Most people who diet have lost hundreds and gained hundreds of pounds in their lives. This is a negative spiral that will only confuse your body and decrease your self-esteem. What we want to achieve is a balanced approach to energy intake and expenditure. By dieting you will be restricting your self while you are on the diet, and what most people do is lose all sense of responsibility when they are off the diet- a healthy lifestyle will give you health, vitality, balance and you will probably look your best too!

2. Eliminate: don’t negotiate

Why allow your self to have only a little of something that is bad or you when you will need lots of will power to stop having it at a certain point? That energy is far better utilised in other areas of your life - like exercise and running around with your children.

Therefore it is easier to eliminate than negotiate whether to eat a certain food. If something is not on the list, then you won’t have to worry about whether or not to eat a small amount - the answer is simply not negotiable. It is not in your meal plan, therefore it is not nutritious and is not going to go into your body.

3. Eat clean

Eat simple, healthy food and keep your body healthy. Clean food is healthy food. Food bought as fresh as is possible not only tastes better but will have a higher nutrient value than if it is frozen, processed, already cooked or has additives to make it thicker, last longer and taste better. Additives and preservatives have their place in our food, but where it is possible to have a choice of fresh and raw vs. ready cooked and processed, the additive-free route is a much healthier option.

4. Leave out labels

The processes we use to get wheat and sugar into sought-after treats make these foods very close to sugar, and it is metabolised immediately as ready-to-use energy. If you do not use this energy straight away, it will be stored as excess and turned into fat.

If a food needs a label to list ingredients, then it is certainly processed, added to, and might have some nasty added sugar and preservatives. By leaving out any labelled food from your diet (and by this I don’t mean some condiments and spices, salad dressings and sauces - but check the sugar content), you will be better-able to control what you are putting into your body.

5. Energy in vs. energy out

Human weight is determined by a simple equation of what goes in your body and what is used up. Put simply, any extra calories (energy) that you consume but don’t burn off will be stored in your body. The more energy stores you have, the more fat you will have on your body.

6. Nutrients vs. Calories

What are the smart choices to make in order to get the best nutrition and best val...

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