Chinese Diet – 10 easy things you can do to lose weight

When we moved to China 7 months ago we were very worried about what we would be eating, and how would we live. We never thought that we would fall in love with the Chinese eating habits and style. We also never imagined that we have lost 80+ lbs!! We thought we should share some of our tricks with you. Here is the Chinese Diet – 10 easy things you can do to lose weight.  Simple things that you can do to lose weight and you don’t have to move to China!

Before we get to the juicy stuff here is a little behind the scenes on us.
From the beginning
We came to China with an open mind about everything including the food. We had a few rules; no feet, no head, and we really don’t enjoy intestines so that was out as well. Our diet tips don’t require you to eat anything crazy. We have not broken our rules…yet.
We were not fat in the US or at least we didn’t think we were. We ate a typical Midwestern diet and were in a daze at how bad our eating and lifestyle was. We wish we had known these simple tricks back home that make such a difference in your waist line.

10 things you can do today to start losing crazy weight!

1. Eat your food family style
   1. I used to hate eating family style, we steered away from these restaurants. I wanted what I wanted and didn’t want to share it with anyone. Now all of our meals are placed in the middle of the table.
   2. Keep in mind that you don’t make 5 lbs of meatloaf and just throw it in the middle of the table. You make your normal three dishes; (what you would think of like your main dish and two side dishes) however you don’t make one larger than the other. They are all about the same size.
2. Use a smaller bowl – much smaller
   1. Go into your cupboard and find your smallest bowl. Now that will be the bowl that you will eat out of. You can use your normal plates to serve your dishes on in the middle of the table. See you didn’t even have to get new bowls. How is that for easy.
   2. You might be thinking how am I going to be full on just one bowl of food that small? Not to worry you are not limited to only one bowl, but every time you finish your bowl you have to consciously get more food. You pick what you want to eat and how much of it. By doing this you actually pick much much less food than someone would naturally serve you.
3. Vegetables are your main course
   1. Vegetables dishes are what two of your three plates on your table are. For example you might have one plate of a cucumber dish, one of corn & carrots, and then another with ribs. If you wanted one night to have diced potatoes, chicken, and eggplant that would also be okay.
   2. We were not fans of vegetables before either, but find a few dishes that your whole family loves and rotate those. Trust us.
4. Cut down on your meat & dairy
   1. We eat very little meat. Most Chinese eat very little meat because it is expensive. We have opted out of eating lots of meat because it isn’t the main course of a Chinese diet and that is what we wanted. We found that meat is actually harder on the digestive system than we ever thought. After a night of heavy meat eating we all feel a little more lethargic.
   2. If you love meat, then don’t cut down too much, but be conscience of how much meat you are eating versus veggies. If you are worried about the nutritional aspect of it make sure you introduce different protein dishes that are not meat. There are tons out there.
   3. We eat very little dairy. It was hard at first coming from the cheese head state of Wisconsin. Cut it down and try to limit it to eggs, milk and yogurt. You will be surprised at how awesome you will start feeling.
5. Use chopsticks to eat
   1. You don’t know how to use them. Well watch this little tutorial and then practice away. Remember practice makes perfect, JUST DO IT! We love eating with chopsticks and wonder why we didn’t use them more at home. They are so cheap to buy and are actually lots of fun once you get going. Our 4 year old Lupita now eats all of her food with chopsticks too and she is left handed.
   2. You eat a lot slower, A LOT. I still have seen people shovel food with chopsticks so I know it can be done, but for most of us it is a lot harder to do so.
6. Introduce rice and noodles into your meals
   1. A Chinese diet includes a lot of rice and noodles. So our daily diet is no different, we eat rice and noodles 3 times a day.
   2. We have grown to love it. We feel like our meal isn’t complete if we don’t have some.
   3. White rice and white noodles is the color of choice. The Chinese actually feel that brown rice is in the same category as the plague, they avoid it at all costs and find it a bit insulting. What about all of the calories and the carbs in white rice? These people have been eating it for thousands of years and look better, live longer, and are healthier than anyone else. So I will trust them and stick with my WHITE rice. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken!
7. Eat your left overs – don’t waste food or the money you spent on it.
   1. The Chinese know how to recycle and reuse things like no other society I have ever experienced. Coming from a consuming/disposing society this has been an eye opener. I will admit I really don’t enjoy left overs. I am not sure where my hatred for yesterday’s food comes from, but it has been there for sometime.
   2. Now we don’t make enough food to feed an army, we just make enough and if there are some left overs they don’t turn gross in the fridge over night. I am guessing it is because there isn’t pounds of butter or grease so the food looks very similar to what it did the day before. We rarely throw out food.
8. Don’t deprive yourself of everything – just don’t gobble it.
   1. Don’t think that we just sit around eating carrots and celery all day and that is how we lost all of our weight. We eat food we crave and love too. I am a sucker for a coke and a snickers bar. I don’t want to know how many calories are in there or how many carbohydrates. But I have one of my power pick me up doses about twice a week at least. Some afternoons I feel like I just need a little something to get me through the day and I run down to the convenience store and pick up my little snack.
   2. We crave McDonald’s and so do our kids, so about once a week we have our American treat. We either choose McDonald’s or KFC. It is much more expensive to eat MCD’s here than it is in the US, so that keeps us away too. We do not deprive ourselves and feel bad about eating some food that we know is extremely bad for us. Anyone knows that depriving yourself of the little joys in life will only throw you off the wagon sooner.
9. Don’t keep a stocked pantry of snacks or “just in case food”
   1. We come from a family that keeps food around in case the Apocalypse comes or maybe the next group of teenage boys. The problem with keeping all sorts of yummy food around is that you eat it when you aren’t suppose to. You might have will power, but we don’t!! Especially Zeek, he will go and snack on just about anything he can dig up at 11 or 12 at night. So we have eliminated having snacks around all together.
   2. If you have kids you know that they can and want to eat many more snacks than we do. Remember, you are teaching them their eating habits now. When their metabolism dies like ours has they will begin to pack on the pounds and not know why. This is the time to teach them about healthy eating and snacking habits.
   3. Everyone in China I encounter grabs an apple or some yummy fruit to snack on. That is considered their sweet, good food for thought.
10. Don’t use too many bottled spices, natural spices are best and really are all that you need.
    1. This might sound odd, but it is true. We use to have about 30 bottles of spices in our cupboard. I admit that I didn’t know how to properly use 28 of them. In our Chinese diet we use about 4 or five different spices in total. They are ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, chives, and soy sauce. The ginger, garlic and chives are cut freshly and put into the dishes. Why not use fresh seasons if you can.
    2. We believe it has helped with bringing out the natural flavor of our food and made all of our veggies extra yummy.

Source: internationalcravings.com