4 Quick Fire Tips For Losing Weight

Food, glorious food.

Yummy, scrummy, fill your tummy food.

And fill it we do. From noon till night. Bigger meals, more snacks and fast food adding a few inches to the waistline. Before you know it you’ve got some extra weight that’s proving hard to shift.

I know. That was once me. Over 2 stone overweight and struggling to get it off. Diets had helped but something seemed to prevent me from following them through fully.

So, I chose to follow a personal plan which I’m going to share with you here. One which finally helped me lose the pounds once and for all. That was tweny five years ago. It has never come back.

NB: This DOES NOT replace a healthy, calorie controlled diet that should be only undertaken following professional or medical advice. I remained on such a diet as my techniques alone are not sufficient to lose weight, but merely back up a current supervised eating plan. Please diet responsibly!

Extra eating

The first truth was obvious, though not to me. I was eating too much. And the wrong type of foodstuffs. Too many times a day. Denial is what most people needing a diet are experiencing. They under measure the size of their helpings and over fill their plates. The mind has adjusted to the extra intake and becomes convinced this new level is normal, even average for most people. That’s why you find the reality that your eating has become unhealthy and out of control a bit shocking and upsetting. And surprising.

As a preparation, if you need to diet you need to try and reduce what, when and how you eat.

Accepting that I moved next to ways to back up my planned lower calorie intake. What could help me succeed? How had I been sabotaging myself? What habits had grown out of my food habit? Was there anything else going on? The answer was a resounding ‘Yes!’

For a few weeks I kept a diary and wrote down what was happening when I ate. Or when I wanted food badly. Bit by bit certain traits revealed themselves. Specific patterns became clear. And I zeroed in on a few behaviours that stood out again and again. Four to be exact kept re-appearing. The four I am about to introduce you to. Four that when I implemeted them made a big difference in less than a month. To my life and my stomach.

1. Shop after eating not before

Early on I spotted when I shopped for food. Late morning just before lunch or late afternoon as dinner time approached. On each occasion I had bought food I didn’t really want and far more than I previously used to. I was shopping with hungry eyes and a soon-to-be fed stomach. You need to buy food when you have already eaten so that you shop sensibly and not just buy what ‘you fancy’ or because your appetite is strong. Food shopping before a meal encourages you to stock up and seeing all the food makes those pangs for something sweet or savoury kick in. Pangs that you answer. Shop soon after eating.

2. Smaller plates

One day friends visited for a meal and commented on how large my plates were. A little shocked (actually a bit offended in a strange sort of way), I took a plate with me to a shop to compare sizes. Sure enough I used the largest plate to eat my food from. As such I filled the plate up as it’s what you do – the eye (guided by the belly) expects to see a full plate not a half-empty one. Thus I was doubling my previous food intake everyday due to a simple plate. I swopped the dish for a medium variety and not only did I downsize the meal size and therefore the calories, but I actually began cooking and thinking smaller meals too. The size tricks the eyes. Use smaller plates, bowls, dishes and saucers.

3. Eat positively

This could be a toughie as it comes with the territory. The worse I felt at any given time, the worse I ate (cakes, sweets etc) and the greater the amounts I gobbled down. I consumed all the wrong stuff in bucket loads to surpress negative moods. Mood = food. It became a habit. Feeling lonely or a bit down = reach for a cookie or half a pack to be precise. I realised that I had also flipped a subconscious self permission behaviour into cramming in bad food and then blaming it on the horrible feelings that followed. It was really the emotions first which made the food follow.

Food responds to mood. So eat positively. Never eat when you are low, sad, angry, miserable or any of these type of feelings. It will spoil your food selection which will then be used to beat or quell the mixed emotions. If you are emotional try to switch into a better frame of mind before you dine. Listening to some upbeat music, watching a quick clip of comedy or a favourite film for 15 mins or simply have a brief chat with a great friend who makes you laugh, as I did, will make a massive difference to the food you then choose. Develop skills and techniques to help you get into a quicker positive state for times when you are at work, out socially or under pressure to ensure your sensible eating is sensibly driven. Feel better to eat better.

4. Make and bake not heat and eat

Having more weight is from having less wait. Quick food at hand that can be swallowed in an instant. That was what I detected. I preferred snacks and buscuits that could be opened and eaten quickly or fast food that was paid for and polished off in a flash. Or microwave meals that were hot and ready to go in a matter of minutes. No waiting or thinking or cooking and preparing. It was too easy. Buy, open, devour.

I had to change my behaviour. It became very apparent that having food at hand to immediately reach for rather than create and wait for, was spoiling my eating habits. And buying habits. So, I made a ‘make and bake not heat and eat’ promise. If I bought the ingredients and cooked or baked them myself I no longer had the temptation to purchase the lazy ‘pop and press’ ready made dinners-on-the-go. It had three huge benefits:

I had to wait for the food to be fully cooked which suppressed snack attacks and cravings

I used healthier, energy giving cuisine and gave up non nutritious foodstuffs

I got back a natural appetite loving fruit and vegetables and eating in a more balanced way

Through making and baking the food I got to know the food. Understood what was good for me. What smelt fantastic when it was in the oven. What was worth waiting for. I tasted food for once. Got to really sense the various tangs on my tongue. Actually had a palate at last. And, greatest of all, took pride in the dishes and menus I began to rustle up. I became a cook. Be a maker not a heater and you will be a better eater.

These four tips changed my relationship with food. Taught me that what I was eating wasn’t really food. It was a reformed, fat glued together, processed rubbish. That was making my bodily system rubbish. And very large. The truth is I finally discovered real food. With all it’s natural colour (not the breadcrumbs or pastry type), fabulous tastes and phenomenal ways to roast, cook, boil or bake. Food I could stomach that my stomach loved. So that it got fitter and not fatter. Give these a try and maybe you too will lose weight and gain a new you.

**Please Remember – I am not a qualified doctor or professional medical person. These tips support a healthy, approved diet and you should always seek medical advice from a doctor before starting one**

Have you any special eating tips? What techniques have helped you lose weight and keep it off? Leave me a comment about how you created a new you

Image courtesy of Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (Clint JCL)