Hints and Tips to keep the New Year diet going

The only things you really need to do to reach a healthy weight are:

• Eat less
• Exercise more

However, most people need some additional information to help them along. Everyone is different but here are some things that I’ve found really useful and I hope will help you adjust your lifestyle. By the way, I’m not writing this from a position of victory. My weight is still far from idea but it is less than it was and considerably less than it would have been if I’d have carried on as I was before.

• Be realistic about what you eat and drink. Keeping a food diary is a great way of becoming aware of exactly how much you eat. Also make a note of how you were feeling when you ate. You may pick up emotional and behaviour patterns from this information which you can then deal with.
  
  
• Identify your empty calories and get rid of them. This is the most effective way of reducing your energy intake. This includes things like alcohol, sugary drinks, crisps, sweets, cake. Anything which is full of sugar or fat and makes no nutritional contribution should go, for the short term at least. This is not to say you’ll never eat them again.
  
  
• You’re trying to build a sustainable new eating regime. If you are fat this means that what ever you are doing now is not working. If you think you can go on a strict programme, loose the weight and then resume your previous eating habits then think again. It didn’t work before, why should it work in the future. The most successful programmes are strict in the short term and then you gradually introduce other foods in to a maintenance phase which then becomes how you live your life. Saying you will never eat cake again is doomed to fail. Eating cake with Saturday afternoon coffee once a month when you meet up with the girls is fine; cake every night for tea is probably not.
  
  
• Most sources say that weight lost slowly is more likely to stay off. This is because your body stabilises to its new weight gradually and stably and because you can learn a new way of eating. If, however, you only have a few pounds (under 10 lb/4 kg) to loose then this is less of an issue. Also if the weight has gone on quickly, then try to get it off quickly before it becomes what your body is used to.
  
  
• If you fall off your diet don’t crucify yourself for it just carry on where you left off. Don’t wait for next week, next month, the next new moon or what ever other fortuitous date you see coming up. Carry on. If you are an astrologer beware using electional astrology, you can put things off forever if you let yourself.
  
  
• If you do fall off try and figure out why it happened. The weak points I know I come up against are:
  
  
  • Coming home late after being stuck on the tube and not being bothered to cook so getting a take out.
    
  • Running out of food as I couldn’t be bothered to go to the supermarket.
    
  • Not having planned what we were going to eat and so getting a take out in the absence of a better idea.
    
  • Not fancying what I’d planned to eat. Tip: if you don’t fancy eating something when you plan it in it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll want to cook or eat it when that evening comes round.
    
  • Finding something suitable to eat when I’m out in the evening.
    
  • Finding time/remembering to make a packed lunch.
    
  • Eating breakfast.
    
  • If I’m eating alone not bothering to make a proper meal for myself.
    
    
• Your own points will be specific to you but remember they don’t go away. If you have a tendency to something then even though you’ve moved past doing it when things are going well, when they’re not going well that’s where you revert back to.
  
  
• Be realistic about the time you have available for shopping, food preparation and eating. If you’re out during the day try to make your weekday evening meal one with a quick preparation time. That way if you get stuck in traffic your whole plan doesn’t fall apart.
  
  
• Don’t buy too much fresh produce at once or it will go off before you get to eat it. Plan for a second shop midweek. If you buy apples for the whole week then they get soggy after a few days. You end up either throwing them out or eating mushy fruit while the rest of the family eat the fresh stuff. It’s a waste.
  
  
• Keep thinking about the variety of what you eat and how you can expand it. You’re likely to have a few really good ideas about what you can eat but you wont want to eat that week on week. Keep thinking about what innovations you can make.
  
  
• Get your mind on your side. The way you manage your thoughts is one of the most important ways to help yourself. Reducing your portion size is a great way of chipping away at your weight and turning an unsustainable lifestyle into a sustainable one but it wont work if your brain isn’t on side. You can’t expect to feel satisfied if your mind is telling you that you shouldn’t have to eat rabbit food, or that that amount of food wouldn’t feed a child. For more on these ideas see any book on positive thinking or meditation practice.
  
