Less is more diet

Continuing on the "less is more" approach to losing weight...

Be in less of a hurry, and be more mindful when you eat.

I've recently read that there are two eating habits that can triple your chances of being overweight. The first is eating too fast. The second is eating until you're completely full:  it's best to stop when you're about 80 percent full.

These two habits complement each other because if you're shoveling food into your mouth too quickly your brain doesn't have enough time to receive the signals that you've had enough.  I've tried slowing down at my meals today and it is very hard for me to put this one into practise.  What does 80% full feel like, anyway?  These tips from Mindful Eating should help:

• 'arriving' at the food (simply notice the food and consider it); 
• awakening to the food (notice every aspect of the food before, during and after eating it); 
• tuning in to the body (tune in to your level of hunger)
• 'servicing' the food (extending the mindfulness to the preparation and service of the food). 

Absorb less fat by drinking more white and green tea. 

Another fact I've stumbled across is that human fat cells became significantly less fat when treated with a white-tea extract.  So as I'm swapping tea for wine during the week, a good pick would be white tea.  It's less processed than green or black.  Although I've also heard that green tea fights belly fat: in a study, overweight adults who engaged in an exercise program for 12 weeks lost more belly fat if they also drank green tea daily. There is a great article on the health benefits of white tea on Ya Ya's Tea-Board:

Studies at Pace University found white tea to have strong anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties as well as beneficial effects on dental caries prevention. White tea has been also found to boost the immune system, to repair cell damage after over-exposure to sunlight, slow down the aging process (anti-ageing) with its high levels of antioxidants neutralizing age-accelerating free radicals in our bodies, lower blood pressure and the risk of heart attack, as well as lower cholesterol. Last but not least, its high contents of EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) and caffeine - which have both been proven to help with increasing the level of energy expediture - will assist with weight loss.