Here are 5 ways to eat less without feeling deprived:

1) Thinner Slices

You can easily reduce your portions of meat, such as beef, chicken, pork and turkey, by slicing the meat thinner. Use a very sharp knife, if you’re slicing it yourself. If you buy meat at the deli counter, ask them to slice it very thin. Then, you take the same amount of slices you normally would — but you’re actually eating less because the slices are thinner.

See: Weight Loss Secret: Eating Sandwiches to Lose Weight

2) Smaller Plate

Use a smaller plate — such as a salad or dessert plate — to eat your meals. You may look at a smaller plate and think, “That doesn’t hold a lot of food!” But the thing is, the amount of food a smaller plate holds is enough to satisfy you without overeating. Our society is geared towards large portions, and when you use a large dinner plate, you just want to fill it up!

See: 7 Things You Need to Know About Serving Sizes

3) Smaller Serving Spoon

Use a smaller serving spoon when serving yourself food, especially food with a lot of calories, like fat-laden sauces and gravies. A typical serving spoon can scoop out 1/4 to 1/2 cup of food. Use a tablespoon to serve yourself instead. The smaller serving may seem strange at first, but you’ll get used to it with time.

4) Smaller Glass

Reducing liquid calories is one of the easiest ways to cut calories. If you drink wine, soda or coffee/tea with sugar, use a smaller glass or cup to reduce your calorie intake. A small juice glass holds about 4 ounces of liquid. The best way to avoid drinking your calories? Drink water!

See: Are Your Liquid Calories Making You Gain Weight

5) Cut Down Gradually

If the thought of doing tips 1 through 4 seem strikes fear into your heart, try cutting down your portions even more gradually. Here are two ways to do that:

• Reduce the serving size of specific foods only, instead of all food.
• Leave a few bites of each food on your plate, instead of cleaning it off.

Keep in mind that it’s your mind that’s craving all that food — not your stomach! Keep making small changes and you’ll find it easier and easier to reduce your food intake to more reasonable portions.

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The thing is, when you have a weight loss recipe collection, you have endless choices for delicious, healthy meals, snacks, soups and so much more.

Here are three ways you can start a collection:

1) Index cards in a recipe box.
I remember my mother having one of these: a recipe box with index cards. It might seem old-fashioned but it’s actually quite practical! You can find a sturdy index box and index cards at your local office supply store. For a fancier recipe box, try your local bookstore or kitchen supply store.

See: Healthy Salad Recipes

2) Recipe scrapbook.

If index cards aren’t your thing or you prefer cookbooks, create your own cookbook using a large scrapbook. You can print out recipes or write them by hand, and just stick them into the scrapbook. You can add pictures, too! You can get really creative with this, especially if you’re into scrapbooking. You can have different sections for main dishes, desserts, soups, etc. — or create a scrapbook for each section.

See: Yummy Breakfast Alternative – High Protein Pancakes

3) Go high-tech.

There’s no shortage of recipes online, that’s for sure. If you prefer to store your recipes electronically, you can save favorite recipes on your computer using your favorite word processing software; you can bookmark your favorite recipes, or you can find recipe apps for your smartphone that allow you to search through recipes and save your favorite ones.

My favorite recipe website is AllRecipes.com. You can find lots of free recipes that you can add to your “All Recipes” recipe box when you sign up for free.

Of course, just creating a recipe collection isn’t enough! You have to actually use it. Pick a new recipe or two each week to try. After a while, you’ll have a great collection of healthy, weight loss recipes that will help you make better food choices.

Tool
Recipe Analyzer

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Some people state a simple weight loss goal. “Lose 25lbs.” That’s a bit better but it doesn’t really have much to sink your teeth into, does it?

If you want to set yourself up for success, you need to set a SMART goal. I’m going to show you how to make a SMART weight loss goal — and I’m going to show you some “tricks to make it stick.”

The acronym SMART stands for:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-Bound

It’s a great way to set goals that have meaning and purpose. Dare I say it’s even a “smart” way to set a goal?

So, let’s take the “lose weight” goal that the majority of people set. How can we make it a SMART goal? (Grab a pen and a piece of paper, if you want to play along at home.)

Specific
A goal needs to be specific. You do that by asking yourself these questions:

• Why are you creating the goal? In other words, what are the benefits? How will it make you feel?
• Who is involved with the goal? (At the bare minimum, it’s you.)
• How will you reach that goal?

