saulrosenbaum.com / 9 Diet Hacks

I’m not pro-diet, I think diets suck, and in general any weight you DO lose, you gain back two-fold, the reason is simple, the concept of a diet is to eat less and burn more until you reach a certain goal, that first part is good - the second part is the problem. A diet is a temporary state - 99.9% of the time when a dieter reaches their goal weight they stop dieting, they return to their original eating patterns, and Bam! they’ve gained all the weight back, plus a little more poundage just to add insult. In order to loose weight and keep it off, you need to modify your eating patterns permanently - hopefully learn a bit more about what you’re eating, and find solutions that work for you, it’s a difficult process, and a professional nutritionist can certainly help, but here are a few helpful diet hacks I can recommend:

1. Get a digital food scale for the kitchen: a scale for the kitchen will help you train your eye to what exactly 4 ounces of chicken looks like, or figure out how much cheese should go in that omelet, this scale (which is the one I have) calculates a full FDA Nutritional label based on weight.
2. Throw out that cheap bathroom scale: it’s not about how MUCH weight you lost today, or this week, or even this month, it’s how you look and feel, your mirror, neighbors and family will be your barometer.
3. Get smaller dishes: A large part of eating is visual, a proper portion of food on a big plate looks skimpy, the same portion of a smaller plate looks like a feast.
4. Get smaller spoons: it takes physically longer to eat the same amount of soup/ice cream/chili with a small spoon, giving you time to relax and think about what you’re eating, plus they look good with the new smaller dishes.
5. Look at the sky for 100 minutes: five time a week, go for a walk, get out, enjoy the outdoors and go for a twenty minute walk, fresh air does great things for you both physically and emotionally.
6. Smile and move forward: nobody can be good all the time, you’ll be out with friends, or at the mall, and you’ll eat something you know isn’t great for you, it’s fine, don’t obsess, enjoy it, move on, don’t let it derail you, good nutrition isn’t a sprint, it’s not even a race.
7. Drink water: trust me on this, YOU don’t drink enough water, make it a habit to drink 7-8 glasses of water a day, it benefits your entire body, and will do more for your skin than any fancy spa treatment ever would.
8. Close the kitchen: a nighttime snack is fine, but when your snack becomes a small late night buffet, you need to pull the brake, eating too late will interfere with sleeping, which creates a whole host of other problem, Pick a time that works for you, and close the kitchen at that time.
9. Size does Matter, when you eat out (and don’t bring your scale) it’s difficult to gauge how much food is on your plate, here’s a few simple guides, each of these constitutes a SINGLE SERVING:
   • 1 cup of cereal flakes = fist
   • 1 pancake = compact disc
   • ½ cup of cooked rice, pasta, or potato = ½ baseball
   • 1 slice of bread = cassette tape
   • 1 piece of cornbread = bar of soap
   • 1 cup of salad greens = baseball
   • 1 baked potato = fist
   • 1 med. fruit = baseball
   • ½ cup of fresh fruit = ½ baseball
   • ¼ cup of raisins = large egg
   • 1½ oz. cheese = 4 stacked dice or 2 cheese slices
   • ½ cup of ice cream = ½ baseball
   • 1 tsp. margarine or spreads = 1 dice
   • 3 oz. meat, fish, and poultry = deck of cards
   • 3 oz. grilled/baked fish = checkbook
   • 2 Tbsp. peanut butter = ping pong ball
   • 1 teaspoon of oil = The size of your thumb tip

Most importantly, don’t let anyone discourage you, changing long-standing patterns is difficult, no blog post in the world is going help you do it day after day, eat smart and feel good. Drop me a note if you find this helpful.