Just say no to free food.

Big changes rarely happen because of dramatic events. They occur through a series of dozens, or even hundreds of small, incremental steps. People don't just wake up one day and turn fat. Small changes over decades have helped pile on the calories and move 66 percent of Americans into the overweight and obese categories.

Fight back. Here are five small things you can do, that over time will eliminate thousands of empty calories from your life. The best part about these ideas is they're all relatively easy to do.

Eating Out

Quit eating free food when you dine out. Olive Garden serves free breadsticks with their bottomless salad. Mexican restaurants often drop a basket of chips and salsa on your table with the water. Outback Steakhouse gives a cutting board of bread and butter. A single serving of these appetizers will set you back 150 calories or more, and that's if you only have one serving. What's worse is that these foods often have little nutritional value. Plus, they're not designed to fill you up, because restaurants want you to order more. When you eat out, thank the waiter and ask them to take free food off the table.

Stop ordering combo meals. Fast food places like to bundle things together into "value" or "combo" meals. It's a way of selling you more food under the guise of saving you money. You might want a sandwich and a drink, but for only 79 cents more you can also get a bunch of fries. Everyone likes a deal, but it's a bad bargain. You pay a dollar more, the restaurant brings in more revenue, but you end up eating several hundred more calories than you might have intended. A small fries from McDonald's will add 231 calories to your lunch. Order only the items you plan to eat.

At Home

Keep serving dishes off the table. When you fill your plate from food on the table in front of you, you're likely to consume 35 percent more during that meal. Instead, fill your dinner plates in the kitchen and carry them to the table. You're far less likely to get up and walk to the kitchen for seconds, so you end up eating fewer calories.

Cut your food into smaller bites. Your goal shouldn't be to see how much you can shovel into your mouth. People who take large bites eat 52 percent more calories at a meal than those who take small bites and chew longer. Think about it like this. Little bites equal "same taste with a smaller waist."

Quit skipping meals. I've been saying this for years, but you need to understand that your body is a machine. It needs energy to keep you alive. You need energy to pump your blood, breathe and do all those things you do every day. As a general rule, the food in your stomach, the last meal you ate, is where your body's energy comes from. A typical meal takes two to four hours to digest. If it's been LONGER than four hours, you still need energy, but there's no food left in your stomach to draw from.

Without food in your stomach, your body burns muscle for energy. It leaves those fat deposits behind. What's worse is you start to develop cravings. Your hunger grows and by the time the next meal comes around you're not just hungry, you're famished. It's hard making a healthy decision when your stomach is growling in anger. If you eat regular meals throughout the day, you're far less likely to binge.

Don't try and change everything at once. Just pick one of the suggestions and follow it for 30 days. Make it a habit. Once it becomes a reflex to you, add another one. If you have a smartphone, schedule one healthy suggestion a month. Over time they add up and before you know it, your body will start to change for the better.

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4/13/2014