Skip the Soda
Replace your soda with water or at least with diet soda. The calories in soda really add up, particularly if you are always sipping something while at work. Increasing your water intake will also make you feel full, so you’ll eat less.

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Pick Fruit Instead of Juice
An orange has 50-60 calories while a cup of orange juice normally contains over 100 calories. It takes longer to eat and fills you up with less calories.

Cut Out Alcohol
Alcohol is just empty calories. If you don’t want to give it up altogether, switch to light beer or wine instead of full calorie beer.

Eat Salad
Munch on a salad before lunch and dinner. You’ll eat much less. Just remember, don’t overload your salad with high calorie dressing, croutons and cheese. Use the no-calorie variety of dressing or just a squirt of lemon on your salad instead.

Hold the Mayo
Mayonaisse and other condiments can pack on the calories without you even noticing. Switch to non-fat mayo or skip it altogether and opt for mustard instead. One tablespoon of yellow mustard is only 11 calories, while a tablespoon of mayo is about 100 calories.

Skin It
Remove the skin from chicken and other poultry. You’ll trim 100 calories off a typical portion. Wrap the meat in foil or use a marinade when cooking to keep it juicy.

Never Eat from the Box
Never eat from a box of cookies or a bag of chips. You won’t realize how much you are eating and you’ll be stuffing yourself with extra calories. If you must have these types of snacks, eat the 100-calorie packs or split it into small portions in Ziploc bags, so you’ll know how much you are eating.

Keep a Food Diary
You probably don’t realize how much you are eating. If you put it down on paper, you’ll find it easier to cut down. Make it a habit to mark down everything you eat into a notebook or food diary.

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8 Easy Ways to Cut Calories

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In your office desk drawer, store:

• Almonds and other nuts (eat only a small handful)
• Canned fruit (packed in water)
• Granola
• Instant oatmeal
• Microwave soup cups (low sodium broths)
• Microwave popcorn (no butter or salt)
• Peanut butter (eat a Tbsp with crackers)
• Raisins (mini-boxes)
• Whole grain, low sodium crackers
• 100-calorie snack packs

In your office refrigerator, keep:

• Apples, oranges and other fresh fruit
• Hard boiled eggs
• Non-fat yogurt or pudding
• Single serving canned juice
• Sliced carrots and celery

Snacking isn’t a bad thing as long as you snack smart. Don’t starve yourself between meals, instead reach for one of the above snacks. These are delicious snacks that can give you some energy and vitamins without a lot of sugar or salt. Also be sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day.

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Snacking Smart at the Office

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1. Keeping Fit All the Way: How to Obtain and Maintain Health, Strength and Efficiency
Written by Walter Camp, this ebook reflects upon the high percentage of people in America who make resolutions to stay fit as they age, but the low percentage of people who actually do so. It is available for free from Many Books.

2. The Wellness & Nutrition Landslide
If you’re looking for healthy recipes and information on nutritional choices that you should be making, check out this ebook, available from Linkerton Publishing.

3. Insider Secrets for a Lean Body
Author Mike Geary is a certified personal trainer, and in this ebook, he shares with readers the best strategies for getting results from your workouts. You can get it for free from Abs Facts.

4. Diet and Health with Key to the Calories
This ebook, written by Lulu Hunt Peters, may be nearly 100 years old, but it is a great starting point for those who want to learn more about what calories are and what they have to do with your weight. You can download it from Project Gutenberg.

5. No Animal Food
You don’t have to cut out animal products to lose weight, but most people don’t eat nearly enough vegetables, fruits, and healthy grains. This ebook, by Rupert H. Wheldon, is filled with recipes to help make it easier to incorporate non-animal foods into your diet. Project Gutenburg also has this book online for free.

6. The Science Inside: Obesity
This ebook, although short, is a great resource for people who are struggling with obesity. It covers topics like health problems that come from being obese, how to create a good exercise program, and what foods to include in your diet. It’s available for free from The Healthy People Library Project.

7. Weight Lifting Complete: Your Guide to Getting Started
Weight lifting is an important part to getting healthy, but it isn’t as easy to learn compared to cardio workouts. Weight-Lifting-Complete.com has a great guide for beginners, which you can download from their website (opens a pdf).

8. 5 Most Effective Abdominal Exercises
Belly bulge is the hardest weight to lose for many people. The Proven Program has compiled a short list of the best exercise for your abs, regardless of your skill level. You can find a free copy at their website (opens a pdf).

9. Big Fat Lies
Not everything you read or hear involving weight loss is true. Big Fat Lies is an ebook that explores fact and fiction in this industry. It’s available for free from Truly Huge.

10. Eat Right, Live Right: The Mediterranean Way
Most dieters know that Mediterranean cuisine and lifestyle is generally very healthy. This ebook is a guide for beginners who want to lose weight and feel healthier using the ideals of the Mediterranean lifestyle. Mediterranean Meals has it available for free.

Allison Boyer is a freelance writer and covers topics such as ultrasound technician schools and medical careers, health care topics, and more.

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Essential Reading to Fight Fat: Free eBooks

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Don’t Drive When You Can Walk
Make it a rule in your household. Never drive when you can walk. If you need to go to the store right around the corner, put on your walking shoes and get going.

Pick a Bad Parking Spot
When the rest of shoppers are clamoring for a spot near the door, do the opposite. Pick the worst parking spot you can and make the trek.

Take the Stairs
Skip the elevator and escalator whenever you can and take the stairs. Even if you can only take the stairs down when you first start, that’s better than nothing. Soon, you will be skipping up flights of stairs with ease.

Make Dessert a Special Occasion
Sweets and other desserts are not something you should eat every day. Instead of making dessert an after-meal routine, reserve it for special occasions. This is an easy way to cut out empty calories.

Ditch the Soda and Beer
Stock up on water, unsweetened iced tea, diet soda and other light drinks. Sugared sodas and beer don’t offer anything but calories and unwanted carbs.

15 Minutes
If an hour long sprint on the treadmill seems impossible, that’s because it is (at first). But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t exercise at all. Start out with 15 minutes a day of aerobic exercise of some sort — walking, jogging, swimming, biking, whatever you can do. At the end of the week, add five minutes. For the following week, do 20 minutes a day, then add another five minutes. You’ll be up to 45-60 minutes a day in no time.

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Jump Start Your Fitness Routine