too true.

For part of our date on Saturday night, my husband and I went to Barnes and Noble.  While I was there I discovered this book, The 9-inch "diet".  I love this book.

I think I'm just excited to find a book that goes along with what I've been doing.  I put less on my plate and the try to leave a little there every time I eat.  I think it's one of the keys to me losing weight.

So much of losing weight is just having a little bit of discipline over time.  Just doing something small and then sticking with it will alter the shape of your body.

Alex Bogusky says that the reason that Americans are so overweight is because our plates have gotten bigger over the past 50+ years.  Literally.  They have really gotten bigger.  In the 1950s plates were only 9 inches.  (This was a total surprise to me!  I've been out looking for vintage plates and been wondering where the dinner plates were!  The dinner plates were 9 inches...so I've been seeing them all along.)  Now our dessert plates are 9 inches!  Is that crazy?!?

Alex says that we've as Americans have gotten bigger in direct proportion to how much bigger our plates have gotten...so eat off of a 9 inch plate (don't heap it full of food) and you'll lose weight.  Of course, he goes into much more detail so you should get the book.  I love the way the book is designed, the amount of pictures, and the way Alex writes.  It's easy and fun to read and it is full of common sense.

The 9-inch "diet" is not a diet.  Alex says that over and over again in the book.  It's just a simple perspective change in the way you eat and how much you eat.  It's the way you eat for the rest of your life.  Eat for dinner on the size plate you eat for dessert and you'll change your eating habits.

A few other points I love from his book:

*The French are thinner than Americans.  At first researchers thought that the reason for that was because they consummed red wine with their cheese and red meat.  What is really the case is just that they eat less of it than we Americans do...they eat off of 9 inch plates.  Most people in Europe eat off of smaller plates.  It's Americans that think bigger plates are better.

*An order of fries in England is a very small plate with about 10 fries on it...compare that with the supersize fries from McDonalds.  That's a big difference!

This book is an encouraging look at losing weight and keeping it off.  It's worked for me.  Just eating your food in much smaller portions and not having seconds will make a huge difference.  It's one of the ways that I've lost 20 pounds in the last few months.  The thing I love about the way I've been losing is that it has changed the way I look at food, it's do-able, and it's something that I can do anywhere.

Just make small changes.  Decide to eat off of a smaller plate, when you have dessert just eat 1/2 of what you'd usually eat, go for a 20 minute walk everyday, and instead of asking your kids to run up stairs and get you something...you run upstairs to get it. 

We all say it and it's true...it's the little things that make the difference.

What little things are you going to do this year?

new. LIFE.