Before we make “lose weight” more specific, here’s the first trick to make it stick: turn the goal into a sentence or positive affirmation and say it in a way as if it’s already happened. Picture yourself in the future having accomplished the goal.

I’m going to use an imaginary friend as an example. Wendy is 180lbs and doesn’t exercise much. She gets a lot done, but doesn’t seem to have much energy. She’s tired of feeling tired. She wants to “lose weight” to feel better.

So, Wendy pictures herself in the future and ask herself the questions up above. Wendy’s original goal to “lose weight” is transformed into:

“I feel strong and full of energy having lost weight by counting calories, eating smaller, healthier portions and exercising seven days a week.”

Much better than “lose weight”, right? But Wendy can make that goal even better.

Measurable
A goal needs to be measurable. “I feel strong and full of energy having lost weight” doesn’t really mean anything. There’s no way to measure progress. Is it five pounds? Twenty pounds? Are we measuring pounds lost or body fat percentage?

Wendy decides she wants to weigh 120lbs.

“I feel strong and full of energy at 120lbs by counting calories, eating smaller, healthier portions and exercising seven days a week.”

Attainable
But a goal needs to be attainable, too.

So now Wendy has a specific, measurable goal. But let’s step back for a second and take a look at it. Is this an attainable goal? 120lbs might sound like “fun” to Wendy, but is it realistic? Is it a healthy weight for her? And exercising seven days a week?

“Wait a second,” Wendy thinks. “I know myself. This is way more than I can handle right now.”

Wendy turns her goal into something attainable. This feels “doable” to her. She believes she can do it. It’s challenging enough without being overwhelming.

“I feel strong and full of energy at 140lbs by counting calories, eating smaller, healthier portions and walking for 30 minutes four times a week.”

Wendy’s feeling pretty good about this goal, but there are still a few ways to make it even better.

Relevant
A goal should be relevant. It has to have meaning for you and be relevant to your abilities and interests.

Wendy looks at her goal. The “I feel strong and full of energy” part is relevant. She wants more energy. The weight goal is relevant because she wants to be healthy; she’s not aiming to be a fitness model.

Wendy likes walking, too. But then she remembers she used to love swimming. She hasn’t done it in years because she’s been too busy. The thought of swimming again motivates her. She makes another change.

“I feel strong and full of energy at 140lbs by counting calories, eating smaller, healthier portions and by walking or swimming for 30 minutes four times a week.”

Wendy’s feeling even more motivated now! But there’s one last piece of the puzzle to make this goal a SMART goal.

Time-bound
A goal needs to be time-bound.

Wendy knows a safe rate of weight loss is 1 to 2lbs a week. She has 40lbs to lose. Losing 2lbs a week would take her about 4 months. Wendy remembers a goal needs to be attainable, so she decides to give herself a bit of wiggle room and makes it 5 months. Today is January 1st. So, she makes one last change to her goal by setting a weight loss target date.

“On June 1st, I feel strong and full of energy at 140lbs by counting calories, eating smaller, healthier portions and by walking or swimming for 30 minutes four times a week.”

Wendy is really motivated now to put this plan into action because the SMART goal she created makes sense to her. It’s unique to her. She can always make changes to it, if she needs to — but now she has a solid framework to get started.

More Tricks to Make It Stick

Now, it’s your turn. I want you to create a SMART weight loss goal — and I want you to do it using a pen (or pencil) and paper. Don’t do it using your computer. Studies have shown that when you put pen to paper, you make your brain say, “Hey, something important is happening. I better pay attention!”

Once you’ve got it down into a sentence or affirmation, I want you to write it down on an index card. Carry that index card around with you and read it whenever you need motivation. You don’t feel like exercising? Read that index card. The office vending machine is tempting you? Read that index card.

Read it first thing in the morning. Read it before you go to bed. Make copies and put it up wherever it makes sense: on the fridge, the bathroom mirror, at the office. Wherever you can.

And here’s a mega-super trick, if you really want to make it stick. Remember how teachers used to “punish” you by making you write sentences over and over again? It’s actually a really good trick to make your subconscious aware of your goal. Grab a sheet of paper and write your goal down over and over again. Do this as often as you need to — without cramping your hand, of course! Don’t think of it as punishment. Think of it as a way of communicating with your subconscious mind.

And no, typing it up is not the same. Put pen to paper and really, really concentrate. Take your time and don’t rush it. Make your brain pay attention to your goal — and your brain will then help you reach that goal. It’ll seek out ways to help you because it knows your goal is important to you.

