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Determination is not one of my strong points which is why most of my diets often go downhill, but last summer I had a mission. I was a bridesmaid at my brother’s wedding. When I had my dress fitting the women at the bridal shop warned me that if I chose to order the small dress that I couldn’t put on any weight – especially my hips! This petrified me – it was February and the wedding wasn’t until August! But come the end of June I had put on weight, mostly due to a dislocated shoulder preventing me from going to the gym for the whole of May and most of June. However with 5 weeks to go I got down to some serious gym sessions and kick started my diet. And it worked. I was the lightest I have been for about 3 years at the wedding the dress fitted perfectly. However this year I’m fretting – I have no goal! So instead I have a picture of myself at my slimmest, this seems to be helping – so the corny catchphrase goes – I’m thinking thin to be thin!
Remember often the small goals and achievements can help you lose weight and keep it off – if your weight goals are too big and unrealistic you will almost certainly not be able to obtain them. Do it in little bits.

Food diaries are a great way of keeping track of your calorie and food intake for the day / week / month. It really helps me when I am trying to eat a healthier. It is surprising all the things you forget you eat – a biscuit here, a handful of crisps there, but unfortunately it all adds up in the long run. I write all the ‘bad’ things in red, and thankfully this technique works on me as I really don’t like writing down the ‘bad’ things so I try not to eat them! No one sees my food diary but just the thought of someone seeing how much I munch on each day makes me cringe so it seems to keep me on track and sticking to me diet.

Often the boredom of diets can really get you down. I often find that I am thinking about food in between meals I torture myself with the thought of all the ‘bad’ food that I can’t eat. So I have found some healthy snacks that make dieting a bit easier.
•    Plain low fat yoghurt – with honey or fresh fruit (blueberries are great for energy)
•    Rich Tea biscuits (for one snack you can have 2 biscuits)
•    Jaffa Cakes (for one snack you can have 2 biscuits)
•    An apple with a slice of low fat cheese
•    Maltloaf (for one snack you can have 1 slice)
•    Toast (for one snack you can have 1 small slice of wholemeal bread with low fat cheese spread/reduced sugar jam or a slice of turkey/ham)
•    Fruit scones (for one snack you can have 1 scone)

I try to have only one or two snacks a day – usually in between lunch and dinner and as supper after dinner.

Cutting out your fizzy drinks can be a great to help out your diet. There 139 calories in one can of coca cola alone!! That is an incredible 7% of your daily calorie intake and an even more incredible 39% of your daily sugar intake. Shocking! Admittedly Coca Cola is the worst of the fizzy drink culprits, diet coke being only 1% of your daily calorie allowance but they are all full of sugars and sweetners. Cutting out this one thing or even cutting down to one a day can really help. Fizzy drinks are very much ‘empty’ calories and are making bad all the hard work you do in the diet and gym. My advice is replace with something like lime cordial and soda water, you still have the sweetness and fizziness but with much less calories. Then slowly but surely this can also be eradicated  from your daily diet.

February is the time of year that really tests the New Year’s resolution of dieting and more exercise. My own personal way round this difficult period is to try new classes at the gym or start going to a dance class. It is just a small trick in order to get through the boredom of the gym 3 times a week. Maybe try classes at your gym also. Most gyms have circuit classes, aerobic and step classes and these can be a great to break up your weeks workouts. I suggest if you find you are boring of your workout routine then go back to your gym instructor and explain that you are finding it a bit monotonous and they will happily change it for you. It is also a good idea to get this changed on a regular basis to keep the body guessing. If you do the same workout every time you go to the gym then your body will get used to it and you will find that weight loss will slow down!