Raluca's Free Diet Advice

If you would like to find out more about healthy food, eating habits, how to loose some kilograms, maintain your current weight or maybe help a member of your family, a friend, take your time and read twice my advice.

Don't wait for a “Monday”, usually you will lie to yourself and say: “Monday I will start dieting"

Don't think so much about "dieting" and don’t repeat to yourself “I’m on a diet”. Don’t tell all your friends you are dieting, you will only depress yourself more and more and how long you think, so deep you fall. You don’t diet, you change your life style.

FAQ

"Will I gain back the lost kilograms? You weren’t born fat, after many years of bad habits, your young, thin body developed into an unpleasant look in the mirror. If you return to those bad habits, you will gain back the lost kilograms.

Everybody wants to feel full and not gain kilograms
Now you can do it
There are many delicious foods with much less calories

“Is this diet healthy?” Yes it is, you don’t stop eating, I don’t recommend only 2 oranges and an apple per day You have only to cut down from how much you have been eating so far It will be better eating habits, more vitamins, more minerals, more fibre It will boost your energy level.

“How long do I diet for?” I can’t say a limit, you change your life style. Why give up something that makes you feel better, full of energy, more sexy, more confident In life there are much more important, full of satisfaction things than eating with 3 hands You don’t live to eat, you eat to live.

Tips & Advice

When you fancy something sweet don’t choose chocolate, choose a fresh fruit (not canned or dried).

It’s healthy to have 3 meals per day:
- Breakfast: "Be selfish" - eat a good healthy meal to give you fuel for the day
- Lunch: "Share with a friend" – Take your time don’t hurry this meal
- Dinner: "Give to an enemy" - A snack only, as a big meal after 7 pm won’t be processed properly by your body (even if you don’t go to sleep until 1 am)

Many of us feel hungry between these meals and tend to eat junk food, snacks, crisps etc; and you say I have 3 healthy meals per day, why am I not slim? You forgot about the small chocolate bar that can be over 300 kcal, a glass of soda can be 130 kcal, a tiny bag of peanuts is over 300 kcal Why don’t you choose a fresh fruit, cup of tea (green tea is wonderful, a strong green tea has the effect of a cup of coffee) Forget about sugar, use low sodium salt.

Many people complain they are hungry all the time. This may be stomach problems like too much acidity, gastric problems. So go to the doctor if you have this feeling most of the day or burning feelings in the stomach especially after you eat onions, garlic, spicy food. You may need medical treatment, plus a different style of eating.

When you decide to change your life style, don’t eat lots of bad food before you start, thinking "Never mind, I will loose weight later". This will make you gain several kilograms and make it much more difficult for you.

One moment on your lips is a life time on your hips

Meals with the same calorie content can be treated by your body very differently e.g. A grilled pork steak with fried potatoes at 1000 calories will go to your fat reserves. The fried potatoes greatly increase the glucose levels in your blood making your pancreas produce excess insulin. This will cause the fat content of the pork to be stored in your reserves. A grilled pork steak with lentils is also 1000 calories but the lentils do not increase your glucose levels so much. Therefore your insulin level is not so high and the fat on the pork does not automatically go straight to your fat reserve.

Size yourself once per week, with same tape measure and scales (I prefer electronic scales because they are more accurate and show small changes more easily).

Set a realistic target like 0.5 to 1kg per week. If you work all day long with no time for lunch, don’t take with you a sandwich, take a salad with tuna/chicken/white cheese (not so fat).

If you are hungry and travelling, don’t buy junk food (fried meat, chips, soda). Now in McDonald’s, KFC you can choose some yogurt (without flavours as they hide calories), fruits or salad (without dressing, as again they hide many calories).

Many people say dieting means less fat, less calories, less carbohydrates and in the end we wonder what we can eat? If not this and that what else? Water and air? For a healthy life we have to eat a lot of different foods but we should put the accent on quality not on quantity.

We need fat, we need sweet, we need fibre but not a full box of candies, chocolate bars and loaves of bread. A small amount only is enough If you eat small quantities of different foods you won’t get bored, stressed with same taste but be careful, don’t lie to yourself "I only ate a small piece of milk chocolate, a bite of a Mars, a small bag of crisps, only a small glass of soda but I did drink a big glass of healthy fresh orange juice".

