KISS-start your weight-loss
We all like to have goals, but they don’t have to be just weight-related.
Your goals and objectives can be any small positive changes that added together make a big difference to how you look and feel. Don’t let the end of summer be a time to regret that things have gone a bit awry diet-wise, or to wish you’d stuck to the changes you’d started to make so successfully. If things haven’t gone too well over the past few weeks, forget about it. It’s now time to focus on positive things, start again and remake those changes that can make a difference in a very short time.
To get you started, here are a few little tried-and-tested tricks that can help transform your life in a matter of weeks.
When you make changes, Keep It Simple and Straightforward (KISS – get it?). Record the changes you plan to make each week. It’s important for your success that you write them down and for your self-esteem when you achieve them.
Think yourself slim
- Visualise your goals – what will you look like when you are slimmer?
- Make the image real, the more positive you feel.
Never skip meals
- Regular meals keep blood sugar levels constant and feed the brain, so stop the hunger binges.
- Decide on the good foods for you to eat between meals and still stay on track.
Stand up
- Good posture can make you appear to be half a stone slimmer without any actual weight loss occurring.
- Stand with your back against a wall and try to make as much contact with the wall from heels to shoulders as possible.
- Standing up to do regular chores or even answer emails uses up considerably more energy than sitting down. It might be odd or even mildly painful at first but persist – it’s a very easy way to speed up your weight loss.
Eat slowly
- Set the table properly – don’t eat in front of the TV or on the run.
- At home, have a designated “eating room” and put all other rooms out of bounds for food. Eat only in that room, even just a power snack, and remove the TV from your “eating room”.
- Wait 20 minutes before having a dessert after your meal. It takes that long for “I’m full” signals from your stomach to reach your brain.
- Eat slowly and until you’ve had enough, leave any food you can’t eat and throw it away immediately.
Don’t waste calories
- Sweet things are nice and tasty, but the calories are of no nutritional benefit at all so get wasted.
- Eat sweet, juicy things that taste good, fill you up more and help to make you healthier – eg grapes, strawberries, oranges, dried prunes and apricots.
Walk this way
- 10 minutes of walking a day = 6lb lost a year.
- Build a short walk into your daily life (think about how can you do this).
Give yourself a KISS this week:
- If you don’t have time to take all your measurements, at least measure your waist.
- Enter your weight online even if it’s not good news.
- Think slim and proud – stand tall and don’t slump.
- Pull in your abdominal muscles as often as possible. If you get used to doing it, even when driving or sitting at your desk, it will become automatic. A flatter tummy = a happy bunny!
- Re-evaluate your first weight-loss goal, if necessary.
