Starting fresh

At some point some people need to take breaks from following an eating plan, due to personal circumstances or because they feel they need a break as they have got stuck in a rut.

 The hardest part about this is actually starting again. The longest time I have taken off an eating plan is two weeks for holidays; however I recently left my Slimming World group to start the plan from home, on my own. In some ways this is similar to starting fresh as I had to find the motivation to keep going and also to keep off my own scales mid week!

 It was hard at first, knowing I was no longer paying for a group and had no consultant or group to share my weight change with it was easy to think I will have a day off plan today and it will not hurt I will get back on it tomorrow.

 I left 2 weeks before Christmas so it was never an easy time to leave however, I lost 2lb in the first week, 2lb in the second and the day before Christmas Eve I lost 2.5lb! This proves to me I am doing the right thing as I have still managed to do it.

 I took time off over Christmas, we are all human and all deserve a break sometime and tomorrow is my post Christmas weigh in, I am expecting a gain of 2lb, but that is ok as I know why and I enjoyed it.

 Lists

When I start fresh my first thing is to write a list of why I want to do it, there is no use in starting a weight loss plan if you do not know why you want to do it. There are always a variety of reasons; you want to be slim, you want to be healthier, you want to be able to run around with your children, you have a big event coming up. Everyone has their own personal reasons so make a list and stick it in your down fall place, the biscuit cupboard or the fridge and you can even accompany it with a ‘before’ photo to keep you motivated.

 Food plan

Every week I make a food plan, it keeps you on track and makes your shopping cheaper as you are not aimlessly buying food; you are buying exactly what you need.  Not everyone needs to plan but for me it is a key to success, you know exactly what you’re having and you know there is something for tea. If I do not plan my weekly evening meals, it gets to 5pm; I turn to my partner and say what do you want for tea? He does not know, I do not know, we have very little in the house and the take away number is being dialled! Plan to succeed!

 Remove temptation

Christmas is over; no doubt you are inundated with bad food – chocolate, cake, biscuits, and cheese. Remove it! Give boxes of chocolate to charity, give all your food away to friends/family or divide it up into syns, cut cake into 5 syn portions, work out the syns for the biscuits, cheese and chocolate and make a note, you can still have them but be in control and know what is in them. I started back on plan yesterday so Tuesday night I put all my chocolates I was keep into food bags with syn values written on, got rid of my biscuits and cheese and even threw out the take away menus so I knew they would not be tempting me.

Food diary

Some people hate food diaries, some people swear by them, I am with the latter. I cannot recommend keeping a food diary enough! If you write it all down, you know what you have had; you are in control and if you do not get what you want on the scales you can look back at your food diary and see where you went wrong. Every time I keep a food diary I have a bigger loss, without one I have been known to go over syns and have more healthy extras as I can’t remember having them.

They are my biggest tips for succeed and starting fresh – they will not suit everyone but these help me to succeed and will help me get to target!