Baking and your waistline

I got a message from my little brother earlier that simply said 'what helped you lose weight?'. That's it... not even a capital at the start!


So I got to thinking... what did? I've lost 2 and a half stone in about a year and a half, and the only time I've drastically reduced my calorie intake is the last 8 weeks, at uni. So what did it? Just in case anyone else is interested (in case you're not interested in the other 50,000 'how I lost weight' posts on the net) then here is my list...


1. Think about how many calories are in everything. Set your daily target and try not to go over it. You will quite quickly get good at estimating how many calories are in things. Keep a mental record of everything you eat in your head; you get better and better at remembering things. Always overestimate the calories in things you don't know the exact value for. 

2. Running (though that doesn't help me now... but it did help at the beginning). Any sport that you do regularly, or even just walking or something.

3. Making treats exactly that... treats. I'll have a piece of chocolate, look forward to it, and enjoy it while I'm eating it. Then I'll stop. Have 1 biscuit instead of 2 or 3.

4. ENJOY your food. I'm not going to lie, I think about food a lot! 

5. Bake and then give it away to people.

6. Have breakfast. You won't feel such a strong urge to snack in the morning. Find a breakfast you like and have it every day.

7. Look at pictures of thin people (not stupidly skinny, just skinny). Think about fat people you know when you're about to eat something. Think about whether it's worth the guilt to get the momentary pleasure. Think about how great you'll look thin. Then either don't eat it or eat less of it.

8. Smaller portions! Have a smaller bit of cake and eat it slower. Have the same dinner, just less. That way you don't feel like you're missing out.

9. Still treat yourself to your favourite things- I still have McDonalds sometimes and I really look forward to it, but I'll eat less that day to compensate.

10. Look for little substitutions - Walker's baked crisps instead of normal ones, or the light cereal bars I have. But this won't work if you don't actually like the substitution. 

11. Learn to like diet coke. Fizzy drinks are empty calories. There really isn't that much difference and even if you can taste one at first, you won't after a few weeks.


This is a photo of me after losing just over 2 stone... I don't have any photos since coming to uni!

So if you want to lose weight... you can.