Christmas Challenge Weight Loss Tips: Week 1
Christmas will soon be upon us with all its festivities and
party invitations. Make this Christmas one to remember and
follow WLR Dietitian, Juliette Kellow’s series of top tips to
get you slimmer and healthier in time for the party season.
Top Tips:
1. Fit food around your lifestyle
Trying to change the way you live to accommodate a new way of
eating is guaranteed to result in failure. For example, trying
to turn yourself into a Domestic Goddess when you work
incredibly long hours or only buying foods from a health food
shop when you have a family of four to feed will quickly result
in you ditching your diet. Instead, fit your diet around your
lifestyle and you'll be far more likely to shift those pounds.
2. Keep your food diary
Get into the habit of filling in your WLR food diary each
day. Remember to include every single item you eat and drink,
including all the little extras - that chocolate you ate in the
office, the sliver of cheese you had while cooking dinner and
the few chips you pinched from your husband's or wife's plate,
for example!
If you only fill in your food diary once a day, keep a pen
and jotter with you to help you keep track of your intake - it's
easy to forget the little things if they're not written down,
but they can make the difference between dieting success and
failure.
3. Weigh, then go
Jumping on the scales several times a day will do little to
keep you motivated. Most people's weight fluctuates dramatically
throughout the day as fluid intakes change - often making it
look as though you've gained 4lb between 8am and 8pm!
Weigh yourself just once a week, at the same time of day -
most people prefer first thing in the morning - and wearing the
same clothing. And if you can't stay off the scales, ask a
friend to store them for you and weigh yourself just once a week
when you're out shopping.
4. Measure your success
Don't just focus on what the bathroom scales say - keep a
record of your vital statistics, too. Many people find it doubly
encouraging to see the inches dropping off, as well as the
pounds!
5. Ditch 'diet' foods
Stay away from foods that make you feel like you're
'dieting'. You know the ones: rice cakes, thin soups, meal
replacement drinks, crispbreads, limp lettuce leaves, steamed
white fish and soggy cucumber - unless of course you like them.
After all, food should be pleasurable not painful!
6. Be a copy cat
Look at the way slim people eat and drink and pick up some of
their habits. For example, they might order a gin and slimline
tonic (50 calories) rather than a glass of wine (100 calories);
they might skip dessert or not put butter on their bread roll
when eating out; or they might only occasionally succumb to the
daily chocolate run at work!
7. Avoid 'all or nothing' thinking
One small overindulgence doesn't mean you've 'blown your
diet' or give you free licence to go on a food fest! Simply put
the indulgence behind you and move on and away from the fridge!
8. Eat more, weigh less
Focus on eating more of the 'good' things and it should
automatically help you eat less of the 'bad' things. For
example, boosting your intake of fruit and veg will help you eat
less fatty and sugary foods because they'll help you feel fuller
for longer.
9. But size still matters
To shift those pounds, it's likely you'll need to reduce your
serving sizes as well as make some smart food swaps to cut
calories. Even 'healthy' foods such as brown rice, wholemeal
bread, chicken, fish and low-fat dairy products contain calories
so you may need to limit your portions.
When you first start out, it's a good idea to weigh portions
of foods like rice, pasta, cereal, cheese, meat, fish and
chicken rather than completing your WLR food diary with a
'guesstimated' weight!
10. Identify bad habits
Be aware of things that sabotage your good intentions and swap
them for new healthier habits. For example, instead of going
straight to the fridge when you get home, go straight to the
fruit bowl; or if you always buy a bar of chocolate when you
walk past the newsagent, take a different route.
Bonus Tip. Healthy eating is for life - not
just for Christmas!
If you want to lose weight - and keep it off - it's important
to focus on changing your eating habits for life. 'Going on a
diet' infers you start on a particular day, finish on a
particular day and only change what you eat in between, so that
once your 'diet' is finished you return to the eating habits
that made you pile on the pounds in the first place! Instead,
use the WLR Christmas Challenge to slim for Christmas AND
kickstart a longer-term healthy eating plan that you can sustain
for life. |