  
• It’s much harder to maintain a strict eating regime if you let yourself get hungry. That’s when you reach for the crisps. This is the principle behind having five meals a day. When I first heard about this I really didn’t understand how this would help you loose weight but now I think it makes a great deal of sense. If you are thinking that you don’t eat enough to make five meals then firstly understand that this is not five roast dinners and secondly make sure you’re aware of what you’re actually eating. Food diary anyone? What this approach entails is a midmorning snack – fruit, vegetables, something light to keep your hunger levels down. You could call this approach grazing. Having a regular intake of food helps your body. First it keeps you from being so hungry that you run off and get fish and chips. Secondly it gives your body a continual stream of energy which helps stimulate your metabolism. If your body is starved then it will shut down in order to conserve the limited energy it does have. If you have a considerable amount of weight to loose then I would strongly recommend this approach.
  
  
• Weight comes off quickly at the start of a diet. This is due to two reasons. First, the first weight off is likely to be the last weight on and probably hasn’t been there for that long. Second, this isn’t fat, it’s other stored sugars in the body. When you’ve gone through the quick phase you may plateau. Stick with it when you get to this point. Keep going as you will break through but it can be very dispiriting.
  
  
• If you have a lot of weight to loose you can alternate strict and maintenance phases. This can also work if you hit a plateau. It stops your body getting used to the diet and keeps you from getting bored. The long term goal is to re-educate your eating habits don’t forget.
  
  
• If you eat more often and eat less rich food the way you feel full will change. This sounds a bit strange but you can be full and satisfied without being stuffed. Getting used to this sensation is one of the most important things you can do as it means you wont automatically overeat. Also recognise when you are hungry, when you are upset, worried or anxious and learn to distinguish them. As you get into the habit of reducing your portion sizes you can eat and feel comfortable. If you’re hungry again in two hours then have something else. If you’re not you’ve eaten less.
  
  
• Find some sweet things which aren’t full of refined sugar – dried fruit is brilliant for this – which you can have a couple of pieces of when you want something sweet. A couple of dates or figs can finish off a meal nicely.
  
  
• Recognise your personal rituals and replace them with something else rather than ignoring them. For example, if you have a glass of scotch before bed find something to replace it with, don’t leave a whole in your day. I know someone who replaced his nightcap with spicy tea and figs. Because he kept his head on side he could look forward to this as much as he had the scotch.
  
  
• Don’t eat late at night. Not only do you give yourself indigestion but you don’t work off anything you’re eaten.
  
  
• Eat as early in the day as possible. The old story of breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and supper like a pauper makes sense, however this is difficult to manage in the modern world. Do what you can and don’t beat yourself up trying to do the impossible.
  
  
• If you are part of a family or group which eat together then try to get them on board. You get support for your programme, you all eat together, you (if you’re the cook) don’t have to make multiple meals and you don’t have to argue with them continually to make your case.
  
  
• Don’t put temptation in front of yourself. Empty the house of your particular problem foods while you’re being strict with yourself.
  
  
• Try to include exercise in your life. This is difficult. Be realistic with what you can achieve at this point in time. When you’ve been going for a couple of weeks have a look at the pattern of your life. Where can you free up a couple of hours so you can run around the park? Can you spend less time shopping and fit in a trip to the gym while you’re in town? Be creative with this process. Do you enjoy getting up early? Can you do your exercise before the rest of the household gets up? Don’t just say you have no time but don’t fill every possible moment either. You’re building a sustainable new lifestyle. You’re allowed to adjust your plan a bit.
  
  
• If you radically change your diet – excluding milk or wheat or going to low carbohydrate for example – then expect a transition period of about 36 hours. You may feel very strange for the first day and your stomach may get a bit gassy. Give it till the end of the second day until your systems calms down. It takes about a week for your stomach to get used to smaller portions.
  
  
• If you think you want something try to wait for a couple of minutes before you have it. This lets you become aware of your cravings rather than just blindly reacting to them. When you know what you’re doing you have a better chance of choosing whether to do it at all.

Diets which have worked for me

Diets which I know work are:

• Atkins
  
  

• Slimming World’s red and green day/food combining
  
  

• Gillian McKeith’s You are what you eat
  
  

Atkins is a great diet for loosing weight quickly. We both used this to get in shape for our wedding. It works by cutting as much carbohydrate as possible out of your diet and increasing protein intake. This allows your insulin reaction to calm down. Insulin makes you hungry – this is very simplified – so reducing insulin reduces your hunger and you eat less. You also tend to eat less of the things you’ll be eating. If you’re eating boiled eggs and cold meat you wont eat as much. You will get bad breath, drink loads and loads of water. It’s not suitable for vegetarians and impossible for vegans as you can’t get enough lean protein that doesn’t also have carbohydrates. You do two weeks on a very strict regime and then go into a maintenance phase. It doesn’t re-educate your eating habits that well and can give you sweet cravings. It can be high fat and can have implications for other medical problems. I believe there are issues for people with kidney problems. Any diet which doesn’t let you have fruit doesn’t seem like a long term solution to me. When I did it I didn’t care about chocolate, all I wanted was a apple which I couldn’t have.

