4 Weight Loss Hacks

Ok I’ll give you a warning I’m about to get on my soap box. I cannot stand fad diets. I hate the idea that people all over the world believe that in order to feel good about themselves and be happy with their lives that they need to starve themselves, restrict their eating times, drink some bizarre concoction that other people have told them will make them skinny, shove diet pills in their face, remove every morsel of food that they actually like eating and replace it with specific foods (whether that be high fat foods rather than carbs or specific vegetable that someone has claimed will get them to their goal weight). Here’s the reality, people fad diet because they want to lose weight and they believe that there is a quick fix to get there or they feel like they have tried everything and nothing else has worked for them. There is no magic wand in life (trust me I would have found the one! ) and losing weight is the same. Most people know rationally what they should try doing to lose weight (exercise more, eat less) and from my experience people also know roughly what kind of foods would help them along the way to their goal. What is hard is really looking at our habits, why we have them in the first place, and then making the changes we need to make to get to our goal. So, here are some tips to get you out of a fad diet mindset and get you looking at how you can change those habits to something a little healthier that sticks all year round.

Photo by Vidmir Raic

1. Get convenient. Evidence shows humans love convenience, if something is easy, we are much more likely to do it and stick with it. Why make things hard for yourself? Why stay up till 12pm on a Sunday prepping your food for the week if you don’t have to? If you like to cook during the week try cooking in bulk every other day and freezing some rather than forcing yourself to do it all in one day. If you don’t mind paying a little extra, why not buy that packet of lean meat as a snack rather than an energy bar (which is probably only around 70p cheaper…). Make things as easy for yourself as possible and set yourself up for success.

2. Eat things you actually like. Most of my clients like a whole range of foods but feel pressure to eat certain ‘healthy’ foods. If you hate kale, why force yourself to eat it? Who cares about how healthy it is, if you don’t enjoy it you’re not going to keep eating it long term are you? Pick foods you like or at least don’t mind and stop forcing yourself to eat foods you hate, there’s just no need! The only exception to this is people who are really fussy eaters (people that really don’t like anything other than a few dishes, or any vegetables) then I do encourage them to try different foods and try to get a taste for something different but to be honest I think I’ve only had about two clients that are really plain eaters, the rest just tend to be stuck in a habit of eating the same things a lot.

3. Keep a list of lower calorie foods that you love or at least like to eat. I keep a list of low calorie foods that I like on my fridge so that before I go for my weekly shop I can have a look, pick out a few things that I haven’t had for a while and pick them up when I’m out. It’s so simple but it makes a big impact on what I pick up at the shops and what I eat during the week because of it.

4. Get out of the mindset of fast weight loss. Fast weight loss can be great for lots of people, especially those who are severely overweight or obese and are trying to lose weight. BUT, there are lots of cons that come with fast weight loss. There are the loss of water and sugar stores that our body actually needs (most the weight lost in the first 2 weeks is made up of this). Then there is the muscle that we lose when we lose weight quickly. Lastly, and most importantly in my opinion, there’s a lack of change to our actual habits. So we go on say a juice cleanse and we lose 3 stone. We’re feeling great about it! Then what…? We go back to eating and drinking the same things and in the same way that we did before that and you guessed it, we go back to exactly where we were. Not only can this impact our self-esteem and create a yo-yo weight loss and weight gain scenario it could also have implications on our ability to lose weight in the future

So if your goal is to lose weight, which is absolutely fine if that’s where you’re at, I cannot recommend highly enough that you do it in a sustainable way by making small changes that last.

Have a great week and remember to work out for me 😉