Reddit reviews Eating for Life: Your Guide to Great Health, Fat Loss and Increased Energy

> But how do you guys choose to eat the healthy stuff over the better tasting bad stuff?

It doesn't have to be a choice between the two. A lot of stuff is delicious and good for you. What are some of your favorite foods? It's really easy these days to find healthy versions of anything that actually tastes good.

Lots of random tips follow:

Some stuff is ok for you, just in small doses. Eat 2 pieces of pizza instead of 4, for example. When snacking, look at the serving size on the box or bag, and take out only that much.

A lot of people eat out of boredom, or because it's there. When you're gaming, instead of a bag of chips and soda, get a bag of carrots, some lite ranch, and chocolate milk.

If you can, get the junk food out of the house or somewhere that's harder to reach. It makes you think about what you're eating before you eat it.

When I started eating healthier and was trying to change my habits, I would have a "cheat day" once a week where I could eat whatever I wanted. That meant that I could tell myself "just gotta make it 4 more days", etc...

Eventually, after not eating it for a while, grease and soda don't taste as good, even a little gross. When I was in high school I joined wrestling (great way to lose weight BTW). After eating well all season, soda actually stung my mouth when I drank it. So I didn't.

I assume your parents make your dinner, but if you take over a couple days a week, making food from this book (almost everything in it is great), I'm sure they'd appreciate it, and it'll give you some great life skills for when you're out of the house.

In case you are not familiar already, check out Eating For Life. It's not really a program to follow; it's more of a handbook for balancing one's diet, and it has a bunch of example recipes and meal planning guidance. For me, it was the key to staying in top shape while no longer being a competitive athlete. The author also advocates an "off day", and I think that's a big part of making it practical. Once I got really lean and started putting on muscle, though, the off day urge went away.

You're right: life's a lot more fun when you feel healthy. Cheers.

Body for Life, Eating for Life, and Transformation by Bill Phillips. Transformation is his latest book. If you want just one, get that. Body for Life is pretty cheap though (especially on half.com).

I went from 240lbs with a 42" waist to 160lbs and a 32" waist back in high school. I'm on the diet again (college messed me up) and I'm down 50lbs in the last 5 months.