My Diet and Healthy Lifestyle Tips

A work colleague asked me for help her to lose weight and get her on the road to a healthier lifestyle. She was fed up with how she was feeling and wanted some advice about what she should do.

I don't believe in special diets as such, instead I believe in having a healthy long-term lifestyle that supports regular activity and healthy eating. This was my advice to her.

Set up the 'My Fitness Pal' app with a profile stating what your weight is now and what you realistically want your weight to be. Set it for losing no more than 0.5kg per week – that’s steady and it won’t feel like you’re starving yourself to death.

My Fitness Pal will allocate a daily calorie intake for you. For me it was 1200 calories a day which is not a bad figure. Some people who go full-on will limit it to 800 calories but that's too hard for me.

In the beginning just record everything you eat. Don’t make any drastic changes and just see how you go for a few days and then slowly tidy it up.

I avoid:

• White bread and white rice (basically the food is bleached of all its goodness) and replace with brown bread (not multi-grain) and brown rice and quinoa
• Soft drinks (unless they are diet and contain no calories)
• Fruit juice (the best part is in the skin and pulp which is removed)
• Pasta (I only eat it very occasionally and then limit my portion size)
• Dried fruit (I was addicted to this but discovered it’s the same calories as the full sized fruit so as you can imagine is only okay to eat in moderation)
• Cheese (I try to instead get calcium from yoghurt, low fat milk or supplements)
• Chocolate (but God damn I’m having Red Tulip on Easter Sunday)
• Cakes, slices and biscuits (but on special occasions...)
• Dessert (unless it is a fancy dinner out or again a special occasion)
• Alcohol (easy for me because I'm not a big drinker)

I do have some exceptions:

• Coke Zero is my vice and God help me if I had to give it up
• If I’m going out to dinner I will eat 3 courses (no questions asked)
• Chocolate at Easter!

Great food for breakfast:

• Low fat/low sugar yoghurt – hits the spot and is low in calories, check the grams of sugar and keep that low (vanilla is the best flavour for that)
• Try and keep calories below 100-150

Great food for lunch:

• Subway (wheat bread, I eat Roast Beef (good for iron supplies), no cheese and keep the sauce on the very lean side, heaps of salad)

• Sumo Salad (all salads have calorie counts, you can ask them to keep the dressing on the side or left off it you want)

• Grill’d salad (same for Sumo Salad)

• Origin Salad in Queens Plaza, Brisbane – amazing salads that all have calorie counts, try with no dressing
• Sandwiches with tuna and salad, ham and salad, no mayo, no butter/marg
• Try to keep calories below 500

Great food for dinner:

• On gym nights, because we finish at 7:45pm, we eat Subway or have a Michelle Bridges frozen meals (from Woolies)

• Tacos on wholemeal tortillas with lean mince, small amount of cheese and heaps of greens and tomatoes
• Stir fries, pizzas, pastas from of the Australian Healthy Food Guide http://www.healthyfoodguide.com.au/ all have calorie counts which is great, these are available at Coles, Woolworths or newsagents

• Try to keep calories below 500

Snacks (an absolute must around 3:30pm or you will find you are ravished by dinner time):

• Yoghurt
• Apples, bananas other fruits
• Nuts (just a few)

Exercise:

• Try and aim to do something every day, you know the saying ’30 minutes a day’ for me that’s gym 3 times a week and 10,000 steps every other day
• Exercising is best first thing in the day to kick start the metabolism (I however always exercise after work)

Water:

• Increase water intake to around 8 glasses – super hard, I can only do 6 glasses
• Increases metabolism and good to have when you’re feel super hungry, flushes out toxins

Weigh ins:

• I weigh in every day first thing when I wake up. Go to the toilet first!! Record your progress in My Fitness Pal app. It will go up and down and that’s to be expected. It goes up around your cycle as your body retains fluid and other things but generally at the end of the cycle it will drop back down.

Mental stuff:

• When you start a new lifestyle you will have the most difficult cravings and just long to eat the food you’ve always eaten. Be kind to yourself and just exclude one thing at a time until you get used to not having it.
• Clean out your pantry of all of the crap. If it ain’t there you ain’t gonna eat it.
• Be mindful of each bit of food that you consume and the feeling of hunger associated with it. We are so used to eating unconsciously (and often for the sake of it) that we don’t even realise we are doing it and often do it so fast without noticing what we are doing.
• You just gotta avoid cake and slices on offer at work morning teas. It does get easier as time goes on. The willpower muscle gets stronger. I always ask myself what benefit will this food have in my body and pretty much the answer most times is none-what-so-ever.
• Keep noticing the changes in your body. Worthwhile measuring your neck, chest, waist, hips and thighs so even if the weight doesn’t change the measurements sure will. Check yourself when you try on different outfits and see how the fit is changing over time.
• Take a before photo in your underwear. You just gotta do this so you can see the change. Take a new shot each month or two months. You don’t need to share this photo with anyone, it’s just for you to see how far you’ve come.
• As you lose weight reward yourself with a new piece of clothing. Throw out the stuff that’s too bit and tell yourself you will no longer need to keep it. Don’t give it away to someone in the family, give it to charity or sell it. It’s gotta go!
• Let the people you love know what you’re doing and check in with them on your progress. They will provide you with heaps of encouragement.
• Print out signs to help with your motivation.
• Consistency, consistency, consistency is key. In every part of your life it just is.

• If you stuff up, don’t give up. Each day is a new start and just draw a line in the sand and move on (I’ve done this heaps of time). Just don’t let a small mistake turn into the slippery slope of disaster.
• The longer you practice all of this the easier it gets. New nerve pathways develop to support the new lifestyle and changes in behaviour.
• Try and also work on shrinking your portions. If you normally eat two plates of pasta or whatever at home try just one and ¾ plates and then one and ½ plates and then back to one plate. Take your time with this. It takes weeks to make this adjustment. Don’t eat until you are full because that is really over-eating. Eat until you are satisfied.
• Remember the weight went on slowly and it will come off slowly so just keep going.

My book of choice:

• Michelle Bridges - Losing the last 5 kilos (I've read and re-read this book many times)

My device of choice:

• I was lucky enough to get a Fit Bit for my birthday this year. This tracks my heart rate, my steps, calories burnt, how many flights of stairs I've climbed and lots more. I find this device supports my motivation.

Until next time xx