|
|
A Slimming Programme that Works for You
By WLR Dietitian
Getting Started
Most of us decide to start our slimming programme on the
1st January, but in reality, this is probably the worst week
of the year to try and change your eating habits. After the
excesses of Christmas and New Year, suddenly switching to a
slimming programme will be a major shock to the system
and is guaranteed to leave you quickly craving all the foods
you’ve eaten to excess in the past month – we’re talking
chocolates, wine, Christmas cake, cream, mince pies, nuts and
crisps!
Instead, it’s far better to return to your normal
pre-Christmas eating habits for a week or so, before starting
your slimming programme. This will give you time to re-adjust to
your ‘normal’ diet as well as giving you an opportunity to
keep a food diary based on what you usually eat. Simply record
every single mouthful that passes your lips for a week. It
might sound tedious, but it will make you realise just how
much you’re eating and help to identify any areas where you
can make little changes to shift those pounds.
You may also find it helpful to keep a note of how you felt
before eating. Was it because you were hungry? Was it to
satisfy boredom, tiredness, unhappiness or another emotion? Or
did you simply eat out of habit?
Identifying those times when
you eat when you’re not really hungry will give you the
opportunity to find other ways to deal with these situations
rather than reaching for food. For example, if your food diary
helps you realise that you eat when you’re bored, you can work
towards beating boredom without using food, such as having a
bath, going for a walk or phoning a friend for a gossip.
Similarly, if your food diary reveals that you often eat out
of habit, for example, by going straight to the fridge when
you get home from work, you can look at ways to break or
change those habits, for example, by heading straight for the
fruit bowl!
Keeping on track
The key to continuing to lose weight is to
keep your slimming and exercise programme fresh. If you eat the
same foods day in and day out and only ever do the same
activities, boredom will quickly set in with the result that
you’ll be tempted to give up. When it comes to food, this
might mean investing in a recipe book to try some new dishes
or experimenting with different foods. For example, you could
make it your weekly mission to buy a fruit or vegetable you’ve
never tried before, or cook vegetables in different ways, such
as roasting carrots with a little spray oil rather than
steaming them, or adding fresh coriander, chopped peppers and
spring onions to your usual salad of lettuce, tomato and
cucumber! There are lots of different ways to keep meals
interesting – it’s simply a case of experimenting.
The same goes for exercise. It’s natural that you’ll get
bored if you only ever do the same activities – and on top of
this, you’re unlikely to get the most out of your workout.
Your body needs to be continuously pushed in order to burn fat
and tone muscle so it’s important that you keep pushing
yourself. This might mean trying some different cardiovascular
machines if you go to the gym, or increasing the intensity of
your workout, such as walking for a longer distance in the
same amount of time. Keep an eye out for new activities too,
such as dance classes at your local community centre or a new
aqua aerobics class at the swimming pool.
It’s also essential to keep yourself motivated. In the
early stages of your plan, friends and family will probably
keep telling you how well you’re doing and how great you look, but
compliments may gradually start to slow down, especially as
people get used to seeing a slimmer you. That’s why it’s
essential for you to keep reminding yourself of your slimming successes
to date – that might mean trying on an old item of clothing
that’s now too big for you, comparing pictures of yourself
when you were bigger with ones of yourself now or simply
totting up how many pounds and inches you’ve lost in total.
You may also find it helpful to give yourself non-food treats
such as a new haircut, a nail varnish or a massage, every time
you reach a new goal.
Reaching a plateau
It’s also important to avoid getting
disheartened if you reach a plateau where your weight seems to
stick for a couple of weeks at a time, despite all your best
efforts. This is common, but the good news is it’s usually
only a temporary problem. In the meantime, there are several
things you can do to help get those pounds shifting again.
Start by checking your portion sizes. After weeks of following
a slimming programme,
many of us feel confident enough to ditch the kitchen scales
and start putting cereal into a bowl rather than weighing it,
or pouring dressing onto salad straight from the bottle rather
than measuring out 1tbsp. Simply going back to weighing out
servings of foods like cereals, rice, pasta, meat, poultry and
fish may be all that it takes to get those pounds shifting
again.
You may also find it helpful to keep a notebook with you
for a week detailing every single mouthful you eat each day.
In the same way that portions can increase over time, you
might find you’ve allowed more treats to creep into your
programme
which you’ve been forgetting to add to your food diary, such
as having the odd cake in the office, treating yourself to a
bar of chocolate once a week, nibbling on sweets while you’re
driving or pouring yourself a larger drink than normal.
So now you’re armed with all the information you need, what
are you waiting for? All you have to lose is those extra
pounds – for the very last time!
|
|
