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Dinner Diva: Ways to banish the graze

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dinner diva leanne elyMy favorite is the liquid calorie tip. Did you know that you can save yourself over 30 pounds a year if you just give up your soda a day habit?

But in a magazine I was reading recently, it said that if you gave up two sodas a day and your glass of juice (the whole fruit is better for you anyway) you will lose 44 pounds in ONE year. That’s the kind of tip I like! See why drinking water is so much better? Obviously, if you replace the juice and sodas with lemon meringue pie and a Snickers bars, the deal is off.

Here’s a great shape up tip that is easy to put into action. Exercise during commercials. Get down on the floor and do a few sit-ups or some push-ups or dance in place for the duration of the commercial break. It’s amazing what you can accomplish just during a commercial!

And here’s another good one. If you mindlessly graze on chips and pretzels and the like, replace them with some dill pickles. You’ll get the crunch and the salt without having to deal with the weight gain that comes from overeating the other stuff. As a matter of fact, if you eat 32 pickles in one sitting, you’ll only ingest 160 calories (not that you’ll want to eat 32 pickles in one sitting anytime soon, but you get what I mean).

Lastly, if you do want to eat chips or pretzels or something else like that, understand that they don’t have to be completely off limits. But be aware of portion control and set some rules for yourself. Don’t allow yourself to eat out of a big bag of anything anymore. Somehow, we all have this notion that little bit of grazing doesn’t count—until it shows up on our backsides and makes our pants hard to put on. Put your chips into a small, zipper topped bag—a serving size and be content with that. Otherwise, just buy individual servings that you’d throw in the kids’ lunches. They may cost more, but at least you won’t be paying for it personally—if you catch my drift.

Leanne Ely is a NYT bestselling author and the creator of SavingDinner.com, the original menu planning website, bringing families back to the dinner table for over 15 years.

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