What are your best weight loss tips?

[loubielou31]

What are your best tips to keep you on the straight and narrow in your weight loss campaign?
I lost a few stone with Slimming World and reached target weight before finding out I was pregnant with DD2. Along the way I learned some good tips for helping me to stick to the eating plan but have forgotten most of them. I now have to do it all over again and am needing a helping hand so...

What are your best weight loss tips?

The ones I remember and use are

Brush your teeth, you're less likely to snack on unhealthy treats if your mouth feels minty fresh.

Make sure you've had your "five a day" before you have any treats.

Prepare healthy snacks to graze on whenever you feel the need rather than snacking on biscuits.

(Can you tell that snacking is my big downfall )

Please share your tips and ideas

If you think you are hungry try drinking a glass of water and then if you still feel hungry ten minutes later, then have a snack

Log everything on MFP!

Hi bambie Aleays seem to bump into you on these threads!

Haha I know soul I am a bit addicted these days

I'm just loving watching everyone motivate each other! It's really really helping me, I nearly have my first stone off and I feel so much better.

How are you doing?

Ps echo the advice about MFP it's my new best friend haha

Going to be watching this thread for some tips!

What do you lot eat as a healthy snack? If you say 'carrot sticks' I will not be impressed (hate the damn things)

And loubielou I am also a snack monster. It's a curse!

Haha kettle, I usual have a yoghurt or some fruit booooring

Oh yes fruit is a good choice. Best head down to Tesco to stock up, I suppose... maybe I could do some kind of self-hypnosis to convince myself that apples taste like chocolate?!

Or buy a chocolate coated apple haha best of both worlds :)

Exercise! I swear on my life that exercising helps me to maintain better appetite control.

Log everything you eat.......everything!!

Eat slowly - it takes your brain 10 mins or so to register you are full so eat slowly to be more aware when you have had enough

Exercise

Plan........fail to plan and you plan to fail :)

At the moment (because I've just restarted and I'm keen) I'm snacking on fruit and veg or diet yogurts.
I can up to a point avoid the snacks by having a cup of tea but that after school time when I've picked up the DCs and am preparing dinner that I often find I've eaten a portion of food whilst I'm cooking. Also there are times when an apple just isn't what I want. I haven't found a solution to that yet.

I do think a lot of my scnacking is boredom and habit though. I can find I'm eating something and I wasn't hungry just it was there so I ate it. I think that's why brushing my teeth is one that worked for me.

I think the solution to snacking is.......don't!! Ask yourself, do you really need something or are you doing it out of boredom or habit??

Sometimes you just have to tell yourself that actually no, you are not having a snack.....gradually you will get used to snacking less.

MFP for me has been brilliant, I wasn't aware of how much I picked until I started logging everything down - it could certainly be 200 cals plus a day. Hence I have given up picking, am aware of all my calories and lost the weight I wanted to.

I have low kcal hot chocolate a day to keep my chocolate craving at bay and also 90% cocoa chocolate - it's so strong and bitter I can't eat more than one piece, but I love it and it gives me the choc fix can you tell I'm a little obsessed with chocolate

Also I now have soup for dinner and often log everything on MFP. What has always worked for me (but haven't met anyone else who does this) is to eat my lunch in stages. I pre make say a rice and veg salad and have a 1/3 of it mid/late morning, the rest at lunch time and then maybe fruit or yoghurt etc (the equivalent of a pudding) early afternoon. It keeps me full up for longer doing it that way but I may just be odd

Log every single thing you eat on MFP and very soon you'll learn what a normal serving size should be. You won't have to keep logging after this

Reach for healthy snacks when you get the munchies, before reaching for the crisps etc

Better yet, don't snack at all. It's okay to feel hunger pangs and not act on them until a proper meal time.

It's good to give your digestion a break. Not eating for a long period eg 16+ hours once or twice a week can actually re-set your appetite, in time

It's okay if you eat cake, just allow for it in your daily or weekly calories. If you overeat one day, cut back proportionately the next

It's easier to lose weight by controlling your food intake, but exercise is fun, makes you strong and muscle burns more calories at rest than fat

Google TDEE and BMR, work yours out and don't eat below BMR or over TDEE.

