Routine: A Key To Success

Several articles I've read recently suggested limiting food choices. They said that having too many choices makes it harder to make a good choice.

Last week I decided to give the limited choice thing a try and actually lost 4 pounds in the process. These are the choices I made.

1) I ate the same breakfast every day -- a mix of two different cereals with a dash of Fiber Sure. The fiber helped me feel full longer. And it was nice not to have to think about what to fix for breakfast when I was barely awake.

2) I am generally hungry midmorning. I decided to take a coffee break just before I got hungry. I've found coffee at that time of the day decreases my hunger.

3) For lunch I had 3 choices. If I was awake enough to think about it, I packed a lunch from the previous night's left overs. I have protein meal bars (with fiber) in my desk drawer. That's always an option. If I wasn't hungry for that, I bought a salad with protein from the cafeteria in the building.

4) I generally get a little hungry around 3 or 4. If I wait until I get home to eat something more, I'm ravenously hungry and tend to over eat. So I brought some healthy snacks to work -- pretzels (my own 100-calorie ziploc bags), fruit, or an organic snack bar. All of these options were around 100 calories. If I didn't think that would tie me over, I bought a soda.

5) My partner makes dinner for us some nights, so I just had what she fixed. If not, I had left overs from a previous night. I tried to keep the meal light and I added Fiber Sure to make sure the meal would keep me feeling satisfied. I have a tendency to graze after dinner. Having enough fiber reduces my chances of feeling like I need something else at night.

6) Sometimes I was still hungry in the evening, but not overly so since I had eaten well throughout the day. Since I wasn't overly hungry, I was able to make good food choices. Usually I had a handful of almonds or one piece of dark chocolate.

My choices increased throughout the day. I had more choices at times when I had time to think about what would be good to eat. When I only had time to grab and go, my choices were already made insuring successful choices.

I am sold on limited choices and following a set eating schedule. It has worked for me for the past two weeks and I have not gotten tired of it. You might want to give it a try. What do you have to lose? ;-)