Weight Loss TIPS

• ALWAYS EAT BREAKFAST! If you wake up and you’re not hungry it’s probably because you ate before you went to bed (which is bad). Eating breakfast can keep you full through out the day, helping you avoid binges. It’s also bad for your metabolism to miss a meal. Good breakfast foods I eat are: oatmeal/porridge, soy milk, soy yogurt, special k cereal, fruit salad (melons, berries, banana etc), almonds, blueberries, grapefruit, muesli, raisins and I usually mix it up like today had a banana + a handful of blueberries + a handful of almonds + a glass of soy milk.

• Don’t overwhelm yourself with the weight you have to lose. Make small goals in weight loss eg. I will try and get past the first barrier and lose 5 kilos. The feeling of achieving your first goal will help you be motivated to lose more weight.

•  Don’t also overwhelm yourself sacrifices in food you’ll have to make to get there. Saying things like I’m going to have to give up all my favorite foods from tomorrow is setting yourself up for failure because it’s such a difficult thing do. Take it little steps at a time such as eating wholewheat bread once in a while instead of giving up all bread all together. 

• Fashion is the best motivation. Go shopping, look at the clothes you would love to wear someday or the stores you would like to shop at, write in a journal how it makes you feel when you see these clothes and the fact that you cannot wear them. Read this journal entry every time you’re trying to decide whether you should eat the cookies you have been eying all day or you should go for a run. 

• Another motivator is to take your time and look in your closet and look at all the clothes you detest wearing because of your size or because they cover up parts of your body, remind yourself if you put in the hard work you will never have to wear clothes like this again. One of the biggest low points for me was when I had to wear sweat pants everywhere because I could not find any jeans that we loose enough at the buckle to fit my body proportions. 

•  With every meal try to fill half your plate with vegetables. This way you can still eat the things you normally do for dinner but you will be cutting down your portions and filling up on vegetables. 

• Keep a diary and write a list of everything you eat in a day. This will help put in perspective how much you eat in day. Trust me you may think that you don't eat that much but when you see it listed on one page it may come as a big shock.

• Carry a bottle of water with you everywhere you go. I find myself sipping on water when I'm bored, which is a good thing because it keeps me full through out the day and I'm less likely to buy a soft drink when I'm out.

• Go for a walk after dinner. When I plan to go for a walk an hour after dinner, I eat less because I'm scared to get a stitch and I know if I overeat the walk will be uncomfortable and less energetic.

• Don't weigh yourself constantly. If you weigh yourself everyday you are not going to have large results this can make you feel less motivated. Try to set a day every week to weigh in for example fridays, this way you are more likely to have a big result which will keep you motivated.

• Since it's the beginning of a new year take a before shot of your body and put it up on your wall or on your computers desktop and try to imagine your skinny after shot any time you feel like you're lacking motivation. 

• Any form of exercise is better than none at all. We all make excuses that we have work or school etc but  finding 30 minutes a day to exercise instead of watching tv isn't that difficult to do.

• Little changes can make a world of difference for example my mum lost 5 kilos in one month by replacing her usual 2 pieces of toast with jam and butter with oatmeal instead. Oatmeal is low in calories and it keeps you fuller for longer.