My go-to healthy snacks (though my snacking has greatly reduced over the last year of losing 55 lbs, and I still like my crisps, chocs etc!):

Cottage cheese and berries
Olives and feta
Handful of nuts
Natural popcorn
Low fat milk and wholewheat cereal eg Shreddies or Weetabix
Edamame beans
Boiled egg and fruit or sliced tomato
Veggie sticks and hummous
Wholemeal pitta and natural dip eg salsa, hummous, guacamole
Scrambled eggs with diced veggies
Homemade bread and drizzle of olive oil or nut butter
Greek yoghurt and berries
Miso soup / broth
Fruit strips eg Yo Yo
Bell pepper, carrot, sugar snap peas dipped in balsamic vinegar with lemon
Wholegrain rice cake thins with salsa
Apple slices with almond butter
Veggie sticks with homemade tzatziki
Tuna mixed with plain yogurt, salt/pepper, a bit of dijon mustard and some chopped green onions and red peppers, spread on big cucumber slices
Ryvita seeded thins and dip

Smaller plates - I read an article the other day which linked to a study saying that if a group ate 25% of what another group ate, after 20 minutes, both groups reported being equally satisified (i.e. you do not need to eat as much as you think!). Plan ahead - sugar free jellies or sorbet when you just need something sweet, little pots of Philadelphia and celery/carrot sticks when you need to munch. Don't buy crap - if biscuits are your weakness, don't buy them. Mine foe is crisps. So I don't buy them, safe in the knowledge that if they were in the cupboard I'd eat them. All. You could try substituting unhealthy snacks for better versions...so instead of biscuits, maybe you could make your own flapjacks (cut into small squares) with plenty of oats, bran, nuts and seeds.

Keep busy so food's not constantly on your mind and (this is going to sound really sad) keeping a record of your weight will keep you motivated - I have an excel spreadsheet with a graph...but in my defence, there's nothing better than seeing that line going down! Have a goal (mine was to get back into the jeans I was wearing when I met my boyfriend which I achieved last night - there's no feeling like it!) but if you do fall off the wagon, pick yourself up again and start back immediately - don't decide to "have a bad week" because Monday didn't go to plan.

Make every meal as delicious as possible...I am far less tempted to snack in between meals if my last meal was yummy and not "diet food". A typical day for me would be to have warm museli, almond milk, raspberries and a tiny bit of maple syrup for breakfast which keeps me going until lunch, a big veggie omlette, herbs and spices and salad for lunch with some roast turkey breast slices for lunch and then moroccan veggie burgers, couscous with lemon, coriander and pepper, salad and steamed kale with garlic and salt for tea and lemon sorbet for pudding and it doesn't feel like a diet. Heating up a miserable little Weightwatchers microwaveable meal is not going to make you happy and isn't going to work in the long run!! Making my food as interesting as possible with loads of herbs and spices has also really helped. Nobody is going to feel satisfied and "not deprived" with a sad little boiled chicken breast and three lettuce leaves for tea.

Get out and walk or cycle or take the dog out as every little helps and the more exercise you do, the more cals you burn at rest as your body gets stronger and fitter. I know it's not for everyone, but I've found ADF works for me and just 'fits' into my lifestyle perfectly...see the nine billion pages on here about it for more info! It doesn't feel like a diet and I love thinking I can eat whatever I want tomorrow. I've lost 12 pounds with very little effort and the odd "whoops" day where things haven't worked out. I am within 2 pounds of my goal weight after 7 weeks and plan to reward myself with a shopping trip for new clothes as I was too embarrassed to buy anything in a bigger size. With all the money I've saved by keeping the weekly shopping to veggies, meat, fish and healthy stuff and ditching the truckloads of junk I used to buy, I reckon there's enough in the budget to treat myself and everytime I put what I buy on I will think YES! I did it!

Oh and post on here and get support! It's great!!

Yes, portion control is another big thing. I think most of us have just got used to eating much bigger amounts of food than we need.