Hello!
The word 'diet' tends to freak people out a little.
"My new years resolution is to go on a diet"
"As of Monday, i'm on the diet"
"Nope, can't have that... on a diet"
It's always used in a negative way!
You shouldn't diet, you should change your lifestyle.
I have tried diets but hand on heart, I never stick to them. Regardless of the weight loss, I do love a cream cake (or any cake for that matter) so I'd always fall at the first hurdle. It's also near impossible to be on a diet around an occasion - birthdays, Easter, Christmas or New Year. They all have their temptations that are just waiting to stretch our waistline.
Although you could say I was and still am (after Christmas) on a 'diet', I try and make it more a lifestyle change so that once I've reached my goal, I can maintain my weight a little easier instead of binge eating on tasty things and pilling it all back on again.
My goal was and is to have approximately 1200 per day. Some people may argue this is too little, especially if you're exercising but it works. I would try and stick to 1200 calories a day and try and burn off 500 calories in exercise!
Using the application mentioned previously (My Fitness Pal) I was able to measure my daily calorie and exercise intake as well as my weekly weight loss.
It really was amazing to see what food had high calories in them, especially drinks. I looooooove takeaway coffees. I used to get a large coffee on the way to work a few times a week but soon stopped when I realised that a large SKINNY latte was pushing 200-250 calories. I could eat a nice filing breakfast and have an instant coffee for that, which would keep me full all morning.
Changing your eating habits and changing your lifestyle isn't about banning certain foods, it's just about controlling your calories and burning off the naughty treats.
At the very beginning, I became slightly obsessed and ran myself into the ground because I pretty much banned anything nice - no takeaway coffee, chocolate, cake, tasty yogurts etc. I had to take a step back and realise that a muffin wasn't going to pile on the pounds so long as it was in moderation. So I became more flexible with my eating. If I fancied a McDonald's for lunch (approximately 1100 calories) then I would only have a bowl of very low calorie soup in the evening.
It's all about balance and exercise.
Now, you couldn't do this every day otherwise you'd never lose any weight but occasionally is fine.
So...meals.
I would recommend you eat as many healthy and fresh ingredients as possible as it'll make you feel better both inside and out, will keep the calories down and make you stick to the diet.
BREAKFAST IS SO IMPORTANT!
Breakfast may seem like you're eating unnecessary calories, especially as most cereals are high in calories but it plays a massive part of weight loss.
Breakfast will kickstart your metabolism and get things moving.
Most people complain they cannot eat that early in the morning but start forcing yourself to eat little bits and build it up. I used to hate breakfast but now I wake up with a rumbling tummy.
Good breakfasts to have are:
Fruit & fibre with skimmed milk (170ish calories)
Toast (low calorie bread - 50 calories per slice such as Danish or Nimble)
Instant porridge, possibly flavoured with skimmed milk (250ish but filing - Waitrose)
Mixed fruit and yogurt (100-150 calories - Sainsbury's and Weight Watcher yogurts)
Snacking is also a good thing!
Fruit or veg are the obvious snacks but cereal bars (the low calorie options) are also good and can be more satisfying.
My recommended snacks:
Alpen bars (70 calories)
Weight watchers fruit crumble bars (80-90 calories)
Snack-a-Jacks (90ish calories)
Fruit (apple - 50 calories / satsuma - 30 calories)
Veg (carrot - 20 calories)
Nuts (high in calories but good fats/calories)
Crackerbread (19 calories per slice)
Note: only have one bar or a small handful... don't go crazy!
Lunch is the easiest meal of the day.
As I'm usually at work, soup or Ryvita is the easiest for me.
I've tried a few 'low calorie' soups and be warned, the Weight Watchers ones are awful iin my opinion.
Lunch recommendations
Any Waitrose Love Life soup, especially tinned or fresh
Ryvita with low calorie cream cheese & chutney
Cuppa soup & low calorie bread roll
Salad (with lots of lettuce) and a non-cream based dressing (honey mustard is great).
Dinner always seems to be the biggest issue.
You can still have your favourites, just change the ingredients a little.
Here's a few things I have for dinner and how I change them!
Beef Stew - add loads of vegetables, beef and stock to a slow cooker and leave on slow all day Eventually you'll have tender beef, a lovely stock and yummy vegetables as well. I have mine with carrot & suede mash.
Spaghetti bolognese - instead of using beef mince, use turkey mince as it cuts the calories by nearly half! Use less tinned tomatoes and use beef stock instead, which will help flavour the turkey! Don't go overboard with the pasta, if anything, cook less and perhaps have a low calorie yogurt after dinner instead.
Fish & chips - Any fish or potato works for this. Lightly bread a small piece of fish (any fish works) and oven bake for 20 minutes. Using either baking or sweet potato, cut into chunks/wedges, spray with low calorie olive oil spray and bake for 30 minutes turning once halfway! Serve with peas (or mushy peas if you're fancy).
And finally... Desserts.
This is one of my favourites. It's under 10 calories a pot and is so tasty!
There aren't
many low calorie puddings
but you just have to be inventive.
Here are a few options:
Low calorie jelly (10 calories per pot)
Skinny cow ice cream
Angel delight made with skimmer milk
Low calorie rice rudding
Weight Watcher desserts
There are options out there and 'dieting' isn't always about cutting out the tasty things, just balancing what you can and can't eat every single day!
I would start out quite strictly in the first few weeks, just so you get into the swing of things but slowly start introducing nicer things into your everyday diet making sure you exercise.
**Remember, it takes 3500 UNBURNED calories to put on one pound**
I hope this has made you realise that 'dieting' isn't all about lettuce and water, it's just about balance, moderation and exercise!
I will start putting some recipe and food ideas up to help x
