A few hundred calories here, a few hundred calories there and pretty soon those pounds start creeping up. If you could trim just 100 calories a day from your diet, you’d be on your way to arresting that growing waistline, according to LSU AgCenter food and nutrition professor Dr. Annrose Guarino.

"It’s in your everyday routine and foods you might not think about where you can lop off those calories," the LSU AgCenter nutritionist says. She offers several ways you can adjust your diet and still enjoy meals and snacks.

• Modify your milk. Instead of drinking 2 cups of whole milk, switch to 2 cups of 1 percent low-fat milk or skim milk. The nutrients are comparable.
  
  
• Hold the mayo. Switch from 2 tablespoons of regular mayonnaise to 2 tablespoons of low-fat mayonnaise. Use low-fat yogurt for a flavor-charged substitute.
  
  
• Change your soft drink. Liquid calories still add up. Drink a 12-ounce can of a diet soft drink at zero calories instead of a regular soft drink at 150 calories. Try a cold glass of water, perhaps with a slice of lemon.
  
  
• Don’t supersize. If you've been drinking a 20-ounce container of a regular soft drink, switch to a 12-ounce or smaller size.
  
  
• Taste the dressing. Ask for salad dressing on the side and put the tines of your fork into the dressing before taking a bite of salad. The flavor hits your tongue and you will save many calories. Try 1 tablespoon of oil and a teaspoon of vinegar for each 1 1/2 cup portion of salad. Or experiment with some of the reduced-calorie versions.
  
  
• Downsize your cereal bowl. Your cereal serving may be one place calories are sneaking into meals. Check the portion size you're pouring in relation to the size indicated on the box. Decide if you're pouring more calories than desired. Try eating from a smaller bowl for portion control.
  
  
• Make one serving of rolls do. Limit the amount of bread (or rolls) and spread you eat before the main course to one serving when dining out. You always can eat more later if you're still hungry!
  
  
• Count the cookie calories. If you feel you're not getting enough "crunch" by limiting yourself to one cookie, try eating an apple instead - the calories are similar. A single medium-sized cookie easily can have about 100 calories. Often we pop two or more into our mouths before we realize it.
  
  
• Top your potato with fewer calories. It's easy to load up on butter or margarine (200 calories per 2 tablespoons) on a baked potato. Try switching to sour cream; you can have as much as 1/4 cup for 100 calories. For even fewer calories, use one of the light or fat-free sour creams. Or, substitute yogurt for sour cream.
  
  
• Limit the red, white and brew. If you drink alcohol, limit your daily consumption to one drink for women and two drinks for men as recommended by dietary guidelines. A typical 5-oz. glass of wine has 100 calories; a 12-oz. serving of beer, 150 calories; and 1 1/2 ounces of distilled spirits, 100 calories.
  
  
• Be size-wise with fast food. Many strategies are available.
  
  
• Skip the mayonnaise when ordering your favorite burger, and skip the tarter sauce with your favorite fish sandwich.
  
  
• If you're not very hungry, the "small," "regular," "junior" - or whatever term is used by the restaurant for its smallest burger - may be enough for you. Ask for a Kiddy Meal and save calories.
  
  
• Order the smallest size of fries or split them with a friend. Instead of fries, consider a side salad with a fat-free or reduced calorie dressing. It's still important to check the calories on the salad dressing. Many salad dressings come in packets; a reduced calorie dressing still may contain around 100 or more calories per packet.
  
  
• Order a diet soft drink or plain water.
  
  
• Pass a portion of popcorn. Popping microwave popcorn may be done daily at work and in homes. While even TWO cups of the buttery popcorn may weigh in at 100 calories, the entire bag can yield 10 cups or more than 500 calories! To gauge how many cups of corn you're consuming, one cup is about equal in size to a baseball. Microwave popcorn can be a great snack, so try some of the lower-fat versions.

"Try one or more of these strategies and you easily can save 100 or more calories," Guarino says. To find out the calories and nutrients in foods, she recommends looking at the USDA National Nutrient Database at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp or read the Nutrition Facts labels on foods.

The nutritionist also recommends contacting an extension agent in your parish LSU AgCenter office to learn more about healthy eating habits.