5 Top Diet Tricks

5 Diet Tricks To Burn Weight Off Faster Than You Can Scorch A Campfire Marshmallow*

(* not that you’ll be consuming one of those, oh, ever again)

Six years ago I summered not in the dizzying haze of the Vineyard or the Cape. No, no, nothing so glamorous for guru girl. No, I spent the summer in the dizzying haze of the “crack/water diet”, a nationally recognized diet program that shall remain nameless.

My friends affectionately dubbed it the “crack/water diet” due to the copious amounts of water it forced me to consume, as well as herbal supplements that not only caused my metabolism to race but also my heart, my thoughts and my feet (which came in very handy for chasing my 3 year old at the time).

The good news? It worked. Lost a whole lot of weight. The bad news? I remain haunted by some of the plan’s more diabolical aspects. But there are 5 tricks it taught me that I use to this day, mostly because they work and are not incredibly painful.

1.     Don’t drink your calories. Drinks don’t fill you up. Food does that. Save your calories for actual food. Nix the word “orange juice” from your vocabulary and your lips.

2.    Drink water. Like a camel storing up for a trek. Drink lots of it. You’ll be as familiar with restrooms in public places as your potty-training 3 year old.

3.    Eat an apple a day. Yes, apple-eating smears your lipstick, and it’s annoying to get rid of the core if you’re eating it in the car, but apples are worth it. They fill you up and actually have a taste, unlike those Wasa Crisp crackers.

4.    Postpone cravings. Before you give into any craving make yourself drink a full glass of water first. If you still want the, say, cookie after downing the water, let yourself have it.

5.     Keep a food journal. These make it really easy to see what gets you off track so you can do something about it. Was it really an aberration when you devoured the entire pack of mini Kit Kats? Or do you do this several times a week, every time you get off the phone with your mother? Food journals don’t lie. It’s best to face the truth… which will be scrawled in your food journal… in your weakest handwriting because you haven’t had real food in several days.