[MUSIC] Establishing a healthy diet that can

be maintained over time has to focus on sensible substitutions rather than simple

elimination of the foods we like to eat. This is one of the reasons

why skipping meals doesn't usually help to

maintain a healthy weight. Because our bodies will find ways to make

up for a perceived deprivation of food. Here is a simple exercise

to help you start thinking about healthy substitutions. Go through a typical day's food intake and
identify times when you're habitually

eating less than desirable foods. For example,

the 48 year old man in our case study usually wound up snacking on potato

chips and candy in the evenings. What if that unhealthy snack food

were to be replaced with a healthy satisfying dip and

some fresh crisp veggies? Veggies and humus are a great

snack food substitution that can be found minimally processed

in most grocery stores. Or it can even be whipped up in minutes from some simple ingredients that

you can keep on hand in the kitchen. [SOUND] Even making your own

salad dressing instead of buying bottle salad dressing at the store,

this is a simple, healthful substitution that

can even save some money. A simple vinaigrette can be

thrown together in minutes and kept in an air-tight container

in the fridge for up to a week. Another sensible substitution,

if you're creating something crisp and slightly salty, is homemade popcorn, which

can be made in a pot or a popcorn maker. An added benefit, you get to control

the salt, and if you're using any oil at all you can control

the amount and type of oil that you use. In general, the homemade versions of

almost anything you crave will be healthier and probably tastier than

the processed version of those foods. Do you crave chicken nuggets? Make them from scratch using

organic chicken if you can. The homemade version only

requires six ingredients. Chicken, flour, egg, breadcrumbs,

olive oil and salt to taste. Compare that with the ingredients

in fast food chicken nuggets. If you feel like an occasional piece

of cake, make it from scratch. Using eggs, a reasonable amount of sugar,

butter, almond flour and baking powder. A slice of cake like this is almost

guaranteed to be more satisfying, and your dessert intake will be tempered

because you're making it yourself. >> You're not going to make dessert every

night if you're cooking it yourself because it's too much damn work. And so, there's something about

the act of cooking that enforces, without us even being conscious of it,

a healthy, wholesome diet. I think it's very hard to

get fat on home-cooked food. >> For every unhealthy food, there's

a healthy, home-cooked counterpart. And learning how to prepare these

substitutions is one of the keys to long-term weight management, and

an ongoing celebration of food