And that, my friends, is the SMART way to set a weight loss goal.

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Spinach has very few calories, so you can enjoy a lot of it without going over your calorie count for the day. Best of all, there are so many ways to enjoy spinach!

Here are a few good ideas to get you started:

Baby spinach salad.

Baby spinach leaves are tender and have a nice mild flavor, so they are perfect for using in a salad.  Either make the spinach leaves your base (instead of lettuce), or mix it up along with various types of lettuce.  Then add in colorful sliced vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, sprouts, or any other vegetables of your choice.

See: 4 Healthier Choices for Salad Dressings

Add it to a sandwich.

Spinach leaves can be used just like lettuce on any sandwich.  They are mild and crisp and add some crunch to any sandwich or wrap.  Try a lean turkey breast sandwich piled high with raw spinach leaves and drizzled with spicy mustard.  Or, instead of a sandwich, place a scoop of tuna salad on a bed of spinach leaves.  This is a great option if you’re trying to eat less bread.

See: Weight Loss Secret: Eating Sandwiches to Lose Weight

Stir fry it.

Make a stir fry dish with chopped vegetables, water chestnuts, spinach leaves, and your choice of protein like chicken or shrimp.  The spinach softens up nicely and blends right in with the other flavors.

See: How to Get More Veggies Into Your Diet to Lose Weight

Add it to a soup.

Tear up some spinach leaves into small pieces and add them to any kind of soup.  It adds color, flavor and extra fiber.

Spinach is an excellent weight loss food; tasty, high fiber, high nutrients, good for you, and very few calories.

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To this end, having a very organized, functional kitchen will help a lot! You’ll be able to see clearly which ingredients you have, and which ones you need to buy. You will have all of the equipment you need to prepare healthy, delicious meals, without feeling frustrated because it’s taking so long.

Here’s how to best organize your kitchen for weight loss success:

#1 – Make Room for Healthy Foods

If your refrigerator and cupboards are crammed full of fattening foods, it’s time to carve out a little space for healthier options.  Designate at least one shelf and one drawer in your refrigerator for your own healthy foods.  Place bottles of juice, cups of yogurt, vegetables and fruit in these areas, and tell your family members or roommates to keep their foods away from that space if possible.  Do the same thing in your cabinets; create some space for healthy foods that don’t need to be refrigerated.

See: How to Break the High-Calorie Snack Habit

#2 – Get some good storage containers.

A good way to stay on track with your weight loss is to always have healthy, low calorie foods on hand, and those foods need to be stored in convenient containers.  Nowadays you can buy a lot of small plastic storage containers with matching lids, which makes it easy to store cooked vegetables, grains, meat, hard boiled eggs, and even pre-made salad.

See: Quick Fat Loss Tip: Prepare Food Ahead of Time

#3 – Organize utensils and cooking pots.

When you need to cook or prepare healthy meals, you’ll need to have your cookware and utensils handy.  Go through your kitchen and decide which items you’ll be most likely to use in the preparation of healthy meals.  Here are some ideas:  colander (strainer), spoons and spatulas, saucepans, wok, grater, garlic press, and steamer.  Then make sure these items are stored somewhere front and center so you can get to them easily.

See: How to Make Your Diet Wildly Exciting

#4 – Organize spices and healthy cooking ingredients.

You’ll also want to make sure that your healthy cooking components are well-organized so you can find them easily.  Things like olive oil, spices, broth, flavor packets, and so on.

It may seem like a lot of work to do this, but you’ll be so glad you did!  When it comes time to prepare your meals, you’ll do so quickly and easily.

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Today, I’m going to share a no-brainer way to get you on your way to forming healthier habits.

Go grab a sheet of paper and a pen and make a list of all of the habits that you KNOW are bad for you — and are keeping you from your health and weight loss goals. Come on, I KNOW you know which ones they are!

Now, there’s a reason why I want you to put pen to paper: studies show that writing things down activates your brain to pay attention to what you’re doing.

Here are some examples to get you started:

- Eating large portions
- Eating too much fried food
- Eating too close to bedtime
- Snacking when I’m not hungry
- Drinking too much soda
- Adding sugar and cream to coffee
- Avoiding exercise

Keep going until you’ve listed every single bad habit you can think of. Now, look over the list. Are you reasonably certain that all of those things are bad for you? Are you pretty sure that they’re contributing to poor health or extra pounds on your body?

