Every now and then we live to regret our food flubs, especially when trying to trim down. Here are the three biggest goofs and my solutions.
Denying yourself a few meals so you look sexy in your slinkiest low-riders is not going to work as a consistent slim-down trick. The result of skipping meals is constant nagging hunger and a slow-running metabolism. Both will kill your diet.
Rocco’s Rehab: Eating often, however, keeps you in control of what you eat, instead of the food controlling you. It perks up your metabolism, too. Plan to eat every two to three hours. (My Now Eat This! Diet shows you how.)
Swinging by the drive-through at a fast-food joint every once in a while isn’t such a big deal—I’ve done it—the problem is that if you do it habitually, the pounds really pile on. A fifteen-year study led by researchers at the University of Minnesota showed that people who ate fast food more than twice a week gained 10 more pounds than participants who had it less than once a week. There were also health ramifications: The drive-through frequenters had a higher risk of diabetes.
Rocco’s Rehab: Try cooking healthier versions of your fast-food favorites at home. Some suggestions to whet your appetite:
Faux-Fried Filet o’ Fish Sandwich (313 calories) (Now Eat This! Diet, page 164).
CALORIES SAVED: 417.
Chicken and Mushroom Quesadilla (324 calories) (Now Eat This! Diet, page 171).
CALORIES SAVED: 765.
Yes, a Cheeseburger! (368 calories) (Now Eat This! Diet, page 175).
CALORIES SAVED: 482.
Buffalo and Blue Chicken Tenders (308 calories) (Now Eat This!, page 21).
CALORIES SAVED: 880.
Philly Cheesesteak (344 calories) (Now Eat This!, page 77).
CALORIES SAVED: 558.
Individual Extra-Crispy Thin-Crust Pizzas (210 calories) (Now Eat This!, page 83).
CALORIES SAVED: 400.
People are afraid of calories. They hide from them. Well, here’s the unscary truth: Calories are just a way to measure how much energy a food gives you after you eat it. And there aren’t too many ways to say it, but calories do count. We forget what we eat during the day, though, or turn a blind eye to anything we don’t actually see in our food (secret sauces, added fat and sugar, and calories we sip instead of chew).
Rocco’s Rehab: Use calorie-counting tools—including my color-coded system in Now Eat This! Diet—and write down everything you eat. Then tally up the calories so you know what’s going in. It’s tough to give a number that will work for every individual, but 1,200 to 1,400 calories per day should help most adult women reach their weight-loss goals. As for men, a good range is 1,400 to 1,600 calories daily.