My hot tips for long term success!!!
Hi Chelly,
Great post! You are very close to your goal so it is great you are thinking this way... here are my thoughts...
First of all i think you should reintroduce food slowly and keep a food diary, first replace your evening meal, and then after a while replace your lunch, and then finally replace your breakfast, you can do this over a period of 2weeks -2 months - depending on what you feel comfortable with.
Keepign a track of calories is a good idea, everyone is different, so you want to find out what works for you. How many calories do you need to maintain your BMI at 22 or whatever your long term goal is? When you slowly reintroduce food you will be able to manage this process and find out how many calories your body needs.
Making sure you eat the right foods and foods that will keep you fuller for longer is important too. I think that keeping to low gi foods is very important and also having plenty of lean protein and fresh foods.
As well as eating healthy I think it is important to keep a food diary, weigh in often and also keep active!
When we are losing weight it is very easy to weigh ourselves each day, and the saying goes "what gets measured always improves". Many people stop weighing themselves when they get to goal, and then if you have been "bad" you are afraid to step on the scales as you don't want to know the damage!!!
This is the worst thing to do, and I think if we all could get the discipline to weigh at least once a week then we would all have a better chance of success.
Keeping an online food diary on minimins is also a great idea as this will help you to keep focused on maintaining and being healthy.
Here is a list of healthy foods that if you eat from this list you cannot go far wrong!!!
- Skinless Poultry
- All shellfish
- White Fish
- Oily Fish
- Lean Mince
- Lean Beef
- Lamb
- Ham
- Pork
- bacon
- Eggs boiled, poached or scrambled
- Plain low fat cottage cheese
- Quorn
- Soya
- Tofu
Salad & Vegetables - in any amount
- Alfalfa Sproutes
- Artichokes
- Asparagus
- Aubergine
- Bamboo Shoots
- Brocolli
- Brussel Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Chicory
- Courgettes
- Cucumber
- Fennel
- Green Beans
- Leeks
- Lettuce
- Mangetout
- Marrow
- Mushrooms
- Onions
- Pak Choi
- Peppers
- radish
- Rocket
- Spinach
- Watercress
- Water Chestnuts
- Raw carrot
- Olives
- Sweetcorn
- Butternutsquash
- Swede
- Turnip
- Tomato
- Beetroot
- Avocado
Fruits and Nuts - In Limited Amounts
- Raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries or cherries
- Grapefruit or mango
- Apple, organes, mango, kiwi, passion fruit, peach, plum, satsuma or tangerine
- Small Handful of uncoated nuts and/or seeds
Switching to skimmed milk is also a good idea - especially easy if you have not had milk in so long with TFR.
Keeping carbs to healthy carbs like brown bread, burgen bread, wholemeal tortilla wraps, brown pasta, brown rice, etc.
Avoiding white carbs is a very good policy to have!! No white bread, white rice, white pasta, potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are the best to have.
If you can create a menu plan using these ingredients then you will have long term success.
It is very important to avoid sugar - if you want something sweet then use products like the wafers, bars and snacks offered by the New You Diet. These are rally sweet and satisfying but high protein foods, great for trips to starbucks or the the cinema!
Also a big danger is alcohol... not only for the empty dead calories this gives you, but also it weakens your resolve and you can order takeaways when you are drunk! Also the next day when you have a hangover you can crave sugar or high fat foods!
If you are going to drink it is best for your health in every respect to only have a few drinks - but not enough to make you want to eat like a horse!!! lol
Being active - walking, going to the gym is also great for long term success... having a goal is great!
Keeping goals with charity events like sports relief will keep you focused on being fit and healthy.
There is no magic formula to staying slim, it really is simple.
I love the saying... "Ordinary things consistently done create extraordinary results!"
So true... what you do every day does count. If you have a bad day, then it is not the end of the world, if you put on half a stone GET IT OFF, dont let it turn into 1 stone!
Dont put your head in the sand, be aware of your weight, aware of what you eat, and enjoy being slim and healthy!!!!
ALSO GET RID OF ALL YOUR BIG CLOTHES!!! If you put weight on and you can slip into big clothes this is a recipe for disaster... banish them all and only have slim clothes!!!!
I really wish you every success with your maintenace, you are a true inspiration, and I know that you can learn from the last time and come up with a strategy that works for you. I hope that some of this may have helped you and given you some "food for thought".
Life really is a journey and we all have to learn how to maintain a slim healthy body. It is afterall probably one of the most important things to learn in life, and hopefully we can all learn this sooner rather than later.
U rock babe xox
