Cut 100 Calories at Breakfast
- Use skim milk in place of flavored Coffee-mate in your two morning mugs.
- Eat a bowl of high-fiber cereal and you'll consume fewer calories all day.
- Order bacon, not sausage, with your eggs.
- Choose a yeast doughnut instead of a denser cake one.
Cut 100 Calories at Lunch
- Use 1 tablespoon of mayo and 1 tablespoon of low-fat cottage cheese to make tuna salad.
- Put barbecue sauce, not honey mustard, on your chicken sandwich at Wendy's.
- Top your burger with onions, lettuce, and tomato and skip the cheese.
- Ask for water or unsweet tea instead of soda
- Slim down your sandwich by using 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Thins instead of whole wheat bread.
- Toss your salad with 1 tablespoon of dressing until every lettuce leaf is coated. You'll get away with using half the usual serving size. Try this trick at dinner too.
- Skip the crackers and shredded cheese on your chili.
Cut 100 Calories at Dinner
- Trade butter for a flavorful spread made with garlic, fresh rosemary, and light, trans fat-free margarine.
- Making meatballs? Mix half the amount of ground beef the recipe calls for with half as much cooked brown rice or use ground turkey.
- Instead of two slices of medium pepperoni pan pizza, choose thin-crust.
- When munching on chicken wings, don't toss the bones midway through. Seeing the evidence of your feast may help you eat less, studies show.
Cut 100 Calories from a Snack
- Trade 1/2 cup of premium vanilla ice cream for 1/2 cup of Breyers Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream.
- Ordering a cone? Make it the sugar, not the waffle, kind.
- Grab a Dannon Light & Fit yogurt, not a low-fat fruit blend or opt for Greek Yogurt.
- Replace half the butter in cake, muffin, and brownie recipes with an equal amount of applesauce or mashed bananas. You'll save about 100 calories for every tablespoon you swap.
- Indulge in a slice of angel food cake drizzled with chocolate syrup rather than three cookies.
Cut 250 Calories at Breakfast
- Trade a reduced-fat blueberry muffin for instant oatmeal topped with 1/4 cup of fresh blueberries. Bonus: You'll stay satisfied all morning.
- Measure out your breakfast cereal; overestimating by just 1/3 cup can add 100 calories.
- Enjoy it with a 16-ounce chai latte with skim milk rather than a green tea latte with 2 percent.
Cut 250 Calories at Lunch
- Pick turkey over tuna in your 6-inch sub.
- At the salad bar, reach for shredded Parmesan instead of cheddar and skip the bread.
- Nuke a Lean Cuisine chicken parm instead of having one delivered.
Cut 250 Calories at Dinner
- Make your own salad dressing using low-sodium, fat-free broth in place of 2 tablespoons of oil.
- Having fajitas? Fill up one tortilla rather than three, then eat the rest of your fixings with a fork.
- Sub black beans for refried and hold the side of Mexican rice.
- Order filet mignon instead of a New York strip steak.
- Opt for broccoli chicken over sweet-and-sour, and for steamed brown rice, not fried.
Cut 250 Calories from a Snack
- Bite into a chocolate-covered strawberry rather than a chocolate chip cookie.
- Switch from juice to lemon, cucumber, lime flavored water
- At the mall, curb a craving for a soft pretzel with a 100-calorie pretzel pack
Cut 500 Calories
- Eat fruit before every meal. In a Pennsylvania State University study, people who munched apples 15 minutes before lunch ate about 187 fewer calories.
- Order one brunch entree to share. Who can finish that giant omelet, anyway?
- When making mac and cheese, resist temptation and prep just half the box. Save the rest in a zip-top bag for next time.
- Use your grandmother's Joy of Cooking and you'll save an average of 506 calories over three meals, according to a recent Cornell University study. The secret: Smaller portionsizes and lower-calorie ingredients were called for back then.
- Instead of a Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha for your afternoon pick-me-up, order coffee with a little milk and a dusting of chocolate.
- At happy hour, drink two rum and diet colas and back away from the bowl of stale snack mix.
~Fitness Magazine
