The Christmas festivities are finally over and you have been left with an unwanted gift. Yes you guessed it: a few extra pounds and you can’t even take them back to the store to get a refund or credit note. But that’s no problem is it? Just start on one of those trendy diets that guarantee weight loss in no time at all. The one where you semi-starve twice a week sounds just up your street. At least you can eat all your favourite calorific treats on the other five days and still lose weight. Or maybe you have a healthy bank balance, strong willpower and prefer to fill up on meat, fish and cheese.
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But hold your horses. Start shedding the pounds and you feel like you could actually eat the horse. That’s only natural; it’s your body’s way of preventing you from starving to death. The bad news is that your appetite does not return to normal until you have maintained your new lower weight for at least six months. So follow a faddy diet that you can’t stick to, and you are highly likely to end up fatter than before you started dieting. You may have had your suspicions that yo-yo dieting makes you fatter, and now you know why. By next Christmas you’ll be needing a larger belt and that’s before you tuck into the mince pies.
But no need to panic, there is a solution and it is simpler than you think. In my book Can I Have Chips? I explain how you can compensate for diet-induced hunger by making sure you eat plenty of appetite suppressing protein such as meat, fish, eggs or dairy. No need to avoid unrefined carbs either, they prevent the food cravings that sabotage diets, and yes you can have chips. A little of what you fancy does you good!
Stop snacking and ditch the soft drinks. Eat three filling meals of real food a day, high in protein and low in added sugar and fat. Sugar inhibits appetite control mechanisms in your brain making it hard for you to know when you have eaten enough, and fat makes food highly palatable predisposing to overeating. You may find it hard to swallow a tablespoon of pure oil or fat, but mix it with sugar and down the hatch it goes.
No need for calorie counting or special diet foods. Just start your day with baked beans or eggs on wholegrain toast, have a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch and grilled meat or fish with chips and vegetables for dinner. Eat a piece of fresh fruit instead of dessert. Simple, realistic, affordable and it works.
But without a change in your current eating habits all attempts at dieting are likely to be futile. The key to successful weight loss is eating less. It sounds obvious but you may not realise just how much you are consuming, particularly if you like to graze or eat your meals while watching TV. Begin by cutting portions sizes and stop eating before you feel full. If you are dining out, share with a friend or ask for a doggy bag.
Swap processed foods such as cakes, biscuits, crisps, confectionary, ice cream, pies and pastries for real foods such as meat, fish, eggs, cheese, beans, potatoes, pasta, rice, fruit and vegetables – less energy dense and less fattening.
Develop strategies to help you make better food choices: like taking a carefully edited shopping list to the supermarket to stop you straying towards the confectionary aisle, or studying restaurant menus online so that you can decide what you are going to order before arriving at the restaurant.
Tune into your body. It knows when it needs refuelling and when it has had enough; once you begin to recognise and let go of family customs like always eating dessert, having afternoon tea and biscuits or leaving your plate clean.
Most important, instead of using food or alcohol to cheer you up, try finding value in all that life throws at you. Soon you start to like yourself more and feel less inclined to treat yourself like a dustbin to be filled with rubbish. Before long you’ll be able to wear all the clothes in your wardrobe.
www.canihavechips.co.uk
Can I Have Chips? fill up, lose weight, feel great
by Louise Graham PhD
Matador: 176pp £9.99 e-book £4.99
Tagged in Health Diet Healthy eating Diet tips weight Weight loss