Stud & Strength

The Belly Off! Diet Can Make Your Weight Loss Goals Easier to Achieve

What’s the hottest new diet trend in town? “The Belly Off! Diet.” Here are a few simple tips from the book’s author, Jeff Csatari, that’ll make your weight loss goals a lot easier to achieve and to maintain. These come from Rodale Publishing:

• Snack smart and often. Always keep something in your stomach. That’ll prevent your body from going into starvation mode and storing fat, and to prevent you from binging. So, keep fruit, string cheese and almonds on hand.
• Make eating fruits and veggies like eating fast food. The reason we eat junk is because it’s fast and readily available. So make fresh food, fast food by keeping fruit on your desk or kitchen counter. Studies show people are more likely to eat what’s visible.
• Find your own motivation: Maybe a picture of the way you want to look or a photo of your goal. Say, wearing a flattering bathing suit on a tropical beach. Tape one picture to your bathroom mirror, and another to your fridge and look at them whenever you feel your willpower slipping.
• Toss the take-out menus, whether they’re taped to your fridge, or stuffed in your desk drawer. Even if you have the phone numbers memorized, getting rid of the visible reminders will reduce your temptation to order out.
• Then, eat breakfast every day. A study found that dieters who ate a 600-calorie, protein-rich breakfast lost significantly more weight than those who ate a smaller, 290-calorie breakfast with virtually no protein. Big-breakfast eaters also had an easier time sticking to their diet. So, go for scrambled eggs and peanut butter on whole-wheat toast.
• Give yourself a constant reminder to exercise. For example: Put your sneakers on top of your TV every morning and keep them there until you’ve worked out that day. If you don’t like the look your stinky sneakers give your living room, you’ll just have to put ‘em on and walk around the block.

If you’d like to go further, the book is “The Belly Off! Diet” by Jeff Csatari.