OK so you have your start date set. If you have followed my advice it’s about 2-4 weeks away. What should you be doing to prepare? Your preparation can be split in to the following categories:
1. Identifying your eating style
2. Learn how to calorie count
3. Get the food
4. Get the tools
5. Mentally prepare
6. Prepare others around you
1. Identifying Your Eating Style
We all have our own eating style. For some it’s a big breakfast, snack in the afternoon and a big dinner when you get home. For others it maybe different. Therefore we need to think about when we actually eat and how much. Now let’s split the day in to 6 eating times:
Breakfast
Morning snack
Lunch
Afternoon snack
Dinner
Evening snack
Then if I were to number the most common type of eating styles which one or ones do you think you are:
Breakfast | Morning Snack | Lunch | Afternoon Snack | Dinner | Evening Snack | |
1 | x | x | x | x | x | x |
2 | x | x | x | |||
3 | x | x | x | |||
4 | x | x | ||||
5 | x | x | x | x | ||
6 | x | x | x | x |
Are you type 1 who eats often? Are you a traditional eater who has breakfast, lunch and dinner only? Or are you the breakfast skipper and type 3 or 6? Or maybe it’s none of these. Maybe it’s different for weekdays than it is for weekends. Fill out this blank one to try and help yourself identify your eating styles:
Breakfast | Morning Snack | Lunch | Afternoon Snack | Dinner | Evening Snack | |
1 | ||||||
2 | ||||||
3 |
So you should have a better understanding of your eating style. Now we need to chop your target daily calorie intake and plonk it in the sections so we know how much you can eat and when.
This best described by way of an example. Let’s say you have a target daily calorie intake of 1,400 and you have the following eating style:
Breakfast | Morning Snack | Lunch | Afternoon Snack | Dinner | Evening Snack |
x | x | x | x |
You like a small breakfast, medium lunch and large dinner topped off with a small evening snack. Then the 1,400 calories would tend to be split roughly like this:
Breakfast | Morning Snack | Lunch | Afternoon Snack | Dinner | Evening Snack |
200 | 400 | 600 | 200 |
It doesn’t have to be exact but this should be roughly what you should be aiming for. I’m not going to tell you what to eat as you can eat whatever you like. Just make sure the calorific content in total for each eating time is within these numbers. I will show you later how to identify how much calories are in each meal. But for the time being just get used to the numbers.
2. Learn How To Calorie Count
It is really important to know the calorific content of what you are eating and drinking. Food and drink that is bought from any shop or supermarket can be split in to 2 distinct categories:
i) Calorie Content Displayed
ii) Calorie Content Not Displayed
Calorie Content Displayed
It should be easy to count the calories of something you are eating or drinking. Most food and drink tell you on the labelling what the calorie content is per 100g plus a typical serving.
The number you should be looking for is the number preceding “Kcal”. Now be very careful. Food retailers are conscious of us calorie counters and they try and trick you into thinking what you are eating is low calorie or make it hard to calculate. The way they do this is:
Trick | How They Do It |
Say a single portion is a double portion | You pick up a ready meal which is clearly for one person but they say it is for two persons. Then they state the calories per half pack. Very naughty! So you have to double the number to get the total calorie content. Be aware they may even say a single portion serves 3 or even 4 people. So as they say always check the label. |
They quote a serving that is hard to measure out | They put on the label a typical serving is 88g and they quote the calories for this serving. This forces you to find out how much the packet weighs which they make it hard to find. Once you find it the packet weighs 315g which isn’t easily divisible by 88g. In this instance you can either get your calculator out or just guestimate the amount. In this example 88g is roughly a quarter of the packet. It depends on how confident you are with numbers. The other alternative is to avoid food like this and teach the manufacturer a lesson! |
Calorie Content Not Displayed
Food and drink that do not have calorie content not displayed are:
Alcohol
Loose fruit
Loose vegetables
Fresh meat
Fresh bread
To calorie count these you have to go to google.com and input “calories apple” or “calories potato”. Make sure you look at the calories per item and not per 100g. So you would want to be looking for the calorie content of say a small apple or medium sized potato depending on what you are eating.
To give you a heads up you will be surprised how some of this non labelled food is low in calorie. But I will let you discover that for yourself as you know what you like.
Oh and a neat way to keep track of the total calories you eat in day is to use your calculator app on your smart phone. Just open up your calculator app and as soon as you eat anything input the calorie amount. Don’t shut the app. And then when you eat something again just click on “+” and add the amount of calories just eaten. Do this throughout the day and by the end of the day you will see how much you have eaten for the day.
Keeping this running total also lets you know how much you can eat later. If the calculator says 1000 and you know you can only eat 1500 then that big burger and fries is definitely off the menu….or maybe just the fries.