See: 3 Bad Habits That Can Lead to Weight Gain

Now grab another sheet of paper and write down the opposite of each item from your list of bad habits.

The opposite of the previous examples would be:

- Eating small portions
- Eating baked, broiled and steamed food
- Stop eating after dinner
- Eating only when I’m hungry
- Cutting back on soda
- Drinking coffee black
- Exercising daily

And there you go! You’ve now got a list of things you can start doing immediately to form better habits, improve your health and lose weight!  No, it’s not really scientific, and you may still need to figure out a few specifics, but for the most part you KNOW that these actions will do good things for you, and in most cases, that’s all you need to know.

If you stop procrastinating because losing weight and getting healthy is too confusing and just start taking action on the things you KNOW will help, you’ll create some easy positive changes and inspire yourself to keep going in making even more positive changes.

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First, a healthy eating plan that includes plenty of really good-tasting, satisfying foods is definitely easier to stick to, wouldn’t you agree?

Get Outside Your Comfort Zone
If your healthy eating plan has you feeling less than inspired, it may be time to think about the “rules” you’re trying to follow.  Are you allowed to have any foods you enjoy?  Or are you forcing yourself to eat bland, boring foods?  Why torture yourself like that?  There are so many foods that are both healthy AND delicious!  You just have to experiment and find some you really like.

See: How to Make Your Diet Wildly Exciting

Slow Down, You Go Too Fast
Next, consider what your long-term goals are.  Are you trying to lose weight? Trying to improve your health? Something else?  Now consider whether you are trying to hurry those goals along by going overboard with your efforts.  If that sounds like you, it may be time to change your thinking.  Remind yourself that there’s no rush.  The positive changes you are making will last longer if you go easy and allow a little more flexibility in your daily routine.  No need to take extreme action; just small, manageable steps toward your goal each day.

See: 7 Important Steps to Setting Your Weight Loss Goals

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That
Finally, you may have gotten into a rut with your healthy eating habits.  Do you eat the same things day in and day out?  If so, start mixing it up a little bit!  Try some new recipes, experiment with different kinds of fruit and vegetables, and even eat your meals and snacks at different times of the day.  Anything you need to do to shake yourself out of a rut will be helpful.  For that matter, make it a new habit to keep changing things up every week.  That way you’ll never get bored with your routine.

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#1 — Hang Up a Positive Picture

Do you have any pictures of yourself when you were thinner?  Maybe while you were in high school or college?  If you do, pick one of your favorites and have it reprinted as an 8 x 10 photo.  Then buy a frame and hang it up right near your workout area.  Every time you feel tempted to quit your workout early or avoid working out at all, look at that picture and ask yourself if you are willing to throw your weight loss goals away so easily.  More often than not, just looking at that picture will give you the motivation to work out.

See: Can You Lose Weight Without Exercising?

If you don’t have any pictures of your thinner self, find a magazine photo and paste your own face over the model’s face.  It may sound funny and it’ll probably look even funnier, but just seeing a fit body with your face stuck to it will remind you that you’re working toward an important goal and you can’t quit now.

I don’t recommend putting up a negative picture of yourself. You want to work towards something in a positive way, instead of running away from something — which has a more negative connotation.

#2 – Hang Up a Goal Outfit

A similar strategy is to hang up an outfit in a smaller size near your exercise area.  A little bikini, a pair of biker shorts, a little black dress, or a tuxedo staring you in the face can provide a ton of motivation to work out!  This strategy works especially well when you have an important event coming up in the next few months, like a reunion or a wedding.

See: How to Save For Your New Smaller Wardrobe

# 3 – Make a List

Finally, you can make a list of every reason why you want to lose weight, and how daily exercise will help you achieve those goals.  Then spend a few minutes reading that list to yourself every morning, and again in the evening.  The list should provide some motivation to work out when it’s time to exercise, but you also want to cement those goals in your mind even when you aren’t working out.  The more you look at that list, the stronger your goals are going to remain in your awareness, which will make it much easier to keep working toward them day to day.

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First, the benefits of setting weight loss goals:

• You’ll have a clear idea of what you want to achieve.
• You’ll have a clear plan of action for achieving it.
• You’ll have fewer opportunities for excuses.
• You’ll be more motivated to stick with your plan long-term.
• You’ll be able to see your progress clearly along the way.

There are other benefits to setting weight loss goals, but those are some of the best ones.

Next let’s cover how to set weight loss goals and follow through with them:

1) Set a long term goal.

