I shared this information way back in 2009, right around this time of year. It was in response to lots of reader questions I’d received regarding a sane and healthy way to drop those extra winter-time pounds.

Readers are still emailing with the same question. It usually goes something like this: “With shorts and swimsuit season quickly approaching, do you have any truly healthy ideas on how to drop the excess weight I picked up during the holiday season?”

And yes I do. If you’re looking for a moderate and sane way to manage eating and diet in a world overloaded with confusing expert opinions, you might want to look at what I call the 5-S Way. This is what it involves:

Sugar-free. No surprises here. If you’ve followed my writing at all, you know I struggle with being a sugar-aholic. I have NO tolerance for moderation here. Like an alcoholic, one little taste and it’s a “lost weekend.” And as I’ve mentioned, I’ve read everything I can find on the devastation sugar inflicts on the body (to bolster my commitment, mostly). So while I fall off the wagon once in a while, I resolutely climb back on and keep trying. I rely on whole foods (and plenty of ‘em) plus small amounts of dried fruit to help me through what seems, sometimes, like unbearable cravings.

Slowly, savoring. When we wolf down our meals in a hurry, we're actually shortchanging ourselves in many ways. 

It turns out there's a reason food tastes so good. We're supposed to enjoy it, to slow down and savor it, not just get it to our stomach as quickly as possible. Chewing food thoroughly is actually the first step in the complex process of digestion, and if we glaze over it, just chewing the minimum amount of times necessary to get the food down the esophagus, we're actually compromising this process.

Besides breaking food up into manageable chunks, there’s another good reason to slowly and thoroughly chew. The saliva that coats our food as we chew actually contains digestive enzymes that begin to digest food before it’s even swallowed. The enzymes alpha-amylase and lingual lipase begin digesting carbohydrates and fats, reducing the amount of work for which the stomach will be responsible. If food fragments are swallowed un-chewed, not only do nutrients remain locked in the fragments, but these fragments create an environment in the colon that is conducive to digestive distress—bacterial overgrowth, gas, and bloating.

For food particles to even leave the stomach though, the “gates” of the stomach, the pyloric sphincter, must open. Conveniently, chewing also aids in this process, signaling this event. And speaking of signals, just seeing our food causes our brain to send signals to the pancreas and stomach to secrete digestive acids and enzymes that are essential to digestion. And the longer food has contact with taste and smell receptors—the longer we chew each bite—the stronger these signals become. Strong signals mean more digestive molecules, less indigestion, less acid reflux, and superior nutrient absorption. 

Chewing food thoroughly and eating meals more slowly has another benefit. It can shrink the waistline—and not just because there’ll be less bloating and indigestion. Eating more slowly gives the body a chance to tell the mind that it’s full, so that we can stop eating before we go overboard. Here’s another recipe you’ll want to savor—which just happens to be sugar free!

Selectively. Know which foods you should avoid, then avoid them. This sounds simple and obvious, but I confess there have been too many times during a week when I’ve eaten things I know good and well aren’t good for me. There are lots of reasons for this: functioning on “auto-pilot”—a lack of consciousness so to speak—just going with the flow, is the biggest for me. I’ve found that when I slows down, and THINK about nourishing rather than just filling myself up, my choices are the right ones. Here’s a recipe that is always on my SELECT list:

Red Grape & Pineapple Green Smoothie

Yield: about 1 quart

Serving size: 2
Calories per serving: 0

Ingredients:
2 cups red seedless grapes (rinsed well)
1/2 fresh fresh pineapple (cored and peeled, cut in chunks)
1 large Kale leaf. (rinsed well, stem removed)
2 1/2 cups water


Directions:

Blend well until all ingredients are thoroughly pureed. Savor this drink!

Small—portions, that is. We’re eating more calories than ever, and a leading reason is how often we eat prepared foods away from home. Whether they come from a restaurant, takeout or vending machine, the portions we’re being served are becoming larger and larger. Many of us have lost touch with what proper portions look like. Something that’s helped me is to shrink the portions I eat, without feeling deprived. I measure with my eyes, using this guide:

1 teaspoon: About the size of a fingertip (top to middle joint); fits into the screwcap of a water bottle

1 tablespoon: About the size of a thumb tip (tip to middle joint)

1/2 cup: A fruit or vegetable that fits into the palm of your hand—about the size of a tennis ball

1/4 cup: The size of a golf ball

1 ounce nuts: Fits into the cupped palm of a child's hand

1 cup cereal: About the size of a woman's fist or a baseball

1 medium bagel: A hockey puck

1 ounce cheese: About the size of 2 dominoes or 4 dice

3 ounces meat: About the size of a deck of cards or a cassette audiotape

1 medium potato: About the size of a computer mouse

Before SIX. Eating before 6 pm gives the body a better chance to digest your food. Research shows that the longer lapse between your evening meal and the next day’s meal leads to weight loss and a better night’s sleep.

And to top off the weight loss and better sleep benefit, there’s the overall health benefit. Researchers found that people who eat later in the evening tend to eat more. In addition, studies show that eating later in the evening increases triglyceride levels, a type of fat found in your blood. When you eat, your body converts any calories it doesn't use right away into triglycerides; and high levels increase risk of heart attack and stroke.

So to quickly recap: the 5-S Way to Sane Eating is to eat Sugar free, Slowly, Selectively, Small and Before Six. You’ll like how this adapts to whatever eating plan you’re on, how doable it is, and how sustainable it is. I’m not sayin’ it’ll be easy, but I am sayin’ you’ll drop some weight and feel a whole lot better. With that said, then, here’s a sugar-free toast to giving the 5-S Way a sincere try!