Simple swaps = Healthy weight-loss results

Trying to figure out how to get skinny? Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to resort to a calorie-crash diet or exercise two hours a day to see results quickly. Instead, start making smarter substitutions, cutting out starchy breads, pasta, and potato products for low-carb replacements that are often much healthier and tastier.

Cabbage or collard greens instead of bread

The Swap: Summer means quick and easy sandwiches—less time in the kitchen and more time outside enjoying warm-weather activities! Avoid a postlunch energy crash by ditching your standard two slices of bread and instead wrapping your sandwich ingredients in a raw cabbage or collard-green leaf.

Cabbage and collard greens promote healthy cholesterol levels. These cruciferous veggies also contain potent anticancer compounds.

Summer squash instead of hash browns

The Swap: Summer squash is a readily available, affordable substitute for carb-heavy potatoes. To prep, grate summer squash (zucchini or yellow summer squash), mix in an egg as a binder, work into patties, and fry in olive oil.

Summer squash is a solid source of magnesium, a mood-regulating mineral that also protects heart health and reduces disease-promoting inflammation.

Spaghetti squash instead of pasta

The Swap: Switch out spaghetti for the noodlelike flesh of spaghetti squash and you’ll enjoy the same consistency without the excess carbs.

Winter squash is chock full of cancer-fighting antioxidants like alpha- and beta-carotene.

Cauliflower instead of potatoes

The Swap: Potatoes are full of simple carbs that cause an unhealthy spike in blood sugar. Instead of mashed potatoes, try steaming fresh or frozen cauliflower, adding a bit of butter (the kind from cows raised on pasture is the healthiest), a bit of milk, and puree.

Cauliflower is from the cruciferous vegetable family. People who ate just four servings of these vegetables a week slashed their risk of dying by 26 per cent, according to Johns Hopkins researchers.

Lettuce instead of hot dog buns

Don’t let a starchy bun weigh down your summer cookouts! Instead, wrap your hot dogs in a nutrient-packed outer leaf of red- or green-leafed lettuce. Want extra crunch? Choose romaine.

Lettuce is loaded with isothiocyanate, lutein, zeaxanthin, and isoflavones, healthy compounds that protect against Alzheimer’s, lung cancer, and macular degeneration.

Oatmeal pancakes instead of flour pancakes

Pancakes are a breakfast staple, but if you indulge in these refined-carb patties too often, you’re likely to feel zonked by noon due to the food’s energy-crashing effects. Instead, use a mixture of whole-grain oatmeal and protein-packed cottage cheese to create your own healthy pancake mix. Mix together half a cup of old-fashioned oatmeal, a quarter cup of low-fat cottage cheese, two eggs, and a dash each of vanilla extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Process in a blender until smooth. Cook the mixture like a regular pancake.