Little things mean a lot, especially when it comes to weight loss. Just ask Barbara Rodriguez.

The 23-year-old Miami resident had never been seriously overweight, “just a bit chunky,” she says. But when she got engaged in 1997, she decided that she wanted to look just right for her wedding. That meant slimming down—the right way. “I didn’t want to fall for any of those fad diets,” she recalls.

Barbara began reading books on nutrition and weight. She soon realized that certain seemingly innocuous foods such as mayonnaise, butter, cheese, salad dressing, and sour cream were adding a boatload of fat and calories to her meals. So she dropped them.

Now, instead of putting sour cream on her baked potato, she sprinkles a little salt. She flavors her salads with vinegar rather than dressing, her sandwiches with mustard rather than mayonnaise. And she bulks up her sandwiches with lettuce and tomato, not cheese.

Since she started making her simple substitutions, Barbara has lost and kept off 15 pounds. And she doesn’t even miss her high-fat, high-calorie flavor enhancers. “I would never deprive myself of my favorite foods,” she adds. “I just eat them in moderation.”

Best of all, she no longer considers herself chunky. Losing those 15 pounds put her in a slim size-5 wedding dress.

WINNING ACTION

Flavor your foods with calorie burners. Like Barbara, you can whittle away at your fat and calorie intakes just by replacing high-fat, high-calorie condiments

with healthier alternatives. In fact, certain spicy condiments such as horseradish and chili powder actually speed your body’s metabolic rate, so you burn more calories. Try mixing a small amount of chili powder, cumin, chopped cucumbers, and green onions into nonfat sour cream or nonfat plain yogurt. Use this calorie-burning Mexican topping to flavor grilled chicken breasts.

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