HELLO SUPER HUMANS! For those of you who know me will know I lost a lot of weight before becoming a Coach. And I wanted to share with you some of the BEST advice I can give you that actually helped me lose weight in a healthy and balanced way. One of the things I did initially, was make a few small tweaks to my diet, nothing drastic, but habitual changes I knew I could stick to without feeling deprived or starved. This is what I really wanted to share with you today, as they really were a godsend for me when losing fat. There are some really really simple things anybody can do, no matter how busy you are! Take a read below…
Tip 1 – Say NO to soft drinks!
One of the easiest things you can do to instantly drop some lbs is to give up the soft drinks! Fizzy drinks such as Coke, Fanta etc are so so so bad for you and contain heaps of sugar! And even if you drink the diet stuff, the amount of sweeteners does your body ZERO GOOD. Come on people, treat your body like the palace that it is! Only fill it with the good stuff!
Ever heard the term ‘don’t drink your calories’ ?, well this definitely fits in for tip #1! Whilst apple juice and orange juice may be one of your 5 a day, they still contain sugar and calories and if drank, should really be a rare treat rather than your daily go to. The only drinks I tend to have these days are coffee, green tea, and heaps and heaps of water. (and my protein shakes post workout). Calorie filled drinks are a real treat for me now! Be careful when eating out too, and try asking for a jug of tap water rather than your usual soft drink… bonus, it’s free!
Tip 2- Cut out unnecessary sugar
Before I started my journey, my coffee of choice was a caramel latte with two brown sugars. The thought of that now makes me heave a little! I know some of us really feel we can’t function without those lumps of sugary goodness added to our hot drinks, but if there is one piece of advice I can give, it’s to ditch sugar from tea and coffee! (And cereal if you have it) Think about it, if you have two sugars in your tea and you drink 5 cups a day, that is 10 tsps of sugar every day you are adding to your ‘diet’!
My sister Linda gave me this tip when I was first starting out, so thank you Lindy! It worked a treat. I now drink an Americano with no sugar and I love love love it! I never add sugar to food or drinks anymore, what’s the point! You start to enjoy the natural taste of the food rather than just craving the sugary sweetness that we become used to.
Tip 3- Make everything you eat as natural as possible.
Processed food. It’s quick, it’s cheap, it’s convenient. But have you ever looked at the amount of sugar and salt that is added to these prepared meals? When you think about what is good to put into your body, think hunter/gatherer. I strongly believe in eating natural, non processed foods that are good for our bodies and foods that we are designed to digest! See below…
- Lean Meat/ Fish
- Nuts
- Sweet potato
- Eggs
- Fruit
- Vegetables
- Seeds
- Beans and Pulses
- And more of this sorta stuff…
We all have the odd bad meal, but life is about balance and we shouldn’t restrict ourselves completely from what we love to eat. Over time, you begin to love the feeling of eating wholesome natural foods that fuel your body with the right nutrients to give you energy to fuel you throughout your day.
Tip 4- Give yourself a break
80/20, Cheat Meal, Cheat Day, Flexible Dieting, whatever you want to call it. The third tip in this list is what I eat MOST OF THE TIME, but I allow myself a treat because let’s face it, I’ll go crazy otherwise!
Treat yourself to a high calorie meal, or the odd biscuit or muffin here or there but just make sure this is a small % of your diet. Don’t allow a high calorie meal (for example) to increase to 3 or 4 a week! (I have been guilty of this at times, but the important thing is to not beat yourself up over it, what’s done is done and let’s get back to achieving our goals). This helped me stay on track during the week.
Tip Five- Remove all temptation
Okay, so you have followed the tips above and you are feeling motivated and set on your goals. There is just one problem, that big bag of chocolates is sitting in the cupboard and you are thinking ‘I might as well eat that first right?!’.
The final tip for today is to remove all temptations from your house! And then simply never buy it again. If you have boxes of chocolates or treats you really don’t want to eat, why not give them to a friend or take them to work for your colleagues to enjoy, you really don’t have to eat everything you are given.
In supermarkets, simply avoid the unhealthy isles. In England, I like to shop in Aldi because all the unhealthy stuff is confined to the same two isles and I simply do not go down those isles! Stock up on fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds, eggs and other things you can snack on when you get hungry so you don’t reach for the bad stuff.
Hope this helps, try these 5 easy changes, see how they help you and comment below to let me know what you think!
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Nicki
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