Health & Beauty: the easiest ways to cut 100+ calories from your day

I LOVE to eat and the weekend is my time to indulge and not feel guilty about the 3 slices of pizza (ok, 4..), the beers, wine, the late night pastry…and that’s just tonight.  I usually spend the rest of the week starting fresh on Monday by cutting back on carbs and upping my veggie, fruit and lean protein intake.  I recently came across a worthwhile article that wasn’t trying to lure me in with just another obvious diet tip (ie: eliminate soda!) or “easy magical diet tricks” (ie: stop eating everything white! only eat spinach for the next 5 days!)  This one offers normal and simple suggestions to eliminate little pockets of calories throughout your day that won’t feel like sacrifices.  I wanted to share these tips because these suggestions can really help balance the indulgent weekend meals or help us loose those extra few pounds over time, the right way, just by cutting out a few things from your daily intake you won’t even notice are missing.

  

 Changing your cooking methods is a good way to cut 100 calories or more. Use low-salt chicken broth to keep vegetables or chicken from sticking to the bottom of a pan instead of oil or butter. Another option is to use cooking spray. “This is one of the easiest ways to cut calories,” says Tara Harwood, RD, a registered dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. “Just one tablespoon of oil has 120 calories.” 

 “In baking, substitute applesauce for the oil in the recipe,” says Dana M. Ellis, MPH, RD, a cardiac transplant dietitian at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. “That could save much more than just 100 calories.” When making pancakes, leave out the oil entirely. Using a nonstick pan will prevent sticking and will not affect the taste.

 “Cut the cheese from your sandwich,” recommends Harwood. “From ordering a sub or hamburger when dining out to making your own sandwich at home, leaving off the cheese cuts 100 calories fast.” The restaurant bread basket is another place to cut calories. Stop at just one piece of bread or one dinner roll to help keep calories under control.  

 We know they’re tempting, but watch out for fancy coffee drinks filled with calories. Switch from a Frappuccino to just regular coffee and lose 100 calories or more. Next, skip the sugar or use a zero-calorie sweetener instead. Just three sugar packets equal 33 calories, so all it takes is three cups of coffee to reach 100 calories in sugar intake alone. 

 Those little sauces and creams seem so harmless, but watch out. One small serving of mayonnaise has almost 100 calories, and often people eat more than one serving on their sandwich or hamburger. Cream cheese is another calorie-rich spread. “Use low-fat ‘whipped’ cream cheese on your bagel instead of full-fat, non-whipped cream cheese,” says Ellis. “The whipping alone reduces calories by about half and the low-fat reduces them even further.”

-Courtesy of Everyday Health.

xo,

Lauren