Weight Loss Tips

Here are 10 tips for helping to lose weight by using healthier meals and 10 tips for helping when you are eating out. 10 Tips for a better healthier meal When it comes to cooking a meal for the family, don't let your diet take a back seat. Just because you're on a diet and the rest of your family are not does not mean that you have to eat a different meal. There are times when you have to draw the line e.g. Christmas lunch, Sunday lunch and family gatherings. Take a look at some of the suggestion below for a healthier meal: 1. Try steaming or boiling your vegetables instead of frying or casseroling, also stay away from using cheese based dishes. Try to use herbs and lemon juice instead of butter or margarine. 2. Cooking with chickens can pose as a bit of a problem, although chicken is very healthy in its self, containing half the fat of red meat. Don't go for the easy option of breaded chicken fingers or nuggets this is very unhealthy. Try roasting or steaming your chicken in a non stick pan, and eliminate the use of oil by using a cooking spray. Beware of the chicken skin as this is very fattening, try to buy a skinless chicken or remove the skin prior to cooking. 3. Watch out for different types of bread, stay away from white bread as it is full of sugar. Try to go for wholemeal bread, seeded bread and whole grain bread. Also look for brown rice, wild rice and basmati rice, the tastes are not all that different from white rice and have a much lower starch content. 4. When buying meats like pork and beef, try to buy lean and extra lean. Try some cuts like fillet and sirloin, these have less fat content than the other cuts. Roasting, grilling and dry frying are healthy methods of cooking meat. Once again try to use a cooking spray instead of cooking oil. 5. If you're preparing turkey, why not try cooking the stuffing separate. You will reduce the fat content by preventing the turkey fat from absorbing into the dressing. Be sure to use less margarine or butter when making the stuffing. Also don't forget to skim the fat off of the gravy. Leave the drumsticks for the kids; as with chicken, choose light meat over dark and you'll save a lot in the calorie department. 6. Why not try serving fruit as a dessert? Serving fruit instead of pie or cake can make a massive reduction in the amount of calories you find in your meal. Instead of cake and pie, try serving a whole piece of fruit, some yogurt or a fruit cocktail. You will usually find that we don't need a dessert and have one just because of habit. I think you will be surprised at how fruit can substitute the sweet tooth in a dessert. 7. If you must have an ice-cream try a sugar free ice-cream of low fat frozen yogurt. Instead of topping with chocolate sauce or caramel, try some mixed fruit cocktail. The taste of the ice-cream is almost identical and the sugar from the fruit stops the sweet craving. All in all it's fewer calories than the full sugar and chocolate variety. 8. When cooking save yourself a lot of calories by using powdered milk. By doing this you will save on a lot of fat and calories. Also by using skimmed milk instead of cream in your favourite cream based recipes can also save on the calories. 9. Try some substitutions in your cooking. Use 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder to replace 1 ounce of unsweetened chocolate in your desserts, replace 1 egg with 2 egg whites or