15 Tips in Fighting Fat by Callie Armstrong

1. Get moving. It's time to de-automate your housework and do chores such as washing dishes, mixing batters and opening cans by hand, and hanging your wash on the line instead of using a dryer.

2. Whip it. Drop hard butter and go for whipped or softened butter (margarine). You'll spread the flavor around using a lot less than if it were hard and you had to scrape it on.

3. It's okay to say "no''. Learn that it is always okay to refuse when other people offer you food.

4. Explain your dieting program to people you live closely with - family, friends or doughnut-bearing co-workers and ask them to understand if you turn down their dinners, cakes, and yes, their doughnuts.

5. When you would just normally sit around and play bridge or watch television on weeknights, why don't you go out dancing? Think that the most calories you can burn in an hour playing cards is 95, but waltzing can whisk away 195 to 305 for every hour on the floor, and an hour of square dancing can stomp away 330 to 510 calories. If you don't like dancing, other activities that calls for the same energy and movement will burn a large amount of calories.

6. Avoid alcoholic beverages when you go out partying and go for no-calorie sparkling waters.

7. Get real and don't 'idealize' your dieting plan. Allow room for giving in to temptations. "Take it one day at a time and don't punish yourself for slipping," says Suzann Johnson, a registered nutritionist with Weight Watchers International. Go on and have a bite of that cake, just make it up later and double on the exercise.

8. Television commercials are moments for burning calories. While enjoying your favorite show, do exercises in the 3-minute breaks and it will keep you out of the kitchen.

9. Plate psychology works. Avoid place settings with intense colors that stimulate the appetite such as violet, lime green, bright yellow or bright blue. The same goes for primitive-looking pewter and wooden plates. Instead, appease your appetite with elegant place settings in darker colors. Choose plates with broad decorative borders and a slightly "bowled" design. You can fit less food in them.

10. Eat only at scheduled times in scheduled places and leave the table as soon as you're finished eating, instead of lingering over the last bites.

11. It's only okay to eat everything on your plate when it's a 100% low calorie meal, like steamed vegetables and fish. If not, feel free to leave the food untouched especially if it's dripping with oil and cream.

12. Start removing the candy bars from your desk drawer and the nut bowl from the coffee table. Quit stashing fatty foods around the house to keep you from picking some nuts here and a candy bar there that will surely bring fat in your parts everywhere.

13. Chew, chew, chew. Slowly chew each bite of food at least ten times to really taste it and to prevent yourself from getting more food from the serving dish.

14. Skipping meals will make you overeat. Do not think that not eating at all will make you lose weight, your stomach unused to hunger will get to you.

15. When you're preparing meals and cleaning up, invite your spouse or house mate into the kitchen for conversation and to keep you from sampling, if not snacking on the food in advance.