Posted by Judi Lake

By now, I’m sure you know all the advice out there. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Eat whole grain foods. Eat smaller portions, and on and on. The trouble with this advice is that it takes so much work. For example, white rice is so much easier to cook than brown rice. To cook white rice you double the amount of water to rice. In your small saucepan you would put one-cup rice and two cups water, or 1 ½ cups rice and 3 cups water. That’s very easy to remember. Bring it to a quick boil, uncovered. As soon as it boils, reduce your heat to simmer and cook for exactly 14 minutes, without lifting the lid. Perfect white rice. Brown rice uses a ratio of 1.5 cups water to 1-cup rice. It takes approximately 35 minutes to make from start to finish. I know it’s better for me, but I’m lazy and it’s seems too much trouble for a side dish.

So I came to the conclusion that I had to study my own eating habits more than reading more advice from “experts.” For instance, I had to find low calorie foods that made me feel “full.” And I’m here to tell you, that nothing makes me feel fuller than a hard-boiled egg. One hard boiled egg has 76 calories, isn’t that amazing? I bought myself a little gadget that is a microwave egg boiler for $3.99. I pop it in the microwave for 5 minutes, let it cool and I have a perfect egg every time.

Another food that came to my attention was tilapia. I have never been a seafood eater, nor were my parents or my husband. Since I live by the ocean, there are an abundance of seafood restaurants near my home. My friends were always grilling it and I began to see it on menus when dining out. One day a friend ordered it for lunch and I asked him if I could taste it. It was incredibly mild. I began buying it fresh, and surprising, it was less than a dollar for each filet. And the great news is that a four-ounce filet has a grand total of 144 calories.

I could talk about this stuff all day. The important thing is finding out what works for you. What makes you feel “full?” What should you avoid at all costs? (For me, it’s anything with mayonnaise.) What is going to be easy for you to prepare, so you keep on doing it long after the wedding is over?

Make up your own diet plan . And if you do mess up and have a big handful of potato chips, don’t automatically give up and go on a potato chip binge. Let’s say you eat 30 chips and consume 456 calories. That’s terrible when you’re on a diet, but if you eat carefully for the rest of the day, you should be fine. If you’re like me and you say to yourself, “I’ve messed up my diet today, I’m just going to polish off half this bag, and get started again tomorrow,” you’ll never make any progress. Be good to yourself. If you lose 7 pounds instead of your goal of 10, you will look amazing on your wedding day.

By Kathleen Terrana