Feed your body right: she switched plates and lost 70 pounds


        FEED YOUR BODY RIGHT: SHE SWITCHED PLATES AND LOST 70 POUNDS
Toni Willis lost five dress sizes. All she had to do was change the way that she sets her table.
At 215 pounds and eager to slim down, Toni, of Saint Charles, Missouri, finally got fed up with fad diets that didn't work. She decided to put into practice some advice that she had gotten from a nutritionist a few years before, during her pregnancy. "I didn't tell anyone about my plan because I didn't want people reminding me about it all the time," she says. "I just woke up one morning and said, 'Today's the day.'"
Out went the eggs, bacon, sausage, burgers, fries, and anything with cheese. In their place were English muffins with peanut butter, bagels, baked fish, chicken, pasta, and plenty of fruits and vegetables.
To help control the amount of food that she ate, Toni applied that old adage "out of sight, out of mind" to her dinner table. When preparing meals for herself and her family, she stopped serving family style. Instead, she divvied up all of the food among five «^ plates, one for each family member. For herself, she used a salad plate, so it looked full even with smaller portions. As soon as she was done eating, she got up and left the room. That way, she wasn't tempted to nibble.
Toni adjusted to her new eating habits surprisingly easily. And once she started losing weight, she didn't struggle with her food choices or portion sizes. In fact, she learned to love the healthier foods.
"I was so into losing weight that I didn't overeat. If anything, there were times when I didn't eat enough," she says. "To me, there was no food that was worth the calories."
Today, at age 36, Toni is 70 pounds lighter. She has maintained a healthy weight of 145 pounds for 2 years. She says that she eats just the right amount of food, and she doesn't go back for seconds and thirds. "I never feel like I'm depriving myself of anything," she says. "Sometimes, I just have a bite of something decadent and toss the rest. I never feel stuffed."
WINNING ACTION
Pick your perfect plate. This is a great tip—and with a husband who is 6 foot 4 and a huge eater, I follow it religiously. Instead of using a regular dinner plate for my main meal, I substitute a salad plate or dessert plate. It's an easy way to control portion sizes. In fact, a salad plate holds only about 60 percent of the food that fits on a dinner plate. And the full plate serves as a visual cue for my brain: It thinks that I'm getting a lot of food, so I feel satisfied with less.
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Weight Loss

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