Just do the diet

Portion sizes have swelled over the years. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Need to lose weight? Stop procrastinating and "just do the damn diet". Losing weight is like going on a train journey. We decide where we want to go (our goal weight) and buy a ticket to that destination. As we travel along we see great scenery and we begin to wonder if this could be as good a place as any to get off the train. But this is not our intended destination.

How many times have you got off the "diet" train before you arrived at your final destination, stayed there a while, then got back on a train going in the opposite direction - back to where you started?

Follow these tips to help you keep on track:

1 Stay on the train, no matter how appealing the non-diet scenery appears.

2 Get your head around it. When I talk to people about dieting and they say "my head isn't in the right place" I know that, as ridiculous as that may sound, there is an element of truth in it. Previous unsuccessful weight loss attempts can leave us bruised and filled with self-doubt, but these past experiences do not dictate our future success. What you believe will become self-fulfilling.

3 Set realistic goals. Many people lose the battle before they even begin by setting unattainable goals. Break down the total weight loss into manageable "weight chunks" of 6kg at a time and reassess your target weight each time this is achieved. A weekly loss of 400g is perfect and adds up to a loss of 20.8kg in one year.

4 Watch portion size. We seem to have developed a "credit card" mentality to our food by deferring immediate responsibility for our actions. We zip-zap with no spending boundaries and apply the same attitude towards our food intake by eating now and worrying about the consequences to our body - later.

The statement always arrives (the moment we step on the scales).

5 Be aware of upsizing. Have you noticed the size of muffins? The first muffin I ever ate was a small bran muffin full of fibre. Today that little muffin has evolved into a giant "Texas-sized" cupcake that is claiming to be low-fat and guilt-free, neither of which makes it calorie free.

In fact, the energy value of these muffins is approximately 345 calories -which is about three glasses of wine. Now I hope that got your attention.

6 Read nutrition labels and make educated choices. When I began writing Fries with That? I must admit I initially wanted to blame the fast-food industry and to be able to say "the fries did it".

But although the fries may be an accomplice there are many other partners in the crime. Our food has changed, with added chemicals, flavourings and calories. There is an energy difference between varieties. Flavoured tuna can be 69 calories higher than plain tuna. These additional calories can, over time, make a difference to your ability to lose weight.

7 Break the bread habit. A recent survey I carried out to identify problematic foods found 92 per cent of the people responded with "bread". It reminds me of a story about a man who kept falling down the same hole. We act like that man when we continue to eat the food that is causing our weight problem. Think beyond bread and choose other carbohydrates for lunch. You can download a selection of recipes from my website.

8 Always eat protein at lunch and dinner. Sometimes in an effort to try cut back on calories we end up not eating enough food - especially protein. After eating a meal containing sufficient protein you will be significantly less hungry for longer than if you ate just salad or carbohydrates. Think of food as fuel. The protein is the coal - the fuel that burns more slowly and provides sustained heat.

9 Eat less at night. Dinner for many of us is the largest meal of the day, a habit that is not in harmony with our metabolic rate and declining physical activity.

Men, in particular, often go all day with little or no food then consume their entire day's intake in one go. Timing is everything and this intake is too much, too late.

I like to use the example of a car being towed around all day, with no fuel, then being filled with petrol as it is parked in the garage.

It isn't going anywhere but the tank is full.

10 Just do the damn diet. We look for every excuse, we procrastinate, we place the blame on other people, our job, hormones, fluid retention but no matter what spin we put on our weight gain it usually comes down to one factor: we eat too much food.

To achieve successful weight loss we need to start off in the way we intend to continue.

Food is the contributing factor to the problem so why would we think it can be resolved with diet formulas and fad diets?

By making long-term changes to our food intake we can succeed not only in achieving our weight loss but, more importantly, in keeping it off.

Stop looking for the miracle and quick fix - take action and apply.