First, consider where you want to end up long term – for example, how much you want to weigh, the size clothing you want to wear, or any other definitive objective you want to accomplish.

See: Estimate Weight at Body Fat Percentage

2) Set some smaller, short-term goals.

Next, come up with some smaller “stages” that you will go through on your way to the big goal.  For example, if you want to lose 50 pounds, you may want to set 5 smaller goals of losing 10 pounds each time.  You may be wondering why this is necessary; why not just set the main goal of losing 50 pounds?  Because bigger goals can be overwhelming and you may hesitate to pursue them, or you may lose motivation and give up long before you reach them.  If you choose smaller goals, you’ll enjoy a sense of satisfaction and pride as you complete each stage, which can motivate you to keep going.

See: 6 Steps to Setting Realistic Goals

3) Create a plan of action.

Decide exactly how you will achieve your weight loss goals.  Will you reduce your daily calorie intake?  If so, by how much?  What kinds of foods do you plan to eat?  Do you plan to allow yourself occasional treats?  If so, what kind of treats and how often?  How often and for how long do you plan to exercise?  Create a very detailed, daily action plan that you can follow.  This is important because there won’t be any questions or confusion about what to do each day – you’ll be able to see it in black and white.

See: Workout Plan/Workout Planner

4) Commit to it.

Read over your plan and make a solemn commitment to stick to it no matter what.  Too often we allow ourselves to slide because we’re tired that day, or because we’ve had a stressful week at work, because the kid are acting up . . .  NOTHING should keep you from sticking to your plan, aside from true emergencies.

5) Follow through.

Each and every day you’re going to have to make dozens of decisions that will help you follow through with your goals, or cause you to abandon them.  Keep this in mind as you face challenges each day.  Say to yourself, “I can eat this donut and fail to achieve my goals, or I can eat this apple and move one step closer to my goal.”  when you make it clear to yourself that every action either moves you closer to achieving your goals or further away, it’s easy to make the right decisions.

See: 7 Ways to Boost Your Weight Loss Willpower

6) Gauge progress.

Every few weeks, be sure to gauge and record your progress.  Are you losing weight at the pace you expected?  Are you losing inches?  Are you sticking to your plan each day and making progress?  Stay clear about your results and how they are affected by your actions.

See: Keep a Journal for Progress

7) Make adjustments when necessary.

Finally, you may need to make adjustments to your plan as you go along.  If you’re struggling to keep up with a rigorous workout routine, you may decide to slow it down a little bit.  If you’re indulging in treats a little too often, you may need to think up some alternative activities that will distract you and keep you on track.

Setting and achieving weight loss goals is really easy as long as you stay clear about three main things:  where you are starting, where you hope to end up, and what you need to do to get there.

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How Many Calories Are Burned…?

First, did you know that in the moment you start ingesting alcohol your body goes to work metabolizing it? That’s a good thing, right?  Well, yes, except that for the duration that your body is busy metabolizing the alcohol you just ingested, it stops metabolizing fat.  That may not be such a big deal if you rarely drink, but if you enjoy a few cocktails every day or even several times a week, it could dramatically slow down your weight loss.

See: How to Repair a Damaged Metabolism

Another important consideration is that all alcoholic drinks and liquors contain calories, and some of them contain a LOT of calories! If you aren’t paying attention, it’s easy to ingest far more calories than you intend to, especially if you are having mixed drinks that contain sugary mixes or cream.

See: Calorie Count for Alcoholic Beverage: Budweiser Beer

See: Calorie Count for Alcoholic Beverage: Coffee with Cream, Liqueur

As if that weren’t enough, alcohol can also stimulate your appetite so you feel hungrier during and after drinking. To add insult to injury, being slightly intoxicated can also lower your inhibitions so that you see no harm in enjoying some delicious, fattening food.  Fried chicken wings?  Cheese fries?  A large pizza with everything?  Sounds good to you . . . until the next morning when you remember casually eating an entire day’s calories in one sitting.

See: Junk Food & Overeating: Here’s Why You Do It

When you put all of these concerns together, you can clearly see that alcohol consumption maybe isn’t a great idea when you are trying to lose weight.

If you absolutely MUST have some alcohol, try to stick to just one low-calorie drink and then follow it with a large glass of water.  Munch on a handful of nuts or popcorn to quiet cravings for more fattening foods, or eat a healthy meal right after you have a drink.  Your metabolism will still be impacted, but not nearly as much as it would be by overindulging on high calorie drinks and foods.

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