Instructions: Here are a few quick tips for weight loss and health the "microwave" way:

1. Start the day on the scale, then have a hot whole-grain cereal or muffin quickly made in the microwave oven.

2. Weigh your food. It will cook better. Measure your servings. You will look better.

3. Dont start your cooking with fat. The food wont stick; the pounds will. Use fat only for flavor- olive oil when possible.

4. Keep fish, shellfish, chicken and meat portions to about four ounces (113.5 grams). The cholesterol isnt only in the fat; its in the cell walls of the meat.

5. Skin that poultry to halve the calories. Trim the meat.

6. Make lots of salads with diet dressings. Stay away from most bottled dressings - even diet- if youre reducing salt.

7. Cook vegetables. They fill you up and give you vitamins. Puree them in a blender for light soup and sauce bases.

8. Make "basics" (salad dressings, mayonnaise, sauce bases, stocks for soup, etc) to reduce salt, improve nutrition and save money.

9. Eat more carbohydrates.

10. Spices and herbs dont cost calories. They have vitamins. Full-flavored food tastes better; you eat less. If the chili burns your mouth the fork stops sooner.

11. Vary your diet: avoid boredom; balance nutrition.

12. Eat more than one course. It slows you down, and keeps you happy.

13. Get at least twenty minutes a day mild exercise twice a day- walks will do.

14. Dont clean your plate unless its filled with a proper portion of food, or you are sure exactly what and how much is on it. No one will tell your mother.

15. Avoid impulse eating. Wait ten minutes and find something to do. It may go away.

16. Have good snacks ready so bad ones dont take their place.

17. Shop less often; shop with a list; spend less time in the kitchen (easy to do with a microwave!) away from temptation.

18. See your doctor.

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