New Year Dieting Lessons

Right this is it! A New Year, a new start. How many times in the past have you made a new year’s resolution to lose weight?

Let us think about what lessons we can learn to put our slimming plan into action and make it really work. Do you really want to be overweight in a new century?

Lesson One:

The first lesson to learn for successful slimming is that you must learn to change your behaviour. You are overweight because you have poor eating habits.

However, this is not a crime and you have now made a decision that you want to get slim. You must attend your class every week and learn from your experienced Group Leader. The golden rule is nothing will change from the same behaviour.

Continue your present eating patterns and you will continue to be overweight. You must change your eating habits to bring about a weight loss. This means learning to eat the right foods. You will not really feel like you are dieting but eating healthily.

Feeling full, eating plenty but still getting a weekly weight loss. What more could we ask for?

Lesson Two:

Get Real! Realise that a steady weight loss of 1 to 2lbs a week is better and longer lasting than 5lbs per week.

You will only achieve these large weight losses with silly crash diets which don’t last and can prove very damaging to your health.

Lesson Three:

Accept the fact that you will sometimes fall short of the high level of determination you start with and learn to forgive yourself and press on with your diet. If you have a bad morning, don’t say ‘Oh that’s it for the day’.

Simply put it behind you and start again immediately. Don’t postpone your diet for a whole week, start again, straight away and you’ll find that by the next weigh in, you will have lost some weight.

Lesson Four:

Award yourself points for every ½lb you lose. Add up your points and reward yourself accordingly. This might just be the incentive you need to help with your weight loss. Then you can treat yourself to a new hair do, perfumed bath goodies or some new underwear (hopefully a size smaller). Anything that makes you feel good.

Lesson Five:

Food should be one of life’s pleasures, but not the central point of your existence. Find something to occupy both your hands and your mind so that you are not continually thinking of all that lovely food!

Find something you enjoy. It’s no good taking up jogging if it’s not your style. Brisk walking or swimming are both excellent forms of exercise. It must be something that you enjoy enough to do regularly, every day if possible, if not at least twice a week.

Lesson Six:

Now take a look at those shelves in the kitchen. Check your fridge. How many of you still have leftovers from the Christmas holidays? Come on, be ruthless, throw out the Christmas goodies.

You will only feel guilty if you do indulge and think what it will do on the scales. Go into the millennium with a kind heart, don’t feed your waistline. Give that food away!

We can all think of someone in much more need than ourselves who would be grateful of a goodie gift. Perhaps an elderly neighbour, a local old people’s home or children’s home?

Anywhere rather than leave them in your kitchen cupboards because if they stay there you will eat them!

Lesson Seven

Slow down before you even start a meal. The process of eating in a slower, more controlled way starts even before you reach the table. If you can take a leisurely approach to the table, chances are that you’ll eat slower and more leisurely too!

Always eat at the table, never in front of the television, otherwise you’re so busy watching the television the food vanishes without you realising that you are eating. You are then left feeling very unsatisfied.

Lesson Eight

Have your menu planned. Yes, we know that it’s difficult to decide a week in advance what you will feel like cooking and eating, so perhaps try just two days at a time. Try to shop for everything you need in advance and avoid going to the shops for those two days.

Don’t go shopping when you are hungry. You will then avoid the urge of impulse buying and high temptation foods that you are trying not to eat. Set aside a cooking day where you can cook slimming meals, portion them and freeze them. On a day when you have little time you will be grateful that you have got something quick to eat.

If you feel you have not got time for this then make time. Don’t you deserve to do that for yourself? Remember the same behaviour will only bring about the same results – unfortunately being overweight!

Lesson Nine:

Have a goal in mind. This may be a short term goal to lose one stone or it may be to reduce one clothes size. You may have a special occasion you wish to slim for, wedding, birthday, christening etc. You may wish to never take an overweight holiday again.

Well, remember Summer holidays are about 24 weeks away. Time flies by so do something now and slim into those beautiful summer dresses and shorts.

Lesson Ten:

Finally, don’t sit around thinking about the food that you are trying not to eat, do something positive that will help you to take your mind off it!