MANILA, Philippines?It?s important to manage your weight one step at a time without much sacrifice or difficulty, so you can stick to your new healthy lifestyle long-term.

According to Professor Brian Wansink, the best diet you can ever experience is the one you don?t know you?re on.

Apply food tradeoffs

Several studies suggest that higher levels of deprivation are related to increased food intake. If you deprive yourself of your favorite chocolate bar, you have greater chances of returning to your old habit of stuffing yourself with all the foods you want.

Food tradeoffs that might work for you are statements like, ?I can eat a 250-calorie worth of chocolate bar if I walk an additional 5,000 steps today which is also equivalent to more or less 250 calories?; ?If I exceed more than two bottles of beer tonight, each additional beer worth 150 calories is equivalent to 15 flights of stairs.?

I find food tradeoffs effective, but I choose activities I enjoy like walking. When I eat deep-fried foods or high-calorie dessert, I would do extra walking equivalent to 20 minutes or more aside from my planned physical activities for the day. This strategy has made me manage my weight for a long time now.

Make three small changes

Try to use Professor Wansink?s Power of Three, wherein you have to think of three easy and realistic lifestyle changes. ?If we make three small, 100-calorie changes daily, by the end of the year we?ll be as much as 30 pounds lighter than if we didn?t make it,? Wansink relates.

Make a one-month checklist and your three daily 100-calorie changes. Every night, check off the changes you?ve accomplished. According to the mindful eating plan, if you complete at least 32 checks each month, you can lose at least a pound/month and you can create a positive mindless eating habit. Just imagine how much you can lose if you continue this for one year.

100-calorie changes that you can try are as follows:
One less glass of iced tea/regular soda a day
One less 100-calorie candy bar a day
One less cup of chips a day

For activity, you can do one extra mile a day. Wansink did not focus much on exercises and just mentioned the importance of lifestyle walking and other easy-to-do daily activities. His main point is to sustain the changes by avoiding relapses because of unrealistic eating and exercise plans. For him, gradual but consistent weight loss is more important.

It?s better to buy smaller packs of your favorite foods which are equivalent to one serving, than bigger packages, so you won?t get tempted to eat more than what you planned. Control the portion and frequency of eating until it becomes a habit. If you see results from this gradual modification, you might eventually replace high-calorie snacks with healthier choices.

At home, take a look at the sizes of your cups, plates and serving dishes. Maybe it?s time to replace them with smaller ones and use measuring cups and spoons so you are really sure that what you are eating is really one cup of rice or 1 tsp. of oil.

E-mail the author at mitchfelipe@gmail.com