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Thursday, September 28, 2006

4 Great Weight Loss Secrets #2

Stop Eating Before You're Stuffed

The spa: Green Mountain at Fox Run, Ludlow, Vermont

The strategy: Don't avoid food for weight loss until you're "starving" -- it sets you up for overeating. "Many people who struggle with their weight walk around with a low-level hunger that keeps them focused on food all day," says Marsha Hudnall, nutrition director. "Then, when they finally indulge, they eat a lot, quickly, and often make the wrong choices."

To break this habit, Green Mountain encourages clients to eat every three to five hours; between meals, they're served light snacks such as fruit-and-yogurt sundaes, celery sticks with peanut butter or unshelled peanuts. Before a meal, they rate their hunger on a scale (with one being "starving," six being "full" and eight being "so full, you're distended"). And they practice recognizing the signs that indicate they're satisfied. "We'll serve a delicious turkey wrap with yogurt spread, apples, pecans and shredded lettuce for lunch," Hudnall says. "When we're done, I ask clients to sit and think about how they feel.

If, after five minutes, they're still hungry, they can eat a small piece of bread or fruit." The goal is to learn to eat only when you feel a grumbling in your stomach and to stop once you're comfortably full and the food stops tasting delicious.

Fed up with calorie counting? Hudnall recommends dividing dinner plates into thirds: protein (3 to 4 ounces of fish, lean meat, dairy products); grains and starchy vegetables (bread, rice, pasta, corn, winter squash, green peas, beans); and the rest fruits and other vegetables. One satisfying trio that Green Mountain guests love: broccoli (1 cup), couscous (1/2 cup) and this simple maple-glazed salmon from the spa's new cookbook, Recipes for Living:

1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon minced gingerroot if desired
1 1/4-pound salmon fillet
2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallions

Mix all ingredients except salmon and scallions. Cut salmon into 4 serving pieces and place in shallow dish. Drizzle marinade over fish, reserving about 1/4 cup marinade to serve over cooked fish. Refrigerate fish about 30 minutes. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Place fish in baking dish; set aside marinade. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, basting occasionally with marinade, until fish flakes easily with fork. To serve, drizzle reserved 1/4 cup marinade over fish; top with scallions.

Serves 4.

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