What is your one piece of golden advice?

[JonSnowsWhore]

What's your one golden piece of weight loss advice, your best tip, to share with us all? Anything that helps you shift some lbs, stick to it, keeps you motivated, or gets you back on it after a bit of a binge.
I'm doing weight watchers so for me it's knowing I have the group leader to weigh me every week, so I'd look a bit of an idiot if I just put on weight every week although I think I've majorly messed up this week!

Cut out booze

It's empty calories, and all too often leads to nibbling.

Very true, I used to have a couple through out the week but have pretty much stopped now for weight loss sake! Went out for dinner on Wednesday & had a cocktail that was almost as big as my head though so I've got some serious working off to do before weight watchers on Tuesday 🙈 I don't want another gain!

Remembering this (slightly cheesy ) phrase:

Losing weight is hard, being fat is hard. Choose your hard.

It helped me a lot when I've wanted to pile on extra portions or reach for the biscuits.

That and every time you think you're hungry have an apple. You'll soon realise you're not actually really hungry at all.

Party food is for parties.

1. For me it's preparing something in the evening or morning to eat as soon as I get in from work. Even if it's only a sandwich kept in cling film in the fridge or dry porridge left 'stewing' in yoghurt. I'm usually so hungry by then that I'd eat a half packet of biscuits otherwise.

1. Fruit in a bowl in the living room. When the kids have snacks I can ask them to throw me an apple instead.

Oh, I like that quote.

Little pickers wear bigger knickers

That is a good quote. Being fat is shit. Love the porridge oats in yoghurt, with a few raspberries thrown on top, I make it for breakfast sometimes too. Party food is for parties has cracked me up, mainly because I've made an actual little platter of party food for dinner before! Terrible

Being organised is key for me, pre prepping breakfast and lunch. Making sure I have lots of 'good' snacks in -and planning dinners.

If I fall off the wagon I just move on and start back on it the next day. No point beating myself up about it.

Go to bed hungry.

I always like a bedtime snack eg hot buttered toast. When I cut that out it makes a massive difference to my tummy in the morning.

Similar to banana, but I always think 'start now, don't leave it until tomorrow'. So if I've messed up and had a cake at lunchtime, I won't write the whole of the rest of the day off.

Yes, go to bed hungry. It works.

Look up the NoS diet. It has been life changing for me and has ended 20 plus years of yoyo dieting and self loathing.

When you think you are hungry,stop for a minute and ask yourself - am I so hungry I could eat raw broccoli?. If not,then you are not really hungry , just more likely to be bored or thirsty. Drink some water and find a distraction - go for a walk, DIY pedicure (or even better a manicure because you can't dip wet fingernails in a packet of crisps)!

For me it has been getting a Fitbit and understanding how much food my body actually needs with varying levels of activity. I used to think it weekends as a time to chill and treat days but found that I could be only doing 2500 steps a day if I did this and could easily eat 3000 calories so would just on one day be easily overeating by 1000 cals a day so just on that one day alone that's the equivalent of a stone gain a year, which really put it in perspective.

I've learned now how to handle my food and exercise to be able to deal with holidays, special occasions, eating out etc and am confident that this time I'm equipped to deal with maintaining my weight once I've lost what I'm going to. Time will tell if I'm right about that but I'm very optimistic in. Away I have never been about it before.

My tip is if you are a carb fan ( like myself), don't bother trying to low carb, just cut them down a bit.

So if you have toast for breakfast, lay off the bread/pasta at lunchtime. Or save the carbs for the evening, although I find I wake up really bloated if i have carbs at night.

If you're low carbing and your weight has stalled don't worry, you are due a whoosh. Stick to this way of eating and the weight loss will happen.

Stay away from diet soft drinks. The combination of aspartame and caffeine encourages your body to crave carbohydrates (including sugar).

Biggest one for me was sit down alone and eat dinner. No conversations, distractions. Just you and your dinner.

Eat slowly and cut small pieces. Then once you feel you've had enough to satisfy your hunger, look at your plate.

It doesn't matter how much is left. If you eat it, or throw it away, you will never see that food again. Don't eat extra food for the sake of it being there!

I lost 2 stone in just over 2 months doing this (along with the 5:2 and the 7 minute workout) because my biggest problem was portion sizing and gorging on huge meals.

Love all the advice hopefully I'll remember it all. Portion size is a massive

Do not diet. Seriously.

No-s is amazing.

Sorry posted too soon

Portion size is a massive problem for me, I could just keep eating. Definitely need to keep working on that. I think for me keeping busy is key, I definitely eat less & think about food less when I'm busy, which shows it's a boredom thing!

Been up with the baby since 5.30 so I had breakfast about 6, I'm ready for lunch already! I'm going to take myself out for the rest of the day, I've got until Tuesday to work off the meal I went out for so I don't gain weight this week. I have a serious amount of weight to lose & want to get this first stone off asap as a first boost

Argy I agree, I wasn't looking for fad diets, but I think Diet is just the widely used term now for trying to lose weight, but you're right, it is 'healthy eating' or 'healthy living' if you prefer

For me it's keeping a food diary- I follow Slimming World and they do a great journal- 12 weeks of food diaries and meal planning it really helps me keep on track.
If I'm out and about I take photos on my phone of what I've eaten and write it up when I'm home. On work days I write it up the night before when I make my pack lunch.
Online food shopping helps me loads too - removes the temptations when shopping.