YOU: ON A DIET

Remember that waist is more important than weight. Belly fat is one of the strongest predictors of health risks associated with obesity. Ditch the scale in favor of the tape measure.

Know your body. Understand the beauty of your internal organs to appreciate what you can do to influence them.

Stay satisfied. To lose weight, you need to eat.

Add support. Enlist a friend, family member, or new cyber buddy as your partner. Know that it's OK to make mistakes. As long as you quickly get back on the right road, you won't travel too far down the wrong one.

Eating Strategies for YOU

To help make eating automatic, pick at least one meal a day to alter and have the same foods every day for all other meals.

Eat throughout the day so that you're constantly satisfied. The less you eat, the more likely you are to sink into starvation mode and make your body want to store fat.

Inspect food labels. Limit saturated fats to less than 4 grams per serving, and avoid all trans fats. Don't buy foods where high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), or another simple sugar, is more than 4 grams per serving, or one of the first five ingredients. You're avoiding simple sugars in foods not just because of the calories but because they induce highs and lows in blood sugar that put you into a cycle of craving more high-calorie foods.

Eat foods with fiber, healthy fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated), whole-grain carbohydrates, and protein, as well as fruits and vegetables. Eat a little healthy fat before your meal (like one handful of nuts) to allow the satiety signal to go from your brain to your stomach, so you don't overeat during your meal. Eat fiber in the morning to help control afternoon cravings. Eat anti-inflammatory foods to help counteract the effects of obesity. Anti-inflammatory foods include green tea, omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish and walnuts), coffee, vegetables, and fruit.

Drink a glass or two of water before you eat. Your perception of hunger signals may actually be thirst signals.

Keep on hand emergency foods and items that can help you kill cravings, like V8, carrot sticks, an apple, or even Listerine breath strips.

Keep a log of how hungry you are on a scale of one to seven (one being famished, seven being gorged). Try to stay in the three to four range at all times by eating moderate amounts of food throughout the day.

Two spices have been shown to aid in waist management: red pepper and cinnamon.

Realize that it's OK to make mistakes. The key is getting back on the right road, not beating yourself up over them. Use YOU-Turns to right yourself as soon as possible.

Use nine-inch plates for meals. Smaller dinner plates equal smaller portions.

Activity Strategies for YOU

Walk thirty minutes a day every day. No excuses. Then call your support partner after you do it.The YOU Diet and Activity Plan

Who Woulda Thunk It Strategies for YOU

Get seven to eight hours of sleep a night. Lack of sleep promotes hedonistic eating as you search for something to boost chemicals in your brain. Your brain needs sleep to regenerate these chemicals, and sugary foods help release the diminished supply of chemicals you have, to make up for the lack of sleep.

Play video games. Keeping your hands full keeps them off the coconut muffins.

Have healthy, safe, monogamous sex. Satisfying one appetite center of your brain can help satisfy another.

Measurement Strategies for YOU

Measure your waist. Ideal is 32 1/2 inches or less for women, and 35 inches or less for men.Ask your family what your parents and grandparents looked like when they were eighteen, to give you a sense of what your ideal body should look like.

Get tested: blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and C-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation), and certain hormone levels, depending on your weight situation.

Medicine Cabinet Strategies for YOU

Take two aspirin (162 milligrams) every day to decrease arterial inflammation and health risks associated with obesity. Consult your doctor first.

See your doctor about prescription drugs associated with weight loss if you hit a waist plateau on the plan (see appendix).

The following supplements have been shown to have effectiveness in some aspect of waist management: chromium picolinate, grapefruit oil, Garcinia, Hoodia, 5-HTP, L-carnitine, coenzyme Q10, turmeric, jojoba beans, simmondsin. Consult your doctor about which ones may be appropriate for you.

Start a strength training program focusing on core muscle (legs, abdominals, and upper body) in the form of twenty minutes two or three days a week. Stretch every day after physical activity to keep your muscles loose and pliable, to help you prevent injury.

Do this exercise any time you want: Suck in your belly button and squeeze your butt as if you're pulling up tight jeans. It helps with posture and strengthens your abdominals. Get up and go. Anytime you can move at work or at home, do it.
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