3. Get The Food
You will be eating in and eating out.Let’s see how you can prepare for this
Eating in
There are three strategies when it comes to eating in and sticking to your target calorie intake:
Strategy | How To Prepare | |
1 | Eat less of the same food and drink | Just keep on buying and stocking up of what you normally buy but maybe buy less. No real preparation needed here then! |
2 | Eat the lower calorie versions of the same food and drink | Start hunting down the lower calorie versions of what you like. My favourite is the low salt and sugar Heinz baked beans which is around 30% lower in calories and tastes EXACTLY the same. So start buying them and see if you like them. You never know you might lose some weight before your start date! |
3 | Find new food and drink which are low in calories | If you fancy trying something new then now is the time to start. Start browsing the isles of ALL the supermarkets AND local shops. It’s surprising what you can find in supermarkets you don’t normally go to or independent convenience stores. Just make sure they are low in calories! |
Eating Out
You will find yourself eating in chain and non chain restaurants. Knowing what to order will be key to your success.
How To Prepare | |
Chain Restaurants | It’s good to know the calorific content of what you are going to be ordering. The great thing about chain restaurants is that they have websites full of information specifically nutritional information. So go to google and type in “nutrition mcdonalds” and you get all the information you need. You can now work out what you can eat when you next go to that restaurant when you will be calorie counting. It may mean that you don’t go for the large fries and large coke and switch to the normal fries and diet coke. Oe maybe stay with the large fries and normal coke but realise you can’t have your evening snack when you get home. |
Non Chain Restaurants | You are now in the wild wild west! You will have no idea how many calories are in each item so you will have to do your research online for dishes similar. So if Chapati is your frequent choice then just run a google search to get an approximation of calorie content. If you always order two then prepare to order one. As long as you know how many calories you will be consuming will be really helpful when you do come to order past your official start date. |
My 52 Step Program has neat little ways to find the tastiest food with the lowest of calories.
4. Get The Tools
You need to get the tools of the trade if you are serious about this. These “tools” are essential for this weight loss program to work. You really only need 2 things and you probably already have them anyway:
Digital weighing scales
Smart phone
1. Digital Weighing Scales
If you have an old weighing scale that your mum gave you with a needle as a pointer where you need a magnifying glass to read the weight then it is time for an upgrade! One pound a week or 0.5Kg is quite a small increment and may get lost on an old scale. 75Kg may look like 75.1Kg and you could think you are not losing weight when in fact you are.
So invest in a brand new branded digital weighing scale so that you can see the incremental loss or gains clearly. Most scales cater for the old imperial measurements as well. So if you are sticking to stones and pounds make sure the digital scales has the option to do so.
2. Smart Phone
The main reason you should have a smart phone is you need access to google quickly and easily. This is because if you need to know the calorific content of something you are about to eat or have just eaten you can get it straight away and then budget accordingly.
I don’t need to go on about how great google is as we already know how helpful that search engine is. You just have to use it to make sure you are not exceeding your target daily calorie intake.
Also using the calculator on the phone is very handy if your mental arithmetic is not that good. You can use it to keep track of the calories you have consumed or work out how many calories are in an actual portion.
5. Mentally Prepare
On the face of it losing weight is all about the body. But when you really think about it losing weight is all about the mind. It is your mind that decides what you put inside your body. It is your mind right now who is questioning what you eat. It is your mind who has decided enough is enough and is going to lose weight. It is your mind that is taking in the words on this page contained within a book titled Eat Anything Diet, Lose Weight Without Exercising AND Eating And Drinking What You Like INCLUDING Carbs AND Alcohol!
So accepting that your mind is the key player in your mission to lose weight we need to prepare the mind to ensure success. The best preparation you could ever do for your mind comes down to one thing. That thing is……
Belief.
Without getting all metaphysical on you (as that’s another book!) if you don’t believe you can lose weight then you won’t. It’s as simple as that. Your mind is so powerful that even if you do start to lose weight you will put it all back on anyway because you believe you should be your current weight.
So do you believe you can be your target weight? Really? I have some helpful tasks you can do to make you really believe you can be slim and healthy. You may not agree with some of them and that’s ok. Just find the ones you do and do those.
