I am going to go in to detail about the following day or days:

The day before the start date

Day 1

Days 2-6

Day 7

Day 8

1. The Day Before The Start Date

As a minimum you should have your Target Plan, digital scales, smart phone and the food you plan to eat for tomorrow.  If you are missing any of these make sure you spend this day getting them. Once you have got these and their in your possession I have a little treat for you……

I want you to celebrate.

I want you to celebrate the end of the old you and the arrival of the new you.  So celebrate however you wish. Eat what you want and drink what you want in whatever quantities you so desire.  Yes really.  I want you to mark this day.  It’s a day worthy of celebration.  I want you to remember this day as you are saying good bye to the old overweight you.  You are moving on.  You will be entering a new chapter of your life so treat yourself.

Today is not the day to worry about your weight.  That all starts tomorrow.  So order that take away, go out to that favourite restaurant of yours, order that calorific Prosecco…..and remember this day.

2. Day 1

Ok today’s the day. Hope your head is not too sore from the night before.  This day is so important. I cannot stress to you the importance of following through on what I’ve told you to do.  If you do Day 1 right you will have a much higher chance of success of reaching your target weight.  If there is any one day I want you to do as I tell you it is this one.  So please, please, PLEASE do it.

I want you to do two things today

Weigh yourself (that’s easy!)

Stick to your eating plan (moderately easy)

If you don’t do both of these things today I want you reset your start date. I’m serious.  So if you are thinking of not following through then just realise you have to start again.  You don’t want to do that do you? I thought not.

i) Weigh Yourself

Get on those lovely new shiny digital scales and record your weight on your target plan.  Try and do it when you wake up after you have gone to the toilet and naked.  This is when you will be lightest. 

You have to record it on your Target Plan as this now triggers the target weights for all the forthcoming weeks.  You should now be able to see your Target Plan with the actual real numbers you need to hit in the future. 

Without your Target Plan you are nothing.  This is why it is vitally important to record your current weight within your Target Plan as it is the roadmap of your future.

Weighing yourself and recording it on your Target Plan should have been easy to do.  The next bit is little bit more tricky. 

ii) Stick To Your Eating Plan

I hope you have thought of what eating style you were adopting today.  It should be your usual eating style that you are accustomed to for this day.  I also hope you know what you are going to be eating today and in roughly what quantities.

You have thought long and hard about this day so there should be no surprises or chance invites out as this day has been planned.  All you need to do is eat what you set out to eat.   You know you can eat what you want just not in the quantities you used to.

In order to stick to your eating plan you just need to eat LESS.  Less is the keyword.  If you eat less of what you like you will succeed.  I’m not asking you eat what you don’t like I’m just asking you to eat less.  My 52 Step Program can really really help you eat less.

So what you really need to succeed on Day 1 are tips specifically on eating less.  Lucky for you I have these 10 killer tips that actually work. Some are obvious and some less obvious.  Sometimes things are so obvious they get missed so they need to be pointed out.  Now you don’t have to use all of them. You may not need to use any tips because you are so damn motivated!  But for the rest of us the more tips you use in combination the better chance of success.  Here are the best tips on eating less money can buy:

Have a cold drink before you eat

Switch the TV off

Put less on your plate

Put less in your mouth

Use a fork

Eat slowly

Put cutlery down

Never Eat From The Serving Bowl Or Family Pack

Don’t clear away so quick

Brush teeth when consumed final food

1. Have a Cold Drink Before You Eat

Most people do it the other way round. You have your food then your drink. Well guess what guys….we’ve been doing it all wrong.  If you have a cold drink (preferably zero calorie) before your meal it does three things:

i) it fills you up – all that water has to go somewhere and fortunately that’s in your stomach! If there is less space in there to fill it up with food you will naturally eat less.

ii) it speeds up your metabolism – it has been scientifically proven that drinking water can increase your metabolism by up to 30% so you will burn calories quicker.

iii) burns calories – if the drink is very cold it causes your body temperature to drop and then your body burns about 8 calories to bring your temperature back up to normal.

So have a nice ice cold glass of coke zero or whatever your choice is BEFORE you eat.

2. Switch Off the TV

Research has shown that if you switch your TV off whilst sitting down for dinner it has two effects:

i) You hear yourself chew which makes you eat less. Yes really. The sound of chewing for some unknown reason makes you eat less. If you have the TV on you can’t hear yourself eat and will tend to eat more.

ii) You concentrate on what you eat. Because you are not distracted by the TV it makes you more mindful of what you are eating and you eat slower and chew for longer. So don’t reach for the remote at dinner time. OK?

3. Put Less on Your Plate

We are compelled to finish what is put on our plate. I remember when I was a kid at school the dinner lady wouldn’t let you leave the table and go out and play until you have finished all your food.  So the positive feedback loop that got created was clearing my plate = going out to play.  You probably had a similar positive feedback loop created somehow in early childhood.  “Food is expensive so don’t waste it” or “eat it up for mummy and be a good boy” has probably been hard wired in to your thought patterns. We are psychologically driven to finish the whole plate.

