1 - Lots and lots of vegetables
Vegetables are full of goodness, plenty of fibre, are cheap, crammed with flavour, few calories, their bulk will help fill you up and their high protein content will keep you full. I cannot over-stress the benefits of having lots of vegetables each and every day.
Salad isn't quite as good. Due to its high water content it munches down to nothing and lots of it contains natural sugars which have calories you might not notice. Vegetable crisps are not so good either. They are very high in calories due to the oil they are cooked in and having the same energy content as normal chips (crisps in the UK). You might feel virtuous eating them but you will be poorer and probably no thinner.
It's all about eating actual vegetables. Preferably not fried or roasted, as oil is very high in calories.
2 - Sugar-free squash not high juice
This is an easy choice, do you add in calories or not? Choose the one with no calories. The sugar-free versions taste pretty good but if you don't like the taste, choose water.
3 - Water not fruit juice
This is the same as the point above. Fruit juice has no fibre and about 400 calories in a glass. Water has none.
4 - Skimmed fat-free milk
You should get out of the habit of drinking anything other than skimmed fat-free milk. You do not need the fat. There is nothing good about it and it turns a high protein drink with lots of calcium into a fatty drink with far too many calories.
It takes only a few weeks to get used to the new taste. Do it. Don't delay. After a month or so it will feel strange if you are given anything else. You will probably live longer for making just this simple small choice.
5 - No sugar in tea or coffee
This is like making the switch to skimmed fat-free milk. Do it. Do it now. Your taste preferences will adjust quickly no matter how long you've taken sugar for and no matter how strange it seems at first. It is very easy to pack a lot of extra calories in quickly by added sugar.
6 - Water with meals
Filling up with water is a cheap trick. It's cheap and it's a trick. But worth weaving in as it does help a little. It is also better for you than drinking alcohol.
7 - No alcohol before the evening meal has finished
This delays the need for alcohol and hopefully you will drink less, or even none at all.
8 - No snack availability with alcohol
If you do drink alcohol, do not eat bar snacks, don't go for a curry, nor a Chinese, tacos, pizza or burger and fries on the way home. You will eat more than you require (because your judgement is impaired) and seriously, when else do you find the need for a meal on the way home at one in the morning? Trust me, you don't really need to eat. You need two glasses of water and put yourself to bed.
Dr Windross works as a GP with a special interest in weight management. 'The Waist Management System' out now on Amazon and on Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Waist-Management-System-choices/dp/1503299112/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1420473153&sr=8-2
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