TOPS #OR579, Gladstone

By eDiets Staff

TINY STEPS… BIG RESULTS!

That’s a motto taken to heart by nutritionist Katherine Tallmadge, author of the easy-to-digest book Diet Simple (Lifeline Press). Tallmadge knows that if you’re like most people, you believe there is no easy solution to your weight woes.

Far too many of us think we’ve dug a hole too deep to ever get out of. In fact, we’ve come to accept the "fact" that we’ll go to our graves lugging behind our extra baggage.

We brainwash ourselves to believe that healthy eating, exercise and water are for the birds. We want a quick weight-loss fix or nothing at all. We tell ourselves losing weight take lots of time and effort — and time is something we just don’t have. Right?

Tallmadge’s take on this defeatist state of mind: bull-oney!

Diet Simple serves up 154 mental tricks, substitutions, habits and inspirations. Each and every one can be used in accordance with your eDiets plan.

Tallmadge empathizes with folks who’ve been battling the bulge for what seems like a lifetime. She’s been there, done that and has the emotional scars of an eating disorder to prove it!

It’s a textbook case of, “if I knew then, what I know now…” For starters, Tallmadge has learned that losing those extra pounds can be as easy as choosing salmon over prime rib (a step that alone saves you 150 calories) or taking a scalding hot-to-icy cold shower when those unbearable cravings start (saving you the 250 to 300 calories a binge would have cost).

“It’s about small, easy changes which add up to produce the most satisfying lasting results,” Tallmadge tells eDiets in this exclusive interview. “What I was doing — what every other person out there does — was following rigid, depressing diets that you can’t stick to because they’re too restrictive or too low in calories.

“They cut out major food groups and that completely reduces all your energy and vitality. I think that’s why it’s so hard for people. I completely commiserate and understand people thinking it’s too hard because the way they’re going about it is wrong.

"I see a lot of bright, educated, conscientious people and even they have a hard time knowing what to do. They are happy people when they find out it’s not so hard.”

The Washington, D.C., nutritionist is an equal-opportunity myth destroyer. Since 1983, she’s worked with thousands of clients — everyone from congressmen, to senators to Joe Public.

Thanks to her book, Tallmadge can now spread her proven weight loss techniques to millions more.

Over the last two decades, she has identified the mistakes and behaviors that set us up for diet failure. A major boo-boo: failing to eat several balanced meals throughout the day.

“They starve themselves at breakfast and lunch," she says. "This is the behavior pattern of someone with an eating disorder. They don’t eat for as long as they can or eat almost nothing. They eat a light breakfast and a light lunch, but then they overeat at dinner. That leads to bingeing. When they get home or get to a restaurant, they can’t stop eating. You can’t exist that way and you don’t have to.”

Mistake two: seeking instant weight loss. Tallmadge points out that effective dieting takes time. Just as sure as the pounds didn’t appear overnight, they aren’t going to vanish like magic.

But by following her many common sense solutions, you will lose weight over time and it can be accomplished with very little effort.

“My tips are individualized ways to shed pounds and they are going to fit in with anybody," Tallmadge says. "Everyone can find something in my book that works for them.

"For instance, a person who drinks two glasses of wine with dinner may decide to cut back to just one glass of wine. This person could lose up to 15 pounds a year with just that change.

“Another person might be in the habit of eating three little cookies a night. If he or she cut down to one cookie a night that change alone could results in losing several pounds a year. This works effectively. Most people could live with that little change.”

Diet Simple puts 154 proven tips at your fingertips. Tallmadge suggests you pick and use the tricks that work best with your lifestyle.

“Everybody has his or her own idiosyncratic ways," she says. "At eDiets, there are so many support groups to fit the different types of people. Diet Simple is very similar in that everyone has his or her own quirks.

"For some people it’s that evening snack. For other people, maybe the first thing they do when they come home from work is go straight to the refrigerator to get some cheese and crackers.”

Here is a sampling of 10 proven tips:

1. Read the fine print! When you’re dining out, you can lose 10 pounds per year by choosing a “light” entrée, such as grilled chicken and salad. Those healthy choices can have at least 250 calories less than traditional meat dishes.

2. The Sundae Solution! Pour a tablespoon of chocolate over fresh fruit and your total calorie intake for this snack is 110 to 160 calories compared to the 250 calories found in a candy bar or the 500 calories found in an ice cream cone.

3. Set your alarm! Even a modest amount of exercise — walking 15 minutes, 5 times a week -– burns calories.

4. Pedal while you prattle! Next time you’re chatting on the phone, get on your bike. Pedaling on a stationary bike at 10 miles an hour for 25 minutes burns 100 calories. A faster pace of 17 miles per hour for 15 minutes also burns 100 calories. Get spinning.

5. Beware the burger blast! A half-pound of grilled hamburger meat has about 800 calories. The same amount of lean roast beef has half this amount.

6. Cooking with spray! Each tablespoon of butter or margarine has 100 calories. Substitute a vegetable oil spray for one tablespoon.

7. Join the snack committee! Healthful snacks make an incredible difference. Swapping a serving of fruit for the usual supercookie each week will save you at last 500 calories. And you’ll probably save 1,000 calories since few of us stop at one cookie!

8. The Happy Hour Trap! Suppose you avoid three "happy hours" a month. You could possibly lose up to 31 pounds in a year (if you are usually somewhat of a party animal).

9. The secret is plastics! When you use plastic containers to store meals — especially batch meals you prepare ahead of time — you’ll forego all those calories that come from lunches at greasy spoon dinners.

10. Slash corporate calories! Office-prepared dinners, a frozen dinner or frozen leftovers, will easily have 400 fewer calories than restaurant meals. If you work late an average of three times a week, this change alone will help you lose about 18 pounds a year.