Healthy eating

Still struggling with my weight, or really trying to find a connection and balance of what I eat, how I eat and when I eat together with getting in enough exercise. After almost four years at a healthy and normal weight, and seeing myself a normal sized person I’ve come to realise that this is something I’m going to struggle and fight with for the rest of my life. Some days, weeks, months and even years are better than others. But I still have to think and plan. Every single day. Food and exercise. Exercise and food.

Prevention magazine has made of list of 100 smartest diet tips ever. Many of the tips are old to me but good and still worth repeating. Others are new and actually made me think. Maybe it’s time to change one or two of those good habits into better and healthier ones…

3. Resolve never to supersize your food portions--unless you want to supersize your clothes.

15. Keep a food journal. It really works wonders.

25. Limit alcohol to weekends

31. Use prebagged baby spinach everywhere: as "lettuce" in sandwiches, heated in soups, wilted in hot pasta, and added to salads.

32. Spend the extra few dollars to buy vegetables that are already washed and cut up.

36. "I'll ride the wave. My cravings will disappear after 10 minutes if I turn my attention elsewhere."

42. Eating pasta like crazy. A serving of pasta is 1 cup, but some people routinely eat 4 cups.

45. Snacking on bowls of nuts. Nuts are healthy but dense with calories. Put those bowls away, and use nuts as a garnish instead of a snack.

52. Scramble eggs in a nonstick skillet. Pop some asparagus in the microwave, and add whole wheat toast. If your cholesterol levels are normal, you can have seven eggs a week!

72. Try 2 weeks without sweets. It's amazing how your cravings vanish.

73. Eat more fruit. A person who gets enough fruit in his diet doesn't have a raging sweet tooth.

84. Eating late at night won't itself cause weight gain. It's how many calories--not when you eat them--that counts.

92. Overeating is not the result of exercise. Vigorous exercise won't stimulate you to overeat. It's just the opposite. Exercise at any level helps curb your appetite immediately following the workout.

99. Pennsylvania State University research has found that women less able to cope with stress--shown by blood pressure and heart rate elevations--ate twice as many fatty snacks as stress-resistant women did, even after the stress stopped.