I know a friend who did a similar high protein/low carb diet and lost four stone. However she didn’t build a new eating regime and had such a sweet craving when she came off it that she ate fourteen ice-creams! The weight is creeping back on again.

Slimming World’s red and green day/food combining works on the principle that you don’t eat protein and carbohydrate on the same days. You have one day – red – based on protein and one day – green – based on carbohydrate. They give you a list of things which you can eat and it was some time ago so I can’t remember more about it than this.

Gillian McKeith’s You are what you eat works on the principles outlined in her TV series and in her books. This is very strict. It cuts out all processed food, milk and dairy, wheat and some meat. You need to plan what you’re going to eat and shop for. You do eight weeks on a strict regime then include some other things. The great thing about this is that your taste buds do adjust to appreciate unprocessed, less highly seasoned food so you no longer like the stuff that got you fat in the first place. The pure regime is extremely worthy and some people find her extremely annoying. She has rules about drinking water with meals and for half an hour before and after which I found impossible to implement. The books spend a lot of time selling you the message rather than giving you the information, consequently it’s difficult to use them as reference works. The books are also in desperate need of a proof reader. The recipes are quite interesting and you can find a wide range of healthy new ideas. If you take it seriously you’ll need to further research the ingredients she uses, for example quinoa and miso. To do this programme successfully you need to be open to new foods and tastes. If you try to do it using foods you’re familiar with you’ll die of boredom. One advantage is that the eight weeks are a very effective detox and will get rid of your cellulite too.

Things I’ve found useful

• Don’t keep bread in the house. If you have it in you’ll snack on it instead of carrots, celery, fruit, nuts etc.
  
  
• I avoid milk and cheese but I realise that this may not be practical for everyone. Keep an eye on your daily milk allowance: half a pint is plenty.
  
  
• No sugar or sweeteners. Increasing the amount of herb tea you drink expands your taste buds and you don’t need milk. If you want a bit of sweetness use a LITTLE honey. Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s not fattening.
  
  
• No processed food. This cuts down on additives, hidden sugar and salt. You can also exert greater portion control. Always read the label. I make an exception for New Covent Garden Soup Company as they use minimal additives.
  
  
• Have loads of vegetables. This pads out your meal, gives you loads of fibre and nutrients and helps your body adjust to your new ways of eating.
  
  
• Porridge is great in the morning with a little honey. Porridge with water is a step too far for some. The size of the oat flakes seems to be important here. We have Tesco’s organic traditional oats which are quite large and make a very tasty porridge made with water. When we moved house we had a different local supermarket and had Sainsbury’s organic oats which made something very like cat sick. The flakes were much smaller. This is only a theory but seems logical.
  
  
• Having dried fruit and nuts in to snack on can really take the edge off your weaker moments.
  
  
• Olives are also a great snack.
  
  
• We do a Lite Roast Dinner. This cuts out the roast potatoes and other carbs and increases the number and quantity of vegetables. You have the roast meat – cut lean – and piles of vegetables. For instance, cabbage, sprouts, broccoli, carrots with roast chicken, beef or lamb. Avoid pork as it’s so fatty.
  
  
• If you need to eat out then choose the best choice you can. Look for the salad, the chicken and ignore the chips and bread. Watch the quantities of mayonnaise and hidden croutons. Greek salad is usually a good choice. Don’t have a starter and a pudding, two courses in plenty.
  
  
• If you lapse don’t beat yourself up. Try to figure out why it happened, work out if you need to do anything about it and then get back on with the original plan. Don’t wait for next week.

To conclude

• You’re the way you are because the things you do have made you that way.
  
  
• You can’t continue to do the same things and hope to change.
  
  
• You can change but you need to give/make yourself space within which to do it.
  This may seem like a lot of work. If you have quite a bit of weight to use you may be thinking “how long is this going to take” or “how old will I be when this is over?” The answer is exactly the same age as you would have been if you had done nothing.