Put the Brakes on the Junk Food

If you like to treat yourself once in a while to a sweet--cake, cookies, candy bar, soda, ice cream--here's an eye-opening fact about the average American diet: An article in a recent scientific journal published data showing that one-third of the calories came from so-called junk foods!

Think about how often you have a snack like a cupcake or a handful of chips--foods that taste good but don't provide you with much in the way of nutrition...just many extra calories! Could you replace these once in a while with a healthier choice: a piece of fruit or some string cheese or a bowl of cereal or peanut butter on a few crackers?

You'll be saving lots of calories and improving your diet by increasing the nutrients you take in.

Remember that an average diet contains 2100-2400 calories: this means junk food is contributing 700-800 calories a day in many cases.

If you can save 300 calories a day (not a difficult feat, considering it means giving up less than half your junk food) you can start losing nearly 3 pounds a month--losing about 35 pounds at the end of a year, without going on a diet!