The Secret To Losing Weight

Most people at some point in their life will struggle with there weight.

I doesn’t matter if it’s baby weight, emotional eating or just a lack of control or self awareness.

Helping people lose weight is big business, with new diets popping up all the time it’s hard to work out what will help and what is just a scam.

Diet pills, shakes, wraps, protein bars…. all these things could help you lose weight, but once you’ve lost the weight and no longer need to take these extra supplements, more often than not all the weight comes flying back on!

So what can we do for the best? 

Here are a few helpful tips from someone that has strugged with her weight most of her life!

A little back story on me.  I am very nearly 30 years old and have been over weight most of my adult life as well as my teenage years.  I have lost in total 80 lbs doing various different types of diets.  I have obsessed over every little detail and am one of those boring people you see in supermarkets reading the back of packages to see all the nutritional information.  But let’s get back to the point. 

Here are a few handy hints and tips of losing weight and keeping it off!

1)  RESEARCH!  Understanding your diet plan is very important for knowing why and how it will work.  If your meal plan says you can’t eat bread it should also explain why!

2)  PROGRESS PHOTOS!  I had my husband take photos of me every Saturday morning during the bulk of my weight loss journey. Seeing the small changes every week made such a difference keeping me on track.

3)  INSTAGRAM!  Visual representation is great, I took photos of my meals and posted them on my DIET ONLY instagram, I have my separate instragram for my personal family pictures to keep everything in its place.  Seeing all my meals in one place is very helpful when meal planning and remembering what I enjoyed or not.

4)  MEAL PLANNING!  Taking 10/15 minutes a week to write down a list of foods you want to cook along side the ingredients you’d need.  It helps keep you on track and you don’t need to make any last minute bad decisions.

 

5)  MEAL PREP!  When ever you can try and prep meals the day before or even days before.  You’ll thank yourself if you have a busy week ahead planned!

6)  ENJOY YOUR LIFE!  Don’t let being on a diet stop you living your life, if you have a cheat day and if that day turns into a week don’t beat yourself up!  Just try and remember why you started dieting in the first place and climb back in the wagon!

7)  HEALTHY CHOICES!  If you are going to a restaurant with family or friends try and look online at the menu first and see what is avaliable that could fit into your diet plan best.  Maybe instead of a dessert you could have a coffee, ask for a jacket potato or salad instead of fries.

8)  GET A BUDDY!  Finding someone in either a Facebook group or weight loss group that are in similar situation’s to you weight or lifestyle wise could really help, you can motivate each other and it really makes it feel like you are doing not just for yourself but for them too.

9)  A NOTE TO YOUR FUTURE SELF!  This one may be a little more out there but it really helped me.  I wrote myself a letter on the day I started my weight loss journey basically explaining why I was doing it, what I hoped to achieve and how I was doing it for all the right reasons.  I taped it to my fridge and if ever I felt like breaking I would read it and it helped me stay on track.

10)  FAMILY MATTERS!  Doing anything alone makes it ten times harder!  So I made sure all my family understood and supported me.  When I cooked healthy meals it was for all the family.  I found recipe’s for healthy desserts so we all had mostly the same.  It made life much easier and we all enjoyed eating as a family.

11) CONGRATULATE YOURSELF! Celebrate the little victories!  Don’t just pat yourself on the back at the finish line make sure you tell yourself well done often!  You didn’t over indulge at a party “well done”, you didn’t gain too much weight on your holiday “that’s great!” Tell yourself often you are smashing it!

 

I truly hope at least some of these help someone, losing weight is hard.  But it’s a journey worth taking.