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Bodytalk

By Stephenie Karony

Wednesday, January 19, 2000

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Want to be thinner?
Think healthier

Question: Can you share with your readers some basic tips on staying lean, or at least not getting fat, in this new century?

Answer: You bet I can.

1: Eat foods that are lower in fat and higher in fiber, such as fruits and vegetables, and cut back on foods that may be low in fat but contain a lot of sugar - such as non-fat desserts.

2: Eat smaller portions of everything. One scoop of rice, not two, cup of cereal not 1 cups, 4 ounces of chicken, not 3 pieces ... you get the idea. And avoid going back for seconds.

3: Eat much less of some foods, especially foods that are high in saturated fat and/or high in empty calories. These foods should be eaten in moderation.

For example, if you go to mom's for dinner and she serves home-made cherry pie for dessert, by all means, have a small piece.

Just don't take the leftovers home and have a small piece every day until the entire pie is gone.

Chips are the perfect example of a food that almost everyone overeats. If you don't believe me just go into your favorite Mexican restaurant and watch basketfuls of them disappear. Chips have almost no nutritional value and they're full of fat and calories.

Other foods to watch out for include breakfast meats, milk shakes, candy, cookies, fried foods, most snack items, sodas, red meat and pork, white bread and sugary cereals.

4: Don't drink up your daily calorie allowance. Read labels.

You might be surprised at the number of calories most liquids contain.

For example, a 6 ounce glass of orange juice contains about 100 calories. An orange, on the other hand, has about the same number of calories, but it also contains several grams of fiber. Fiber satiates the appetite (fills us up), whereas liquids do not. Of course, sodas are even worse - providing loads of sugar calories without even giving you any nutrition.

5: Live an active lifestyle and exercise regularly. Exercise not only burns off excess calories and prevents them from being stored as fat, it also builds metabolically active muscle mass, which increases the number of calories an individual burns even at rest.

6: Set attainable goals. Be realistic about your body weight.

Most people cannot weigh the same as they did in high school. Don't strive to wear a size 6 if you're currently wearing a size 16. Take small incremental steps and focus on the process, not the end product.

Realize it's not a matter of arriving anywhere, because being healthy is a lifelong process. Think in terms of becoming healthier, not just thinner. By becoming healthier via a better diet and more exercise, the body fat just seems to melt away.

If you pay close attention to your body weight, say by weighing in daily, believe it or not, you won't lose weight as fast as if you focus on living a healthier lifestyle.

7: Don't be compulsive about any of this.

My motto for the 21st century: "Our body is a temple, but it's also an amusement park."

Health Events

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Stephenie Karony is a certified health
and fitness instructor, a personal trainer and the author of
"Body Shaping with Free Weights." Send questions to her at
P.O. Box 262, Wailuku Hi. Her column appears on Wednesdays.