Task Name | What To Do | |
1 | Is it feasible? | You need to establish to your satisfaction whether this method is feasible as best you can. If you don’t think it’s feasible you will simply give up too early and you will say “it was never going to work in the first place”. So go to google and start searching. See if authoritative websites can back up my claim that if you calorie count you can lose weight. A good search term would be: “Can I lose weight counting calories” I always find what is said on the NHS website reliable as it’s one of the highest funded health service in the world! You need to address all doubts you may have of this diet. If you can eliminate all doubts you have then you will be fully committed. You will then think you actually have a weight loss system that actually works. If you have faith in this system you will have belief. And that’s what this task is all about. Making you believe it can happen. |
2 | Has anyone done it? | You may be the sort of person that needs to see evidence. Evidence that people have actually lost weight by calorie counting. The best evidence you could get is from someone you know who has lost weight and you believe what they say. Do you know anyone who has lost weight and you know well? You can also read real life stories of people who have lost weight by calorie counting. Again go to authoritative sites such as the NHS who cannot put bogus stories up of miracle weight loss. You need to convince yourself that it has worked for other people. If it has worked on other people then it could work for you. |
3 | Can I do it? | If you have done the research on real life people losing weight it should focus your attention on whether you can lose weight. Could you be one of these real life stories? Do you have the attributes of these everyday people you have just read about or are you lacking somehow? Asking yourself these questions will help you home in on issues you may have so you can address them before you start. Will power is the usual one but if that’s the case just reread the chapter on motivation and that should sort you out! |
4 | Visualise | One way to turbo charge your belief is to visualise yourself slim. If you can see it in your mind then you can be it. When you daydream, just before you go to bed, when you have a quick 5 minutes to yourself or when you’re driving and zoning out picture yourself slim. When you get really good at it turn it in to a full colour video and audio clip in your mind doing the things you thought you couldn’t do because of your weight. Match the weather to the date you expect to hit your target for maximum effect. So if your expected target weight is expected to be in July then see yourself in your swimwear on the sun lounger and everyone admiring you. Everything you see around you was a thought in someone’s mind. They saw it first and then created it. That applies to you too. See yourself thin and you will be thin. Trust me. |
So is this weight loss system feasible?
Have you got the evidence that other people have done it?
Have you got the skills to do it?
Can you see yourself slim?
If you answered yes to all of those four questions then you are mentally prepared. If not work on the tasks above so you are ready for your start date. My 52 Step Program can turbo charge your mental preparation in my humble opinion!
6. Prepare Others Around You
Okay so you are all prepared to lose weight but are the people around you prepared? Now if you are headstrong it shouldn’t really matter about the people around you but you are only human! Other people can subtly take you off course without you or them realising it. I group these people in to 4 types:
i) Comforters
ii) Sabotagers
iii) Feeders
iv) The Jealous
i) Comforters
These are people who are comfortable with the weight they are but uncomfortable with where you are heading. They like you being overweight together with them. Their motivation for wanting you to fail is not coming from a place of evil but more of being left behind. Yes it has been fun pigging out together but needs must so you may need to tell them that the binge sessions might not be happening so frequently.
My advice is to tell them that you have decided to lose weight and hope that they respect that. So when you are out together in a restaurant they don’t try and make you eat more than what you want to. If they do then it might be that you find something else to do with them other than dining out.
ii) Sabotagers
There are some people out there that just love to see you fail. Again it might not be coming from a place of evil but from a place of poking fun however it can have an effect. Be conscious of those sort of people as as much as it’s fun taking the mick out of each other you have serious business to attend do like LOSING WEIGHT.
In this instance it might not be best to tell them you are embarking on a weight loss exercise for the next x months as you will just be giving them ammunition. Unless of course you would love to see them try to sabotage you and spectacularly fail!
iii) Feeders
Feeders are people who like to feed you. My wife and my mum spring to mind when I think of feeders. It comes from a place of love but during your weight loss period it will be unrequited love! You definitely have to tell your feeders you are starting a program to lose weight.
They will either listen and alter the size portions or not listen and carry on serving you the same size portions. Then the ball is in your court. You either make sure you eat nothing else in the day to accommodate their portion size or simply leave some of the food on the plate. They will understand….in the long run.
iv) The Jealous
This last lot of people may catch you off guard as you may not know who they actually are. We live in a competitive world and if someone gets wind that you are trying to improve yourself they may do things to prevent you achieving what you want. This is just life. Their motivations only come from an evil place and may or may not be someone you consider as a friend.
If you suspect someone envies you or is jealous of you then you simply have to prepare to say good bye to them for a while and avoid them. Now I know may not be that easy as they could be a work colleague or similar however they will try and bring you down, encourage you to lose faith and interfere with your plans. You don’t need this sort of person when you are in your losing weight period. If you can’t avoid them keep time spent with them to a minimum. Fortunately for me I haven’t come across anyone who was jealous of what I was achieving (that I know of!) but just be aware as you never know.
So now before you progress to chapter 5 you should:
Clearly know what eating style(s) you are going to follow
Know what you are going to eat
Invested in some digital weighing scales and smart phone
Got in to the right mindset to lose weight
Thought about future interactions with spouse, family, friends, work colleagues and enemies!
If you can say you have done all of that then welcome to the new you. Your life is about to change…..for the good.