If you want to be successful at losing weight and staying trim in the long term, you need to learn new healthy eating habits and make them an intrinsic part of your lifestyle. By eating a varied low-fat, low-sugar diet that supplies all the essential nutrients your body needs for good health, you can enjoy your food and never feel hungry. Here are some guidelines to get you going:
Don’t obsess about your weight
If you get stressed about your weight and how slowly the pounds are dropping off, it will be self-defeating. Successful weight loss is a gradual process and takes time; if you lose weight too fast, you are more likely to put it on again and there may be risks to your health. Don’t keep weighing yourself – once a week is enough. Your weight fluctuates from day to day, so you won’t get a true picture of how much you have lost.
Plan ahead
Try not to think too much about food and what you are going to cook for dinner tonight or lunch tomorrow. By planning ahead and doing one big shop instead of making several visits to the supermarket, you can get on with your life and focus on other things. By selecting meals from the 100-, 200- and 300-calorie recipes in this book, it’s easy to plan a whole week’s menus in advance. By ordering your weekly food online and having it delivered to your home, you are less likely to succumb to the many tempting high-calorie foods you spot as you stroll along the supermarket aisles.
Feel fuller for longer
By eating high-fibre and low-GI (glycaemic index) foods, such as vegetables, fruit, beans, pulses and oatmeal that are relatively low in calories and release energy slowly, you will feel fuller for longer, help keep your blood glucose and insulin levels stable, and reduce hunger pangs between meals. GI ratings are given for every recipe throughout this book.
Check food labels carefully
When you are shopping, check the nutritional information on food labels carefully to make sure that even supposedly healthy foods (e.g. smoothies and yogurts) are not high in sugar and fat.
Recognize your trigger foods
We all have favourite foods and snacks that we love so much that we find it hard to eat them in moderation. They might be sweets (candy), chocolate bars, wine or biscuits (cookies). By acknowledging your weaknesses, you are taking control of what you eat. You can still continue to enjoy them as an occasional treat and within the context of your daily and weekly calorie target.
Eating out
Just because you’re watching your weight doesn’t mean that you have to stop eating out. You just need to make sensible choices and know which are the low-calorie healthier options on restaurant menus. As a general rule, salads, grilled food, fish, seafood and chicken without creamy sauces are the best choices. Pasta is best with a tomato-based sauce rather than a creamy one and you should avoid fried food. Remember that a 125ml/4 fl oz/½ cup glass of dry white wine has 82 calories.
Drink lots of water
We all need to drink plenty of water every day to stay hydrated and healthy, but drinking a glass of water before a meal can help to fill you up, making it less likely that you will over-eat. Always drink water in preference to sugary soft drinks – it has zero calories. If you are still hungry… have a salad or serve some extra steamed, boiled, grilled or raw vegetables with your meal.
Set yourself a daily target
Most weight-loss plans set a daily calorie total, which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner, a skimmed (lowfat) milk allowance for hot drinks and cereal, plus a couple of healthy treats. For women, this is usually between 1,200 and 1,400 calories (instead of 1,800–1,900 for normal daily maintenance) and for men it’s 1,800 to 1,900 calories (rather than the usual recommended 2,500 required to maintain a healthy body weight). The round number calorie-counted dishes in this book make this easy for you.
Speed up your weight loss
Instead of eating even less to lose weight more quickly, start exercising to burn up extra calories and slimline your body. You need to exercise for at least 30 minutes four or five times a week. If you choose something you enjoy, you are more likely to stick with it and make it part of your way of life. Join a gym, power walk, go for a jog, cycle or swim, whatever takes your fancy, but don’t overdo it. Like dieting, you have to start slowly and build up gradually as you get fitter. If you have any health issues, check with your doctor first.
Last but not least…
Don’t crash diet. You might lose a lot of weight fast initially but you will soon pile it all back on again when you go back to your old eating habits – this is especially true of fad diets that forbid a whole range of essential foods. You need to make long-term changes to your eating habits to lose weight slowly, safely and steadily and keep it off for good.
Keep a record
Recording what you eat on a daily basis and how much weight you lose per week can be very illuminating when charting your weight-loss progress over a period of weeks or even months. It can also inspire and motivate you if you reach a plateau where the pounds are rolling off more slowly. You may find it helpful to write down the exercise you do, too. Record it in a pocket book or on your smartphone, tablet or computer.