For less greasy/fat cook with proper good Teflon coated pans i.e. Tefal are very good for omelettes, steaks, vegetables and many other dishes.

If you have only full fat milk, add some water and you will get less fat in the same quantity.

There are lucky people who eat and eat and remain slim but who said life is fair. Most of us have to fight with extra kilograms which we gain in the holidays, Easter, Christmas etc.; we have to choose the lesser of two evils. We know cakes aren’t good for loosing weight but we still crave for and end up eating, so better to choose fresh home made cakes with fresh eggs, milk and no E numbers, preservatives to make them last over 1 month (fresh healthy food cannot last ages, it naturally goes off in a few days). The dangerous bit of cooking cakes is ending up eating the whole pan yourself, so better to invite friends or family; in this way you will burn some calories cleaning up after they left, washing up etc........

Plenty of people drink a lot of coffee. Without realising they add 2 teaspoons of sugar to each cup of coffee, 1 teaspoon = 20 kcal and doesn’t fill your stomach.

Try to avoid mayonnaise, when you buy sandwiches, it is almost only oil, a table spoon of mayonnaise = 100 kcal, try to eat home made sandwiches. Read the label when you buy food, 1 sandwich = 500 kcal, and for me it isn’t enough if I’m hungry (1kg of apples will make you feel much more full).

Most people for breakfast drink a coffee, lunch at work, a sweet or sandwich, and in the evening fill their boots, saying I didn’t eat all day long; but where does all the energy you have from food go? Usually after dinner it’s common to watch some TV and go to sleep, so you don’t burn too many calories. If you fancy some naughty food, try before dinner time, to have some time to burn it. Staying awake longer doesn’t help. Try to avoid going to the restaurant in the evening. It’s better to choose lunch time.

Try to eat fresh food as much as possible, or cooked using not so much heat or with steam/pressure cooker. Try the following alternatives to usual foods:

For white bread – try brown bread
white rice - brown rice
salt - light salt
sugar - sweetener (but as little as possible)
milk chocolate - dark chocolate
coke/soda - water(add some lemon and ice), fresh fruit juice (home made, not in the bottle, cans etc.)
alcohol - mix it with water
olives - light olives
fried potatoes – mashed (better without)
fresh peas - dried peas
boiled carrots - fresh carrots

Instead of bananas, plums, grapes, pears - choose berries, pineapples, apples, oranges. Avoid dry fruits, they lost only the water, the calories are still there, you cannot compare 100g of dry fruits with fresh. Don’t buy bigger bags of food because is cheaper, you will end up finish the bag, and who loose after?

Don’t make yourself starving thinking you loose weight, you will end up empty the fridge sooner or later; eat small quantities every 3 hours, keep in your bag all the time a small healthy snack (a vegetable, fruit, yogurt, squeeze 3 oranges and take with you), in this way will keep your blood sugar level constant and you won’t feel the hunger.

Eat from small plates, most of people eat with eyes, after you see some delicious cakes in the shop you start to want more and more, avoid sweet section in the shop.

Read the nutrition label to understand what's in the product per serving. That's the most important thing. You should choose the products according to the amount of calories you need to meet your daily requirements.

Are you hungry? Make the difference from real hunger and craving. Analyse your sensation of hunger, give a score on a scale 1 to 10. 1 means no hunger and 10 you are starving, if you don’t reach at least 7 you are not really hungry, you have only a big appetite.

You don’t have to pay per day, week or month, you pay once per life time.

Why fat people eat more

How big you are, the more calories you burn. A woman of 100kg to maintain her weight needs 2500 kcal a day, so reducing to 1500 kcal a day means 7000 kcal a week, almost 1kg of fat.

Don’t isolate yourself, don’t feel a victim. The surplus of weight isn’t a reason to give up of going out, try to make new friends, to change your social life. Do exercises daily, 1-2 hours of walking, watch the people around you, think of how poorer they are, more ill, more ugly than you; compare yourself with people who really have problem and be happy of the simple things like sunshine, a butterfly, smile of a baby.

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