You’ve done your research and have decided that reducing your carbohydrate intake is the best way for you to lose weight. Unfortunately, when it comes to putting that concept into reality, it can feel much more difficult than it originally seemed. The reason is that the typical American diet is heavily based on foods such as potatoes, bread, pasta and other carbohydrate laden favorites. When you want to cut out carbs from your diet, a few handy tricks can be very helpful.

To begin, you should know that to cut out carbs, it doesn’t mean that you need to eliminate them altogether. Instead, it means that you need to reduce the number of excess carbs – particularly those from refined flour and sugar – and to make certain that the carbohydrates that you do eat have a higher nutrition density and fiber level, such as foods made from whole grains.

So when you cut out carbs, make sure that you are choosing the right foods to chop. Once you’ve done that, use these tricks to make the process even easier:

Learn to love lettuce – That doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be having a salad with every meal. Lettuce hasn’t received nearly enough credit. When it comes to cutting carbohydrates, it’s the perfect substitute for tortillas when used for making wraps. Make your wraps the exact same way, only use lettuce as the vehicle.

Skip the bread basket – Whether you’re at a restaurant or at home, if bread is normally set out before or with the meal, skip it altogether. In fact, at home, stop putting it out at all. If it’s not there, you won’t eat it. If you absolutely must have bread, make sure that it is made from whole grains.

Embrace your inner child – The snack bags they make for children’s lunches are typically all you need of your favorite carb-laden munchies. While eliminating cookies, potato chips and tortilla chips would be ideal, if you must have them, choose kid-sized bags that will help you keep your portions under control.

Break your pasta addiction – It’s hard not to fall in love with a big bowl of pasta, but it’s the same as eating a giant lump of carbohydrates. Instead, choose whole grain (or at least whole wheat) pasta and make it a side dish instead of a main. That will give you room to fill up on veggies and lean protein.