Like everyone else, I will splurge out over Christmas and enjoy eating and drinking and sharing treats with family and friends. I’m pretty sure I’m going to put on a couple of pounds or so. These days it doesn’t worry me like it used to, as I know that new year weight loss is just around the corner!
These 3 exact steps in the new year will be all I need to get back to a stable weight.
I don’t eat sugar any more, and will have had some ‘alternative’ sweet treats for Christmas pudding and nibbles. This does make it so much easier for me as I’m a hopeless sugar addict. These days I know that if I don’t go near the stuff, then I don’t have to go through weaning myself back off it in the new year! If you do have a problem with sugar, and you’ve found that the choccies, sweeties and puddings all over Christmas have been utterly irresistible for you, then this blog will help you get back off that addictive sugar cycle, and feeling more in control of your food choices.
I would really recommend doing that before you even think of following these next 3 steps, as sugar addiction is sneaky and will take more control over your food relationships than you realise if you’re not careful.
So now if you’re ready to go into the new year, dropping the pounds and feeling healthier and lighter, then join me in these 3 simple steps and you will feel the weight fly off in no time. In fact I would go so far as to say that if you follow them exactly as I’ve given them to you here, you’re guaranteed to drop the pounds, and to carry on your new year weight loss- long after the new year!
I’m going to share a big secret to successful weight loss at this time of year, and it’s this…
If you’re serious about losing the weight, the trick is to start before January 1st!
And this is why- If you leave it till the 1st of January, you will be doing the same as millions of other dieters in this country who put off the moment till the dreaded D-date…This way of dealing with weight loss in the new year has been shown to have an 80% failure rate. It literally has failure built into it, simply because of the ‘all-or-nothing-thinking’ that comes with it which will have you saying to yourself “I’m going to eat loads now, and then I’ll go on a massive health purge on January 1st”
Unfortunately we don’t work that way, and your brain will be wired up for failure at the first little hurdle, upset or drawback, It will take you straight back to your old eating habits before you know it! All you need to do to get round this is to bring the date forward to the 27th December, or 28th at the latest. I know it might not seem like much, but trust me, it will give you a massive psychological advantage and you are much more likely to keep going with your new year weight loss plan!
So here’s STEP 1…To get us started.
Over the holiday period I’ll have eaten too many carbs, and it will be those that have made me put the weight on. So the first thing I will do is lower my carb intake to between 30 – 50 g a day.
A typical day’s carbs will look like this:
BREAKFAST: some kind of green such as avocado or stir fried greens (brussels or cabbage in butter are my faves!)
LUNCH: mixed green salad with peppers, onions and olives
SNACK: Tbsp of berries such as strawberries or blueberries
DINNER: A couple of portions of veg such as cauliflower and broccoli.
Dropping the carbs, (especially the processed ones) out of your diet this way will stimulate your body’s built in ‘fat burner system’ and your metabolism will literally begin to fire up into ‘turbo-charge’ mode within just a few days! I’ll easily get my 5 a day this way too, so I won’t miss out on any essential nutrients.
Then for STEP 2…
The chances are that I won’t have eaten the ‘clean’ fats over Christmas, but the more hidden ones in processed carbs such as yorkshire puddings. So now I’ll switch to eating lots more clean fats. Because I’m also reducing the calorie intake I would have got from the carbs, and my body absolutely must have the fuel from somewhere, I’ll give it lots of lovely fat to burn instead.
A typical day’s fats will be:
BREAKFAST: Chunks of cheese and butter mixed in a couple of scrambled eggs, and butter for frying the greens, or half an avocado
LUNCH: A couple of tbsp of mayonnaise with protein such as a tin of tuna, or roast chicken (plus skin) or fried bacon and olives
SNACK: A tbsp of clotted cream with the berries, or a handful of nuts, or a tbsp of nut butter such as crunchy almond butter
DINNER: A creamy sauce with steak, or fried salmon with the skin on, or roasted veg in oil, or stir fry in coconut oil.
Once your body’s ‘fat burner system’ is revved up into fat burning mode…(also known as ketosis,) your body chemistry will change, and you’ll no longer store the fats.
Increasing my fat intake is vital at this point as it will prevent me going into ‘crave’ mode.
This is what happens when our nervous system senses that we’ve starved ourselves. It’s what make you feel that irresistible urge to reach for food, and unfortunately your body is programmed to reach for simple sugars such as the carbs…of course! (Both sugary and sweet- they all get treated as sugar by your body).
For the last simple STEP 3…I’ll get out in the fresh air and move at the earliest opportunity.
While everyone is still snoring away on the couch, I’ll go for a walk around the block, if nothing else…that will be enough to get started. The psychological benefits of this are massive if you do this for yourself. Firstly, you’ll automatically give yourself a huge lift, which in turn will help you feel motivated to eat healthily…put this with the fact that being out of doors in the fresh cold air will actually make you burn more calories than being in the warm. And you’ll also jump into ketosis a lot quicker if you move your body just a little bit more. Going for a walk for just half an hour a day will burn up to 500 calories more than normal!
If you do decide to follow these simple little steps, you’re going to notice a lot of lovely side effects from being in ketosis. You’ll take anything from 3 days to a week to get into that fat burning state.
Once you do, the earliest effects for you (and also the ones most reported to me by my clients) are:
- reduction of bloating,
- ‘sugar fog ‘ clearing from your brain,
- feeling much more energetic and full of life,
- reduction in appetite and feeling more in control of food choices,
- feeling lighter and less ‘stodged’
There are lots of subtle effects that you’ll notice over time too (including weight loss!)…but the ones I’ve listed above on their own are a great motivator for keeping you going!
Just imagine if you started these 3 simple little tricks on the day after boxing day, you will already have a head start with your new year weight loss by the time you get well into the new year!
And just as a last little P.S…You will expect to lose weight a lot more quickly this way too…how nice is that!?
If you feel you’d like a bit of support starting your new way of eating, then come and join me on January 9th for a 28 day on-line programme that’s specifically designed for you. Enjoy this done-for-you system that will give you everything you need to be a dress size down and feeling amazing…by February!
