick has worked for me time and again to help fight those evening urges.

Not only does this diet tip give you fresh breath and improve your oral hygiene, it might also help you lose weight.

Try it just once and see how it works.

Diet Tip #17: Check Calorie Counts When Dining Out

Starbucks Cranberry Orange Scone/Courtesy Starbucks.com

This falls under the category of things you don't want to know but should.  Be proactive about learning more about the calorie counts of food items at your favorite dining establishments.  It might make you rethink your food choices.

When I found out my favorite Starbucks cranberry-orange scone had 490 empty calories and 34 grams of sugar I almost choked on my latte.

Diet Tip #16: Learn How Many Calories You Should Be Eating Daily

Even if you hate math and numbers you should have a decent working knowledge of calories and how many calories you should be eating.  It's not that hard.  There are calculators galore to help you.

What is a calorie?
A calorie, technically, is 4.18400 joules, you could round it up to 4.19.  In English?  It's the amount of energy required to raise one gram of water by one degree Celsius.

As it relates to nutrition, calories refer to energy consumption through eating and drinking and energy usage through physical activity.  Think of it as the amount of energy you get from eating something.

Different types of food have different calorie counts:

• Fats have nine calories per gram 
• Carbohydrates and proteins have four calories per gram 
• Alcohol has seven calories per gram

How many calories should you be eating daily? 
This is different for every person.  It's important to know how many you need so you can plan your eating strategy for the day and week.

Determining how many you need can be a complex formula but there are calculators to help you do it.   Woo-Hoo! Try this one.  It's easy.

For me, I need about 2200 calories per day to maintain my weight.  If you want to lose weight, enter your desired weight in the weight category.  So, if I wanted to lose 10 pounds, I would need about 2100 calories a day to do that.  That's not a big difference.

If I wanted to drop 1-2 pounds per week, I would reduce my calorie consumption by about 500 calories per day.

See?  Easy math!

Diet Tip #14: Go Green One Night a Week with 7 Easy Veggie Dinner Ideas

Or red or purple or orange, whatever color floats your boat.

One night a week have a vegetable-based dinner.  That's it!  It's so much easier and more delicious than you think.

We know we need to eat more vegetables but we don't do it.  This gets you in the habit.

Stumped on what to make?  Here are some ideas:

• Spaghetti squash with tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and basil.
• A veggie-based soup - I love my kale, lentil & sweet potato.
• A mish-mash of steamed vegetables - broccoli, sweet potato, cauliflower, brussel sprouts....you get the idea.  Top with any seasoning you like. 
• A huge veggie salad - use a dark lettuce and go wild creating a big vegetable mix featuring onions, tomatoes, avocado, carrots, celery, beets, mushrooms, olives, artichoke hearts, whatever rocks your veggie world.
• Steamed cauliflower with mustard - I could eat this as a meal almost every day.
• Deep dish polenta pizza, recipe courtesy of Cooking Light. 
• Eggplant Mexicano, recipe courtesy of Readers' Digest. 

Diet Tip #13: Nix the Artificial Sweetener

You might think you're doing yourself a favor using artificial sweeteners to make your favorite beverages sweeter. You're not.  Not only are you ingesting fake crap, you might also be making yourself fatter.

Studies show that artificial sweeteners stimulate your appetite and can increase your cravings for carbs.

So what can you do?  Nix the fake sweet stuff.  Don't replace it with sugar just nix it.  Have your coffee or tea without sweetener.  Novel concept, right?

I pitched this idea to a friend looking to lose weight and she asked "But how can I sweeten my drinks?"

My advice?  Let your appetite mature.  We're no longer children.  We don't need sweet drinks, sweet tea, sweet juices or sweet coffee all the time.  Once in a blue moon?  Fine.  Every day.  No.

Once your taste buds get accustomed to coffee with milk or naturally brewed tea without sweetener, fake or real, you will cringe at the taste of the pink, blue or even the yellow stuff.

You won't miss it all.  Promise.

Diet Tip #11: Eat Vegetables as Snacks

For some reason, I was starving at 10am today.  Maybe because I didn't have much dinner Wednesday night but even after a substantial 7am breakfast my stomach was growling only three hours later.

It's easy to fall into the trap of a carbohydrate rich snack.  Vending machines offer them and they're more convenient to grab and go.  I love crackers as much as the next person but they're not a good diet staple.

We also know that our diets need to include more vegetables and fruits.  Snacking is a perfect time to incorporate them into your diet.  Vegetables might take a few more minutes to prepare but the payoff is worth it.

Here are some easy snack ideas to satisfy your appetite AND get more vegetables into your diet:

Edamame

• Edamame - okay it's a soybean but it's green....and not crackers.  It's actually what I had for a snack today at 10am. 
• Baby carrots with hummus 
• Red bell peppers and hummus - a perfect snack match 
• Raw cucumber slices - don't knock these until you try them, they're delicious.  You could eat the cucumber whole.  Be prepared to be the butt of a few jokes, though. 
• Celery with any type of dip or topping - salsa, greek yogurt with spices or topped with peanut butter and raisins (LOVE ants on a log) 
• Raw or lightly steamed broccoli with salsa - another one of my favorite snacks

Diet Tip #10: Use Your Non-Dominant Hand

This simple diet trick is along the lines of putting your fork down between bites and is just as effective.

What is it?

Use your non-dominant hand when you eat.  If you're right-handed use your left hand and vice versa.  It's much harder than you would think.

Using your non-dominant hand forces you to eat more slowly, something which is proven to help you lose weight.  A study by TCU determined that those who eat slowly consume 88 fewer calories than speed eaters.  That's not a ton per meal but over time....there's a theme here....it adds up.

The Takeaway
Use your non-dominant hand while you're eating and while you're at it, put down your fork between bites.  This won't take away from the enjoyment of the meal.  On the contrary, eating slowly will likely enhance the experience.

Diet Tip #9: The 2-Bite Rule in Restaurants

Are you a member of the clean plate club?  I was for years.  At dinner my parents consistently told me to clean my plate, regardless of my hunger level.

Don't leave your plates empty

Sure, there was some "eat your vegetables" thinking in that directive but so many of us were told to finish everything on our plates as children.  That thinking has subconsciously carried over into adulthood and we now feel compelled to eat everything put in front of us.  At least I do.

Today's diet tip: when you go out to eat, leave at least two bites of your restaurant entree on your plate.  That's it. Most restaurant portions are too big to start.  You could really get away with asking them to bag half of your dish at the beginning of meal, that IS if you're ordering an entree. You know I am a fan of ordering two appetizers in restaurants.

Leave a few bites, better yet take half of this home

Anyway, if you order a big entree leave two bites on the plates.  It's just a few calories but it adds up over time. And remember: put down that fork between bites.

All of these tactics are incredibly effective.