It sounds to me like you're off to a pretty good start. My doctor told me I need to shed a few pounds around the middle myself, here are few things I do. And yes, a couple of these are repeats, mainly because they bear repeating.
Drink water. Lots of it. I have my nice 28 oz. mug the hospital gave me, i try to drink several of those per day. Water in much needed by your body, and water will help give you a full feeling if drunk shortly before a meal.
Portion control. Coupled with eating slower, when you reduce the size of your meal, you are taking in few calories for your body to try and burn off. But don't fall into the calorie counting trap. Calories in and of themselves aren't bad, they're just a unit of energy.
Reduce salt. One of the things salt does is retain water. That bloated feeling you sometimes get is due primarily to water retention. Unless you run 15 miles everyday, reduce your intake. Most premade, prepackaged foods today have more than enough salt in them already. And don't get me started on fast foods...
Don't "diet". Those fad diets, like the South Beach Diet, the Atkins Diet, etc., are not only mere "health fads" they are designed to fail. What I mean is, you go on one of these diets, and yeah, you drop a few pounds. Which you immediately regain once you go off said diet. Not only that, but if you are basing a weight loss scheme on a diet and fall,discouragement kicks in, which can lead to binge eating, which in turn can lead to weight gain.
Final advice - get an accountability parter, or better yet, a friend who's trying to lose weight too. Going at this sort of thing alone is 10 times harder than when you have support.
Hope this helps. Just my two cents.
It sounds to me like you're off to a pretty good start. My doctor told me I need to shed a few pounds around the middle myself, here are few things I do. And yes, a couple of these are repeats, mainly because they bear repeating.
Drink water. Lots of it. I have my nice 28 oz. mug the hospital gave me, i try to drink several of those per day. Water in much needed by your body, and water will help give you a full feeling if drunk shortly before a meal.
Portion control. Coupled with eating slower, when you reduce the size of your meal, you are taking in few calories for your body to try and burn off. But don't fall into the calorie counting trap. Calories in and of themselves aren't bad, they're just a unit of energy.
Reduce salt. One of the things salt does is retain water. That bloated feeling you sometimes get is due primarily to water retention. Unless you run 15 miles everyday, reduce your intake. Most premade, prepackaged foods today have more than enough salt in them already. And don't get me started on fast foods...
Don't "diet". Those fad diets, like the South Beach Diet, the Atkins Diet, etc., are not only mere "health fads" they are designed to fail. What I mean is, you go on one of these diets, and yeah, you drop a few pounds. Which you immediately regain once you go off said diet. Not only that, but if you are basing a weight loss scheme on a diet and fall,discouragement kicks in, which can lead to binge eating, which in turn can lead to weight gain.
Final advice - get an accountability parter, or better yet, a friend who's trying to lose weight too. Going at this sort of thing alone is 10 times harder than when you have support.
Hope this helps. Just my two cents.