Deep-fried foods: These contain saturated fat, and lots of it. What happens when you consume saturated fat? It turns straight into fat in your body. It also leads to high blood pressure and increases your risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. All in all, deep fried foods aren't doing you any favours, so steer clear of them entirely. This includes deep-fried chips (French-fries) and deep-fried snack foods.
Sugary soft drinks (sodas): A can of Coke contains 39 grams of refined sugar. That is equivalent to 7 teaspoons. Now I'm not saying you should completely cut sugar from your diet . a balanced diet contains sugar (although the kind that occurs naturally in certain foods such as fruit are far preferable to the refined kind you find in carbonated soft drinks) but a drink that contains 7 teaspoons of the stuff is not something you should be drinking. I used to be a Cola addict. I would typically consume several cans of the stuff every day. If I can give it up so can you.
Chocolate, Ice cream and sweets: See above. This stuff is not healthy and is not going to help you lose weight. If you're serious about losing weight, give it up.
Fat: You know, that stuff that you find on the side of your bacon? For Gods sake don't eat it! It's fat. When you swallow it, it turns into fat inside your body. The bacon tastes just as good without it. The same goes for fats on other meats. If you're the one doing the cooking, cut it off. If you're not the one doing the cooking, just don't eat it. Also, if you have any control over the fat content of foods that are purchased for your consumption, exercise that control and get foods that contain less fat. Mince, for example (the stuff that Spaghetti Bolognaise is made from) is sold in different grades according to the amount of fat in it. The kind with less fat is more expensive, but that's ok, just buy (and eat) less (you've probably been eating too much up 'till now anyway). Also on the list of forbidden fats (regrettably) is pork crackling. Yes, I know, it's fantastic. But your new body is going to be worth it, believe me.
The above wasn't brain surgery right? No real surprises there. The only thing different about what I'm suggesting to what you may have heard before is that I am advocating TOTAL ABSTENTION. I'm saying that it's not OK to have 1 can of cola a week, or 1 chocolate bar a week . because that is not going to help your self discipline. That 1 can of Coke a week is going to be a crack in your wall and that crack is going to open up, turn into a bigger crack (a fissure?) and ultimately bring the whole wall down. This diet is going to have to last several months. You need all the help you can get with your will-power. It's going to be a lot easier for you to simply say "No, those things are not part of my life any more".
Exercise
This part isn't brain surgery either. Everything you read about losing weight talks about exercise, but you probably think to yourself "yeah, well I don't have time" or "I already get enough exercise now" Have a look at yourself. Are you in the shape you want to be in? If the answer's "no", then you need to get more exercise. Here's some good news. It turns out that different kinds of exercise bring about different kinds of results (duh!) and one of the best kinds of exercise for losing weight is .. walking. Now most people can walk, right? It's free. You don't need to pay any money to join a walking club or invest in any gear (a pair of comfortable walking shoes is a good idea), and it turns out that walking, once you get used to it, is pretty nice. You get to know streets a lot better when you see them on foot instead of driving down them. You get to have some time in your day to think and reflect peacefully, and if you can get someone else to walk with, it can help solidify your friendship with them. So walk every chance you get. But don't just wait for the chances; they won't come along often enough. What you need to do is set yourself a weekly schedule, and stick to it (except when it's raining). I found there were 2 opportunities I had to walk just about every day. One was my lunch break, and the other was in the evening after dinner when I'd take my dog for a walk. At lunch time I just head off and walk the streets around my office building for half an hour. I try and keep up a reasonable pace and I try not to stop and go into shops. The exercise gurus say that for a walk to be really beneficial it should last at least 30 minutes and it should be pretty constant. My evening walks last about 40 - 45 minutes and the added benefit of these is that my dog is now a lot fitter as well.
Walking is one of the important secret weapons in weight loss. If you make sure you do it, and you do it every day for at least 30 minutes you will be amazed at how quickly you see (and feel) the results.
