Lose weight by changing how you cooking and shopping

• Instead of frying in oil or fat, try baking those items instead. Baking does not require all the fat and oil that frying requires and your food is not soaking in those substances while it cooks.

• Use non-stick frying pan spray so you don’t use oil. Also, pans that are non-stick don’t require as much, if any oil.

• Boil vegetables instead of cooking them. You can also steam them, as this is probably the healthiest way to eat foods like cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots.

• Be leery of no-fat and low-fat food items. There are many of these food items on the market, but they are not exactly healthy. Many of these food items use some sort of chemical or carbohydrate to sweeten them so that they taste better. However, the body turns these chemicals and carbohydrates into sugar in the body, which means they are still getting turned into fat.

• Pour on the cinnamon. A recent study found that consuming just 1-6 grams of cinnamon powder a day for 40 days reduced fasting blood glucose levels by as much as 29%, increased good cholesterol, and decreased bad cholesterol.

• Chew your food at least 12-15 times. This slows down the rate that you scarf down your meal (allowing your brain to catch up and tell you that your stomach is actually full, so you can eat less), but it also helps improve your digestion.

Order the salad. When dining out, always opt for a salad before your meal. Your body starts registering that you’re eating and that you’ll be full “soon” so it releases chemicals to allow you to stop eating sooner.

• When ordering at a restaurant, ask the waiter to put half of your meal into a to-go container BEFORE serving it to you. Most people will stuff themselves as they mindlessly eat at a plate full of very large portion sizes at most restaurants, so this trick allows you to be proactive in managing your calorie intake.

• Don’t fall victim to crash diets. These are bad for you and do more harm than good in the long run. The short term results are typical that you will lose a few pounds, but once you give them up then everything comes back and your weight is worse the second time around.

• When you are cooking with oil, use a good Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It is more expensive than vegetable oil, but the health benefits are much better and it is worth the cost. Olive oil has been associated with a reduced risk in coronary heart disease and helps to increase the elasticity of the arterial walls which reduces the chance for heart attack and stroke.

• When you are cooking with oil, use a good Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It is more expensive than vegetable oil, but the health benefits are much better and it is worth the cost. Olive oil has been associated with a reduced risk in coronary heart disease and helps to increase the elasticity of the arterial walls which reduces the chance for heart attack and stroke.

• When you are cooking with oil, use a good Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It is more expensive than vegetable oil, but the health benefits are much better and it is worth the cost. Olive oil has been associated with a reduced risk in coronary heart disease and helps to increase the elasticity of the arterial walls which reduces the chance for heart attack and stroke.