How To Plan Your Diet

We tend to plan everything we do. Yet not very hot on taking the time to plan a diet properly. A diet is more likely to be a success if we have something to follow. Here are a few simple tips designed to make dieting a bit easier.

Meals little and often.
Ideally you should be aiming to have a ‘mini meal’ every two hours, but to start with eat every four hours. Food such as vegetable and fruit and not a bowl of fries. If you are eating small meals regularly then you are less likely to be tempted to dig into a bag of crisps or bar of chocolate. Make your mini meals up and then plan when you are going to eat and follow that plan. It is not difficult to do.

Don’t become too obsessed.
You need to have an amount that you are trying to reduce by. If you are reducing your meals by 15%, then you need to try and stick to that. Don’t count every single thing you eat, if you do this the plan is likely to take over your life or become very boring. As many of us have been on diets before we all pretty much have a fair idea of what calorie content most foods have.

Try to eat with your mind and not your eyes.
Difficult I know to do, when there is a box of chocolates in front of you, or a bottle of opened wine in the fridge. If you plan properly and don’t buy in foods with a higher calorie content then you should be okay.

Have a treat.
Every now and then have a treat. Eat something which is of a higher calorie content. A diet is much harder to follow if you cut out all the food you love. If you do cut out everything then when you do eat them again the weight is more likely to go back on at a much quicker rate.

Don’t drink calories, eat them!
Filling up on fizzy drinks, beer, wine etc will only cause you to put the pounds and will be your calorie intake for the day. You will still want to eat, if anything you will be even hungrier. So add up those calories. I don’t think I need to say anymore on that.

Exercise.
Regular exercise is a must, to keep us fit and awake and sharp also. If you are upbeat your are more likely to keep to your diet. Eating lots of fat and not exercising will get you down. So not a good cycle to start.

Chew your food.
We have all sat round a table eating our tea or lunch and one or both of the parents have said chew your food. Well, it is true don’t swallow your food. Eat slowly and enjoy. Swallowing food down will leave you feel empty, whilst chewing will make you feel like you have eaten and therefore less likely to pick on nibbles later on in the day or evening.

What are your food triggers?
If you say you don’t have them, then I think you are not telling the truth. Whether it is a pack of your favourite crisps sitting on the supermarket shelf, that you didn’t need but now decide you do. Or having bottles of wine sat in your fridge which are all too easily opened at the end of a bad day. If you know what your food triggers are then you can avoid putting yourself in that situation.

A diet plan is nothing to pull your hair out over. It is as simple or difficult as you want to make it. Planning ahead will make it all that much easier though. So give it a try and see the results.