So the trick is don’t fill your plate.  Reduce it by whatever it needs to be so you stay within your target daily calorie intake. If you have budgeted 200 calories for your evening snack and the full portion is 400 calories simply put half the portion on the plate and the other half either back in the fridge or in the bin.  If you’re eating out order off the kids menu. It will probably be tastier as well!

4. Put Less in Your Mouth

If you do struggle with serving yourself a smaller portion then just take smaller spoonfuls.  This results in you eating the food slower as you have to keep on putting the spoon or fork to the plate. The food then may become cold and less appetising and you naturally stop eating. I mean imagine being tasked to eat a plate of baked beans one bean at a time. After the 70th bean you would have probably lost interest!

 

5. Use a Fork

 

You can use your fork to sieve out those calorific sauces. Up to 50% of the calories can be in the sauce alone as they are full of sugar and/or fat.  So simply spoon the food using the fork and watch the sauce fall from the fork.  When finished you should simply have a plate of the remaining sauce to chuck away and you will have the smug feeling of getting the full flavour of the dish but consuming up to 50% less calories.  Try it. It really does work and is my favourite tip.

6. Eat Slowly

When you eat a signal is sent back from the stomach to the brain that has eaten.  There is the final signal that is sent back to your brain which makes you think you are full and you simply stop eating.  Unfortunately there is a time lag for this final signal to come through of a few minutes or even more. Now if you are a fast eater you will consume more per minute than someone who eats slow.  So eat slowly and you will cut down the amount you consume when you are awaiting that final signal. Science has shown that fast eaters are more likely to be obese than slow eaters. 

7. Put Cutlery Down

This is a really simple tip and really helps you to eat slower to get the benefits of eating slower as mentioned above.  All you need to do is put your knife, fork and/or spoon down between each mouthful.  So as soon as it’s gone in your mouth put the cutlery down so both hands are free.  Chew the food and only pick up the cutlery when you have swallowed all the food.

8. Never Eat From The Serving Bowl or Family Pack

We’ve all done it.  You’ve opened up a family pack of crisps or pack of biscuits, not served a portion on a plate and then gone on to eat the whole pack! Don’t pretend to be shocked.  We then start to feel a bit queasy a few minutes later when we realised we were filled up about a third of the way through the pack.

So always serve out your portion so you know exactly what you are eating.  If you don’t you can accidently go in to autopilot and consume the whole contents.

9. Don’t Clear Away So Quick

Never clear the remains of what you have eaten until you have actually finished.  Science has shown that if you are not reminded of what you have just eaten you will eat more.  You need to see the quantity of the remains like the chicken bones or the packaging so your subconscious can gauge what you have consumed.

10. Brush Teeth When You’ve Finished Eating

 

Do you notice once you brush your teeth or use mouthwash you no longer want to eat? If this is the case and you are scared you going to have an unplanned evening snack go quickly brush your teeth. It acts like an appetite suppressant.  By the time the suppressant has worn off you’ll be in bed by then.

Now even if you don’t like any of my tips just go to google and search “Tips on eating less” and you are guaranteed to find at list one tip you think will work. Ah….the power of the internet.  Also my 52 Step Program has even more killer tips so I reckon you should check it out!

3. Days 2-6

Now I sincerely hope you executed Day 1 with perfection or at least near perfection.  If you think you consumed more than your target calorie intake on Day 1 then I suggest you set a new start date and start all over again.  However if you did stick to the target intake then this is where it’s going to get good….really good. Let’s dissect Days 2-7 in detail.

Day 2

This will be your Eureka moment so get ready.  I want you to get on your digital weighing scales under the same conditions you weighed yourself yesterday and look at your weight.  I am 95% sure that it will be less than yesterday’s weight. 

Am I right?  It may only be 0.1Kg or 0.1lb however you will be lighter.  And guess what…..it will feel really good.  You are on your journey.  Your actions of yesterday have resulted in you losing weight. Think about your motivations for losing weight and how good life is going to be and realise you are now on your way.

The 5% time you won’t see a loss is if either:

The scales have rounded up your loss.  So if you went from 70.54Kg to 70.46Kg thus losing 0.04Kg the scales would still show the same weight of 70.5Kg.  You may not have known you was 70.54Kg as the scales would have only recorded 70.5Kg but in fact you would have lost 0.08Kg. To avoid this choose a weighing scale that has a higher precision accuracy.  If you are using stone and pounds most won’t go to a decimal place on the pounds.  If you switch to just pounds it might go to one decimal place. However if you trust you are losing weight I would not get too hung up about getting high precision scales. 

You have changed the conditions of when you weighed yourself.  Sometimes I forget that I have had half a cup of tea and I weigh myself when usually I weigh myself before I drink anything.  So have a think whether the conditions were the same.  Did you have different clothing? Were you still wearing your watch? Were you fully naked?

