Walking the Walk - The Verdict

It's time to decide -- is this a healthy habit that can be realistically worked into day-to-day life?

• Piece of cake! I can definitely work this into my daily routine.
• Not my cup of tea. This is harder than I imagined. Still, I plan to stick with it and do my best.
• Nuts! This seems nearly impossible to keep up. But I'll definitely do it whenever possible.

Like I said on Day 7, this is an easy step anyone can take to help cut back on calories. I keep a food journal (most weeks) and definitely saw a decrease in the number of calories I was eating this week. The effect was especially noticeable at mealtime, but the apples helped me cut back on my between-meal snacking too. If I found myself getting hungry an hour before a meal, I'd just eat my apple then. I still saw the effects at mealtime, but it warded off a bigger calorie binge.

I don't think there's any magic to this. Apples are crunchy and sweet, so they go a long way towards curbing a sweet tooth and desire to snack. They're bulky enough to fill a belly up, so it's reasonable to suggest that eating one before a meal can control hunger. The trick is, I think, getting yourself to reach for one instead of a higher density snack -- like cookies, for instance. But that's a whole other post entirely.