I am regularly coaxing people along their weight loss journey and the other day someone asked me if I could only give 10 weight loss tips, what would they be. So, as January is traditionally a time for body re-evaluation, I set to the task. After much scribbling and scratching out, here they are. My own personal mantra, charter, treaty. They may touch some nerves.

10 Weight Loss Tips

1. Have short term goals – So for example “in 2 week’s time, my belt will be done up on the next hole” or take the emphasis away from body goals and declare”in 2 week’s time I will have been to 4 fitness sessions rather than 2″. Saying “I am going to lose weight in January” is doomed to failure. Settle into a routine. It has to become a routine.
2. Ban the word ‘diet’ from your vocabulary – You are trying a new way of eating to help your health. End of.
3. Plan meals, cook ahead and write them down in a food log every day – Confronting your diary with “chicken and quinoa salad with roasted vegetables, cashews and a dollop of humous” scratched out and replaced with “sod it, a slice of takeaway pepperoni pizza with double mozzarella” will dig deeper into your conscience.
4. Take up some exercise that you ENJOY – Mentally, you will feel you are buying into the whole new eating plan (not diet, remember) much more if you are backing it up with movement. But it should be something that makes you feel good. Be amongst people who make you feel comfortable or team up with a friend and plan a schedule of exercise. Be aware of friends cancelling though, which may jeopardise your own plans.
5. Hide (or better still, chuck) your scales – Get a tape measure and measure parts of your body regularly. Or hang up that favourite dress and try it on once a month.
6. Praise yourself – Surround yourself with positivity. Big up yourself every day. Don’t look miserably at the skinny bird next to you on the train. She doesn’t have your life, your pressures. Try not to draw comparisons.
7. Eat breakfast – (And at least half the days of any week this should be high protein, such as smoked salmon or eggs or turkey steaks). Don’t kid yourself that because you left the house without eating anything, that it gives you carte blanche to nibble on the office choccies till lunchtime, whereupon you declare it’s time for lunch. It’s a bit like saying “no thanks I won’t have chips” and then you eat half your partner’s. And still, in your head, you haven’t had chips.
8. Three meals and one or two snacks – Oooh, that’s lots of food. Yes, it is. As long as it’s the right food.
9. Swap starchy carbohydrates and some fruit for piles and piles of greens – Do this 5 days out of 7. Greens are low carbohydrate (unlike something like roasted root veg), hugely filling and packed with nutrients which you need for skin, hair, nails and general wellbeing. And your insulin levels (weight-loss is all about hormone balance) will stay super stable.
10. Have a treat once a week – Either a treat meal or a treat cake or a treat dose of alcohol. Decide what it is you miss and have that once a week. Don’t let it make you think you’ve messed up. Have it guilt-free, savour it, sniff it, love it. Then move on.

Our next round of weight loss plans start Saturday 28 February 2015.

Have a great day. Annie x