Weight Loss #5: No grand gestures (firing up the engine)

No fancy take outs, no special cuisine. It's just you, your spices, your grill pan, and you daily calories!

You don’t even need to make such a grand gesture with your quest for activity. If you don’t think you can make time for brisk walking, you can split it into sessions. Walk several minutes to and fro work. Instead of taking elevators, take the stairs. Time for lunch? Walk to that deli around the corner instead of heading to the office cafeteria. Before you know it, you’ve incorporated it in your life so much that you’ll hardly notice you’re already doing it on auto-pilot.

If you find that at some point you’re getting bored with walking around and seeing the same scenery, you can change your routine and explore other places. Still bored? Well, that’s good news! It means that you’ve already surpassed the initial discomfort of easing yourself back into activity and have now regained a measure of your body’s natural rhythm and attunement. By this time, you’ve built up some stamina already, and if you’ve been counting your calories, have started shedding some pounds. If you find that you don’t need extra cushy shoes to walk around and found that you’ve been walking around the block in your office pumps, then you might just be ready to take things up a notch.

Here’s the time to be creative. If you’ve already established a good calorie count for the day – assuming that you’ve asked a nutritionist on what your limit is on subtracting calories – then it’s about time that you “play” with your food.

By this time, you’ll already know the fast rules. Too much sugar and salt is not good. Spices can boost your metabolism. Whole wheat and grains are filling and give good fiber. Fruits, veggies and teas provide great antioxidants, more fiber, and even assist in boosting your metabolism. Fish is a great substitute for meat, and if you should have meat, chicken breasts and the leaner beef cuts are the way to go.

If you’ve already been eating your correct portions of these foods, you’ll know that aside from calorie counting being a numbers game, it’s also a balancing act. Now is the time to experiment on making your own diet plans and menus for the day, even week, months! If you’re getting tired of the taste of granola bars for snacks, then go ahead and make whole wheat sandwiches and partner it with a grapefruit or pineapple.

Buy a grill pan – there are so many things you can do with it! Grilling food is so much better than frying them even if you use canola or olive oil. Learn to use your spices to fire up your food – it’s a great way to maximize your metabolism. Cool down with a Mediterranean salad of olives, semi-salty nuts, leafy veggies and sweet iced fruits and you’ll start wondering if you’re even on a diet at all. And imagine the freedom you can have if you can just learn to make your own vinaigrette dressing – no more looking at nutrition labels, you control the taste, and no more preservatives for you!

And just think - we’ve only started talking about being creative with your food. Sounds like fun, right?