Slimming Secrets From The Kitchen
By Janice Wee, Fri Dec 9th

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To get the svelte figure, start in the kitchen.

Slimming down is about taking in less calories, while you burnmore calories through exercise.

For a food lover, the part is tough. Exercise is easy,using the stairs instead of the elevator, getting off a stop ortwo before your actual destination and walking the rest of theway, all these add up helping you burn the calories.

Dieting, or consuming less calories requires discipline, or doesit?

My mom is svelte. She eats what she likes. I was slim too, whenI lived with her. Her style of cooking made all the difference.

Dieting is not about denying yourself your favourite food.Sooner or later, you'll feel so deprived, you end up binging.

A smarter way to go about this is to take a look at how youprepare your food.

Do you deep fry your food? Do you love crispy, oily fried stuff?

That could be part of the problem.

Maybe you have been by eating lots of salad, heapingyour favourite salad cream on it. Salad is great but salad creamcontains so much hidden fat. With all the calories in most saladcreams, you might as well have a full 5 course dinnerinstead.

Do you binge on ice cream? Sweet, delectable desserts that areoh so creamy?

Let's start with crispy foods. If you absolutely love dining oncrispy meat, try roasting the meat instead. The oil in the meatitself is enough to cook the food with. No need for additionaloil.

My mom had a turbo broiler. That was excellent for for cookingchicken wings. Our toaster was used to give food that crispyeffect you can't get from microwave ovens. Now there are ovens that doboth. A great way to make food crispy without resorting to deepfrying it.

Grilled food is yummy. Again, by grilling, the meats cook intheir own juices. No need for additional oils that characterizedeep frying. We use an oven with grill functions to grillchicken wings, roast meat, the works. Again, no frying needed.Use an oven to do that.

If you must have a crispy snack, the latest snacks in thesupermarket feature freeze

dried slices of fruit and vegetableswhich are just like potato crisps. Or go for unbuttered popcorn, freshly popped in the kitchen. Make your own using a popcornmachine, and skip the butter. Use salt or herbs to season itinstead. Or if you must, sprinkle honey or cocoa powder on itbefore eating.

On to the issue of salads. Salads are good, if you pay attentionto the dressing you put on it. Avoid mayonnaise. Try a herbalvinegar instead. Or if you can't stomach a salad without thecream, try steaming your vegetables instead. Steamed corn tastesgreat. Sprinkle a little salt on it and avoid the butter.Actually,  steamers arevital in the kitchen of anyone who wants to lose weight. Asteamer makes preparing a healthy, slimming, tasty meal so easy.

A svelte 60 year old told me how she stayed so slim and healthy.She has steamed fish and rice for most meals. Fish contains lessfat than meat. Chicken meat itself is ok, but the chicken skinis laden with fat. Regular meals based on steamed fish are anexcellent way to slim down. All you have to do is to season thefish with soya sauce, a slice of ginger, sesame oil and steamit. Eaten with steamed vegetables and steam rice, you have atasty, healthy, low fat meal.

If you absolutely love ice cream, switch to low fat frozenyogurt instead. You can buy that at the supermarket or make yourown using a yogurtmaker. The great thing about making your own yogurt is youdecide exactly what goes into it. You could use low fat milk,and all your favourite fresh fruit, then freeze the yogurt whenit is done, for a creamy, fruity treat. You could add cocoapowder and honey to it. Just use your imagination for a reallyyummy, healthy treat.

Please note that when you switch to healthy, lower caloriefoods, avoid increasing the amount you eat, no matter how yummythe food. 10 helpings of a 100 calorie snack is 1000 calories,so watch how much you eat.

Invest in these equipment to revamp your kitchen for a slimmeryou.

About the author:The writer is the webmaster of Kitchen which helps youfind your kitchen essentials online, easily.