You actually ate more than your target calorie intake but didn’t realise it. Check over to see if you added it up right, you got the calorific content right, that you did eat what you thought you ate etc.  You may have mistakenly drank a sugary drink instead of a diet drink. You missed the fact that the calories stated on the ready meal pack was for half a portion and you ate the whole portion. Or you simply forgot about something you ate. Naughty you.

So don’t worry if you didn’t see a loss as I 100% GUARANTEE you will see a loss tomorrow if you have been sticking to your target calorie intake.  So for Day 2 stick with the commitment of eating less and don’t forget the tips mentioned above. 

From now on you will be weighing yourself everyday and keeping a mental note of it and comparing it to your Day 1 weight.

Day 3

Okay today is the day you should definitely see a loss.  If you do not it can only be because you are consuming more calories than you think or the weighing conditions are not constant.  The large majority of you should see at least 0.1Kg loss or 0.1lb of loss.  It is scientifically impossible for you not to be lighter.

Now you should be thinking about your target weight at the end of the first week.  How far away are you?

If you have already hit it on Day 3 (which some people do!) then well done. But don’t get complacent and think you can eat more than your target daily intake. Bad habits will set in.  Even though you are lighter today when we come to record your weight on Day 7 you could be heavier.  Just keep doing what you have been doing.

If you think the rate of loss will get you there then fantastic again just keep doing what you are doing. Everything is going to plan. 

If you think the rate is too slow then I have some bad news for you….you need to eat less. It maybe only temporarily but you need to cut some calories out. This is a delicate game of adjustment and readjustment.  You may not need to shave off too much of the daily calorie intake but you need to shave off some.  So aim 100 calories less for example and think where you can cut it out.  Can you live without your evening snack just for tonight? Can you have a slightly smaller lunch or dinner? I know you can work it out. Don’t forget what the motivation for all of this is. It’s a small price to pay if you really want to get to where you want to be.

Days 4-6

If you are sticking to your target calorie intake you should see a slow but steady weight loss.  Keep weighing yourself everyday.  Don’t worry if you don’t lose weight everyday or even put on a slight bit.  Adjust and readjust where necessary.  It is difficult to calorie count.  It is difficult to avoid high calorie dinner invites. It it is difficult to resist in the week that late nite salty/sweet snack you treat yourself to at the weekends. If you do put on a bit eat less than the target calorie intake the next day. 

The main thing is you stay on the trajectory downwards.  So even if you have put on weight but it is still lower than your Day 1 weight then you are still doing well. Congratulate yourself and remember that you can do it.  You have already reduced from Day 1 weight and proved to yourself you can lose weight using this method.  As said before it is your mind that plays the biggest role in your goal of reaching your target weight.  If your mind believes you can do it you are virtually there.

4. Day 7

This is a very important day. Why? Well it is the day before weighing day to record in your Target Plan.  Now for those who already look like they are going to meet or surpass their target weight for the first week then well done.  Don’t celebrate yet though as weighing day is tomorrow.  Stick to your target calorie intake just like normal.

For those who look like they are unlikely to hit target then unfortunately you are going to have to take drastic measures. When I say drastic I mean drastic.  Your target calorie intake for today is zero. Yes zero.  Anything above this will be an indulgence. I really mean it.

So what you gonna do? If you were really obedient you would listen to what I say and drink zero calorie drinks (like Pepsi Max) and eat zero calorie foods (like celery). For those who do do this can I salute you. You are really committed and motivated to be your best self.

For the rest of you, which will be most of you, you will really need to think about really low calorie foods to eat or serving yourself minuet portions.  The choice I will leave up to you but very low calorie foods will at least fill you up. You should aim to eat and drink no more than one third of your target daily calorie intake.  You can find a list of low calorie foods in the reference chapter.

5. Day 8

The big day has arrived.  Start the drum roll now.  You need to get on those scales.  Make sure you are in the same state as when you normally record your weight. Step on to the scales right now……

Boom!

Have you done it? Is your weight at or below your target weight for this week?

i) If the answer is yes – superb stuff. You know how to lose weight. It works for you. My work is almost done on you. Repeat this week just gone for the next

x weeks and you will hit your target weight. But don’t worry if you hit a plateau as chapter 7 deals with when the weight loss stops

ii) If the answer is nearly – superb stuff. You too also know how to lose weight. Ok it wasn’t the amount you planned to lose but nevertheless you lost weight.  You now have a bit of experience in losing weight by calorie counting and the more experience you get the better at it you become.  You may have some sneaky feelings why you didn’t hit target so apply this to next week’s eating plan.

iii) If the answer is no – ask yourself did you lose weight? If you did and you are ok with the amount you lost then I would carry on.  You would have learned alot this week about yourself and portion control and whether it can work for you.  If however you didn’t lose any weight or even put on weight then I would start again.  Either sign up to my 52 Step Program or set a new start date and think about where it all went wrong.  Was you not motivated enough? Were the targets too ambitious? Was the start date too soon? Did I not prepare enough? You will know the answers to these questions if you really think about them.

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