The Small Change Diet

January 5th, 2012

The Small Change Diet

I found The Small Change Diet, written by Keri Gans, a registered dietician in NYC, in my favorite book store the other day. Keri Gans has a website, – http://kerigansnutrition.com – is in private practice and is a media spokesperson (according to her Twitter page). I like her approach because it allows me to make each small change in a way that suits me, one little step at a time. Keri Gans has broken the weight loss process down in to 10 steps. Each step covers a different part of our eating habits or food choices. The Small Change Diet has no schedules and is completely individualized to your personal preferences.

The first part of The Small Change Diet deals with why we should eat 3 meals a day. It even shows us why it is important to eat a couple of snacks a day. Keri Gans give you many suggestions on what to eat and why, but she is not pushy or demanding. In fact she suggests that you eat your normal foods while getting used to eating in the ’3 meals a day and 2 snacks’ way. How long you wish to take on each step is up to you.

Making Each Small Change even Smaller

You can break the 10 steps down in to 10 smaller steps each if you would like. That would give me my 1% at a time change that I prefer. I am a big believer in little steps. I like that Keri Gans explains how simple it is to cut 500 cal a day from our diets. 500 calories a day is equal to a pound a week! And I love the small change diet way she suggests on cutting down on our favorite foods, those that aren’t so good for us, and add more of the foods that are good for us. How many times have you been told by a diet program that you will never again eat some of your favorite foods if you want to lose weight? The Small Change Diet explains how and why it’s okay to still enjoy the ‘bad’ foods that we have come to love so much – on occasion, with a small change here and there, live-ably and enjoyably. :-)

Drinking gourmet coffees and huge cups of soda have become a national pastime. It came as no surprise to me that we can easily drink more calories than we eat, I know I’ve done it. With each small change that Keri Gans suggests we dramatically cut down the calories we drink daily with very little noticeable sacrifice.

Small Change in Carbs Equal Big Change in Weight

I love my carbs as much as the next person. So I was delighted to find that I can still enjoy many of the carb rich foods I love and still lose the weight. As Keri Gans says “Eating carbohydrates doesn’t make you fat. Eating too many of the wrong types of carbohydrates makes you fat”. So each small change she encourages us to make, with our favorite carbs, will help us both trim down our portions and substitute healthier varieties. This is good because I would never stick to the small change diet if it required the permanent elimination of my breads, pastas and my favorite – pizza.

There is much to learn in The Small Change Diet.For example, many of the toppings we apply to otherwise healthier foods dramatically raise our calorie intake. How many calories there actually are in the meat we eat. Small, simple and easy changes we can make in our selection and preparing of those meats to trim significant calories. We must have fats in our diet. What kinds of fats are healthy and how eating those fats contribute to weight loss. She gives us small and sensible changes to address our sugar and salt cravings. Little things to keep in mind when eating out, or partying with friends, that will allow us to participate and enjoy ourselves with far fewer caloric consequences. And Keri Gans concludes the small change diet by covering the benefits of exercise and how to turn it from work into play. My favorite form of exercise is walking. It seems that I share that passion with many of the people who have successfully lost significant weight and kept it off for years. Combine walking with any of your entertainment or communication toys and walking can become ‘me time’ that you look forward to every day.

We are going to explore the small change diet in the blog pages that follow. How Keri Gans’ suggestions relate to other diet information ‘out there’, and how I go about implementing many of The Small Change Diet suggestions in to my own life.