44 Part I: Eating Right with Every Bite
You are not required to finish your meals. Listen to your body and don’t eat
until you feel pressure or fullness in your chest or abdomen, signaling you
may be ready to vomit.
You may have times when you simply aren’t hungry (and you may really enjoy
that feeling), but don’t skip meals or forget to eat. You need to get enough
nutrients so you stay healthy. And believe it or not, not eating enough can also
slow down your weight loss. When you don’t eat enough calories, your body
goes into self-preservation mode and becomes much more efficient at hanging
on to the fat it already has.
Making Wise Food Choices
By now you’re realizing that you’re limited in the amount of food you can eat.
To be able to eat well without overeating, select nutrient-rich foods, including
fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and low-fat or fat-free dairy,
which deliver the most nutrition for the fewest calories. To do this, you must
read labels. You need to know what a portion (or serving) of the food is (no,
it is not the whole bag in most cases) and how many calories and which
nutrients there are in a portion.
After all, which is going to be better for you: a 60-calorie apple or 60 calories
worth of jelly beans? Before you eat something, just ask yourself the following
questions:
✓ Is this particular food going to move me toward my weight loss goal?
✓ Is this food good for my body?
Consider your personal financial budget. You have a limited amount of
money, just like you have an optimal amount of calories you consume a day.
Everyone wants to get the most for their money. Same thing with calories —
you want the most nutrition you can get for the calories you have to “spend”
each day. Your weight loss success and good health depends on how much
nutrition you can get for your calorie dollar.
On the opposite end of the health spectrum from nutrient-rich foods are
foods and beverages that are considered empty calories. These foods include
things like chips, candy, cookies, pastries, and high-calorie beverages,
including alcohol. Besides the fact that you don’t get many nutrients (but a
lot of calories) from these foods, they’re likely to contribute to dumping
syndrome (go back to Chapter 2 for more on dumping syndrome).
