Secrets to Successful Slimming
1. Shop Smart
| Buy More | Buy Less |
| Cereals (check sugar content)such as porridge | Meat – especially red meat |
| Wholegrain bread (avoid white) or wheat free bread | Dairy products, especially hard cheese |
| Rice – brown or basmati | Eggs (2-3 per week) |
| Vegetables (all colours and textures)lightly cooked or raw | Nuts – stick to 8 Brazil nuts or similar per day |
| Fruit (all colours and textures) | High calorie snacks such as chocolate and crisps |
| Oily fish | Sugar |
| White tea, green tea, herbal and fruit teas | Tea and coffee |
I used to curse the design of supermarkets, everything always ended up balanced precociously in the trolley! However the key to healthy shopping is learning how to work your way around your supermarket so that you end up with a trolley full of low fat highly nutritious satisfying foods.
Begin with the aisle full of fruit and veg, in most supermarkets this is near the beginning of the store anyway. Buy anything that looks good, especially organic produce if possible. Experiment with fruits and vegetables you haven’t tried before; instead of having one portion of vegetables with your meal have less meat and more veg – it’s cheaper too!
Next head for the aisle where you will find rice (brown or basmati) and pasta (try wheat free or wholegrain) for your carbohydrates, which are essential for fuel. Then shop for cereals, reduce the amount of wheat based cereals and opt for porridge or other oat or rice based varieties. By the time you finish this section your cart should be two thirds full, leaving a small amount of space for some lean meat and fish. If you usually buy one pound of mince, buy at least 30% less and replace it with vegetables. For example if you are making a Bolognese sauce, add more tomatoes onions peppers mushrooms and less mince. Your portion sizes will be the same if not larger but the caloric content will be reduced and it will be a healthier balance.
When you finish your food shopping this way there will be just enough room for domestic items and no room at all for chocolate biscuits!
2. Always have breakfast
Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Of all the possible mistakes you could make when planning your meals, not having breakfast is probably the worst. I am frequently told “I don’t have time” or “I am not hungry”, a more recent comment was “it’s because I don’t like breakfast foods”. Quite honestly these are all feeble excuses, so let’s deal with them one at a time;
Lack Of Time – Eating breakfast doesn’t necessarily have to be the first thing you do every morning. If you have to leave early for work, take breakfast with you. A yoghurt or some fruit, or some dried cereal in a plastic container for example. Eat it as early as is convenient. The same applies if you have children to get to school, have breakfast as soon as you get back if you are too busy sorting the children out before you go. There are other things you probably have to do in the morning whether you like it or not, how many of us would cancel the trip to the toilet if it meant an extra five minutes in bed! It’s just as well that we don’t have a choice and bodily functions take over. Think of breakfast as a necessary function:
You must eat within 2 hours of getting up or less in order to get your metabolism started, break-fast means just that, you must break your (overnight) fast. When animals hibernate, they fast, their metabolism slows down so drastically that the food they ate before they went to sleep lasts them through many months. When we sleep out metabolism slows down, and we need to speed it up again. The only two ways to do this are, to eat and to move.
I’m Not Hungry – People who don’t eat breakfast and have little or no lunch usually work up a hefty appetite by the evening and consume more calories than that if they had three meals per day. Such an eating pattern can reduce the morning appetite as you are still digesting food from the night before, so breakfast is skipped again and the pattern repeats itself. When you consume vast amounts of calories before you go to bed, it is more likely to be converted to fat as there is no body movement burning up the food as fuel.
Also your body gets used to what you do; if you never have breakfast your body never expects it and doesn’t get the hunger signals. That doesn’t mean you wouldn’t benefit from it!
Dislike of Breakfast Foods – there are no set breakfast foods, you can have whatever you like!!! Although we traditionally eat cereals, there’s no law that says we have to. I had this exchange one day whilst giving a seminar on weight loss, one particular lady was adamant she couldn’t have breakfast because she didn’t like any breakfast foods, so I asked her what she would have for a light lunch and she said a tuna sandwich on wholegrain bread, “great” I said, “have it for breakfast!” She said “You just don’t” I said “Guess what – you can! I have been known to finish up the previous nights stew for breakfast and no one came to arrest me!” I have even had a bowl of rice pudding for breakfast if I run out of porridge!
Don’t get stuck in the breakfast rut; vary what you have so that you have choices, this makes eating more enjoyable. There are times of course when time is short and you have to grab what you can, but a bit of forward planning and careful shopping makes it more appealing.
People who skip breakfast are likely to suffer from a lack of energy throughout the morning until they do have something to eat. This can make them irritable and less productive and can lead to headaches. The time you saved by not having breakfast is lost tenfold due to your reduced productivity. Breakfast is a must have, whether you want to lose weight or not.
Plan Your Meals – If you have little or no breakfast, you are more likely to reach for a high calorie mid morning snack and justify it in your mind because you didn’t have breakfast.
A small lunch that does not satisfy you may also lead to afternoon snacks and over eating in the evening. When you are hungry you are more likely to eat the first thing you can lay your hands on, which usually isn’t the healthiest option. This is also the time when temptation to go to the local Chinese or Indian takeaway – or the fish and chip shop, sets in. Whilst even these things are OK in moderation, if they become a habit, so does gaining weight.
One of the best gifts I ever received was a slow cooker, and I use it all year round. In fact I now have two! A large oval one I roast chickens and other large joints of meat in, and a smaller one for casseroles curries and stews. When I am working it takes just five minutes to literally throw the ingredients in, some meat and veg and stock and spices or even a jar of sauce, and turn it on. The result is that when I walk in, the smell is oozing from the kitchen and is wonderful. In the time it takes to boil rice or potatoes is all it takes. The extra cooking time seems to turn any recipe into a delicious mouth watering meal, and only one pot to wash up! I often make enough for two days and microwave the second day so it is a real time saver.
For lunch, cold rice mixed with tinned sweet corn and frozen peas (which naturally defrost) and a tin of tuna or salmon, or any cold leftover meat, with a drizzle of salad cream, or other balsamic based dressing, makes a welcome change from sandwiches. I try to avoid eating wheat everyday so this is a great way to do reduce your wheat intake (which can lead to severe bloating). Thick “Big Soup” is also a great lunch and if you are near a microwave or hob at lunch takes less than 2 minutes, or can be heated and taken in a flask.
Satisfy Yourself Every Meal - This doesn’t mean eat as much as you can – it means eat until you are satisfied not till you are full. A “full up” feeling is your body telling you that you have eaten too much. Your stomach is approximately the size of your fist and can comfortably distend to double that size; make a fist now and look at it, then put both fists together and that is how much you can comfortably digest in one meal. That doesn’t mean be hungry, if you choose low GI foods that’s more than enough sustenance to keep you satisfied. Having said that – you must not leave the table hungry or you will feel deprived, feel like you are on a diet and make bad impulsive choices, so if you are genuinely not satisfied and the food is healthy, have some more.
Eat Slowly – your brain does not receive the signal that your stomach is comfortably full for about twenty minutes, so SLOW DOWN when you eat. It’s one of the single most important things you can do. If you observe slim people eating, most of them eat very slowly, allowing their stomachs to tell them when they have had enough. Overweight people on the other hand are usually eat more quickly and are oblivious to these signals.
Category: Weight Loss Tips
Recent Comments: