• Maggie's strategies
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Maggie's strategies

Maggie Morris lost 50 pounds by focusing on one meal at a time.

"I don't eat the way I used to. It's a matter of making choices every day. One day I might decide to eat more than another day, and that's OK, as long as I'm paying attention," she says.

Here are some of the things that helped her pay attention to what she eats:

• Take it one meal at a time. "See it as a journey with a destination," Morris says.
• Read labels so you can see how much sugar, fat, protein, and fiber are in foods.
• Cut out most refined sugar. Morris stopped drinking soft drinks and bottled teas with sugar. "I used to really enjoy candy—a chocolate bar or something like that. What I started to do was substitute that with sugar-free chocolate pudding or the 70% dark chocolate with very little added sugar—and that only on rare occasions."
• Eat whole fruit when you crave something sweet.
• Eat six times a day. She eats snacks three times a day, including fruit or whole-grain crackers.
• Eat breakfast.
• Keep track of how much you eat from each food group to make sure you get enough protein, fruits, vegetables, and calcium.
• Make a list of foods that are "worth it" to you to spend the calories on.

Maggie also advises that you exercise a little more on days when you know that you are going out to eat or plan to have a treat at dinner.

Credits