How to find and keep a Healthy Weight – 7 Easy Steps
This can work for you!
If you would love to find a healthy weight but it’s all been too hard, too boring, too expensive – then you are in the right place.
If you love cooking, sharing and enjoying delicious food but you hate diets, food rules and missing out – you will find the answer here!
Imagine never starting a diet again, never saying no to a dinner invitation, never facing another meal replacement.
These 7 easy steps will walk you through everything you need to find and keep you healthy weight – deliciously! They will tell you how to make the Food Lovers Meal Planner and Eating Out Tips really work for you – using the food you love!
This quick guide will get you started on your new food journey!
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7 Easy Steps to a Healthy Weight – Eating In and Eating Out!
Step 1 Know your heart!
Stop and think about the way you really like to eat.
What do you like to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
Are you a cereal lover? A toast person?
A savoury or sweet person?
Do you like sandwiches for lunch, or salads, leftovers from dinner?
Or do you like to mix it up?
Is dessert important to you? Or do you need a pick me up snack in the mornings and afternoons.
What are the meals and foods that you would miss the most?
Do you like to eat smaller meals and have snacks in between, or spread you’re food out over the day.
If you aren’t sure, try keeping a food journal for a day or two and notice what you choose and how it makes you feel.
Hello Glow has a nice downloadable tool for journalling your food day to notice what you enjoy most.
Once you know how you like to eat, you can plan the types of meals and snacks that you enjoy most.
This step is really worth doing because it will also help you know whether a food is calorie-worthy for YOU!!
I’m loving the free Easy Diet Diary app if I need to decide whether something is calorie-worthy to me.
Step 2 Know your Hunger!
What times of the day do you enjoy food most?
Some people like a big brekkie, some don’t feel like eating until late morning.
Maybe you get the munchies late afternoon, or in the evening?
Perhaps you’re not fussed about lunch, but really look forward to dinner!
It can be really helpful to keep a hunger log for a day or two because it helps you learn about yourself and what your body wants.
Food Watch has a great tool for mapping your hunger and enjoyment of food over the day.
You can think of your hunger and satisfaction like a petrol gauge or a gas tank. We feel best when we keep our tanks 1/4-3/4 full. Too much or too little makes us feel hangry and cranky, or full and uncomfortable!
Do remember too that it takes around 20 minutes for hunger to catch up with what we eat.
Slow down and listen to your body.
Step 3 Know your Food Lovers Meal Planner
The Food Lovers Meal Planner takes the foods you enjoy and makes them work harder to nourish and satisfy you. The Meal Planner is what you need to organise your favourites foods to fit into a healthy weight calorie budget. It finds the perfect balance!
If you use it to plan and prep the food that you love, it will give you more pleasure, save you time and probably save you money too.
It’s the secret to success because what we see is what we eat!! This is how diets and meal delivery programs work.
If you’d like a DYI Meal Plan Sheet to use with the Food Lovers Meal Planner, the Healthy Food Guide offers a free downloadable.
The Easy Diet Diary app is also very useful if you are wondering how your favourite foods fit into the Food Lovers Meal Planner.
Watch the blog for recipes and new inspiration. They will show you how the Meal Planner can work for you. Make sure you know whenever there’s updates, by signing up for the News.
Step 4 Know your Helps!
What has helped you eat well before?
Remember a time when you felt good about what you were eating and enjoyed a perfect balance.
If you kept a food journal back in Step 1, you might have noticed times when things just fell into place.
Did it help to keep a shopping list? Prep for the week on the weekend?
If you move more in your day do you feel healthier and more in tune with your body?
Was it useful to eat a snack to take the edge off your appetite before heading to the supermarket or out for dinner?
Did it work well to offer to bring a salad to a BBQ to make sure there was plenty for everyone?
Did volunteering to be the designated driver keep you focused on mindful eating?
Has sipping on a glass of water full helped you stay mindful when you’re eating?
Does using beautiful serving ware and pretty table linen make eating even more pleasurable?
These Eating Out Tips are a good place to start for more ideas.
Step 5 Know your Hassles!
This can be the easiest step – we can all remember when we ended up eating mindlessly, getting overfull and wasting valuable appetite on food that wasn’t that great!
We say ‘never again’ but find ourselves back there and beat ourselves up for being so dim!
But life is a journey and there’s an opportunity each time to retrace our steps and have a sliding doors moment. We can imagine ourselves making different choices and see the strategies and plans that would have helped us. Each time we do this we tune ourselves better for mindful, rewarding eating because we are noticing our hassles and know what to do next time.
These Eating Out Tips will give you lots of ideas.
Step 6 Know your Hints!
If you are entertaining at home or catering for an event, there are plenty of tricks and tips to make it deliciously easy for everyone (including you) to finish feeling comfortable. Your guests will be grateful for the opportunity to choose their perfect portions.
Keep your eye on the Food Lovers News for Entertaining Hints and recipes like:
- Serve vegetable crudites with dips for an appetiser
- Start with an entree of delicious vegetable soup (recipe coming soon)
- Include a large colourful salad and a range of vegetable sides
- Let everyone serve themselves, even for the dessert course, so they can choose the size that suits their appetite.
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Step 7 Know your Hacks!
I love Eating Out and I can’t stand the idea of being limited to only once or twice a week or having to choose salads and grilled fish all the time. So I’ve developed a killer list of Hacks that anyone can use to eat out often without gaining weight.
Most require a little planning ahead or ordering strategically, but if you find yourself unprepared, the trick is to stop and think, instead of just going with the banquet option or the waiter’s suggestions.
I’ll be sharing new Hacks on the blog so do keep in touch to get the updates!
Next Steps
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- Stay connected! Follow Food Lovers Dietitian on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest for the very best inspiration and energy!
- Sign up for the Food Lovers News.
Leave a comment on this post and let me know how you use the Meal Planner and Eating Out Tips to make your food work better for you and find your healthy weight.
