You can see from the column on the right that I keep an eye on a fair numbers of bloggers, some regularly, some intermittently. As it’s the beginning of a new year, a number of these wonderful bloggers have posted their Resolutions for 2011, weight loss frequently being chief amongst them. Rosie Scribble has had a real quandary whilst trying to promote a healthy product because it was keen to emphasise the ‘diet-friendly’ nature of the product whilst she wanted to promote the goodness of the product, brown bread of all things. “Diet” as a word has generally come to mean ‘drastically altering what you eat in a bid to lose massive amounts of weight over a short period’ yet it’s original meaning had very little to do with weight loss and more to do with habit:
- the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group: The native diet consists of fish and fruit.
- food or feed habitually eaten or provided: The rabbits were fed a diet of carrots and lettuce.
- anything that is habitually provided or partaken of: Television has given us a steady diet of game shows and soap operas.
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- Know yourself. If you have strong self-discipline, great. If not, empty the kitchen (and kids school bags) of temptation.
- Eat regularly. It’s crucial to keep your blood sugar even and prevent binges.
- Think Twice. If you think you are hungry between meals, have a drink. If you still think you are hungry, try a piece of fruit, fresh or dried. After that if you still feel hungry, have something to eat.
- Take time. Sit down to eat, taste every mouthful before you swallow it. Easier said than done when you have small children but taking the time gives the food a chance to fill your stomach. Likewise tasting it all makes you think about whether you need the next mouthful.
- Play Swapsies. Substitute brown bread for white bread, use margarine instead of butter, bake your potato instead of roasting it. As the saying goes ‘take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves’, so with calories.
- Treat Yourself. Just be clever with your treats. Have a few chocolate buttons instead of a Dairy Milk. Smokers don’t go cold-turkey for a reason: it doesn’t work.
- Be realistic. Don’t expect sustained fast weight loss. Don’t set out to lose half your body weight in a month. Don’t beat yourself up if you fall off the wagon. Just get back on it again. It’s about changing how you eat forever, not for the next four weeks: a day off won’t matter amongst 364 others.
Such a great post and such realistic advice x
You're very welcome Kate and thanks for visiting. I know what you mean about marge- I confess I loathe the stuff and only eat butter. I am cutting down on bread (and therefore butter too by default) because i eat too much ;-0
Do you know, the only thing I disagree with swapping marg for butter! I think butter is not a bad thing to have in small quantities – it tastes nicer, and given all the stuff they put in margarine, I question whether marge is better for you. Like everything, it's all about moderation. I only had low fat spread in the house in my 20s. Since my late 30s, I have only had butter in the house and I only buy margarine to make a specific cake that has a better texture for being made with marge. (Marge actually has around the same fat content as butter and therefore similar in calories, but low fat spread does). I don't slather it on but I do enjoy a bit of butter on my toast, for example.
I've recommended this site to lots of others and Friday's post is particularly pertinent to what you're doing. Jo has been my online friend for several years and she's inspirational jagsfitnessblog.com
Anyway, I picked up your post via Google alerts – thanks for adding me to your blogroll honey.
I thank you most kindly: years of failing at diets have taught me well 😉
Some great suggestions here. Especially like the ones about treating yourself and being realistic. Many thanks for the mention!
great tips!