No More Diets

How much water do I need to drink a day?

Common advice you’ll find around is that you need about 6 to 8 glasses a day but this does vary depending on how active you are and where you live (you’ll need more if you work out or live in a warm climate).

The main guideline to follow is that if you are properly hydrated your urine will be pale yellow in color and you won’t feel physically thirsty. If you’re getting dehydrated on the other hand you may experience the following

• thirst
• dark-colored urine
• not passing much urine when you go to the toilet
• headaches
• confusion and irritability
• lack of concentration

There is a very helpful article by the Mayo clinic outlining the facts about drinking water so I won’t repeat everything here. See this article on healthy water consumption.

Do remember that too much water can be dangerous - something you can forget if you constantly try and keep yourself hydrated by drinking from a water bottle all day long.

If you drink so much that you kidneys can’t cope then you can become very ill and even die. For more information on drinking TOO MUCH water see this article on drinking too much water from the BBC.

I’m 33 years old, 5.2” inches and weigh 75 kg (165lbs) Over the last 2 years I’ve put on 10 kg. Before that I was going to the gym but can’t go regularly any more. Can you help and guide me with what to do?

You know how easy it is to put on 5kgs (11lb) over a year?

Dead easy!

If you eat just 105 calories a day more than you use then there’s your 5kgs. That’s just a couple of apples or a milky coffee too much. And if you were exercising 3 times a week at the gym and stopped going that could explain your weight gain too.

It’s generally not the odd blow out meal or lack of marathon running which affects our weight so much as the daily cookie too many, the daily walk too few.

I’m not that fond of diets for lasting weight loss but I am very fond of gradually changing your habits so that you are eating healthier food and moving a bit more in your everyday life. That doesn’t need going to the gym. It just means climbing more stairs and taking fewer lifts or escalators. It means taking as many steps as possible rather than sitting down. It means putting more energy into everything you do. It also doesn’t mean eating rabbit food all the time but it does mean going easy on fatty or sugary foods and eating a smaller portions.

There’s such a fine line between weight gain and weight loss that just a few habits changed for the better can swing things back in the direction you want to go.

And if you decide to diet anyway - choose one you could live with (in a modified form) forever so that you are establishing long term good habits.

How do I know if eating too much or too little?

If you leave the table and feel even slightly uncomfortable then you have eaten too much. The aim is to feel satisfied rather than stuffed. The only way to detect this point during a meal is if you eat slowly and focus on the food rather than eating quickly and mindlessly.

If you have been overeating for some time and your body has got used to having too much food you may have to retrain your stomach to get used to less food over a few weeks by gradually reducing quantities. The right amount of food for comfort is about the size of two fistfuls - not a huge amount - but your stomach is about the size of your fist and has to expand to accommodate even that quantity of food.

In order to get a balanced diet it’s best to eat lean protein about the size of a pack of cards, a small portion of whole grain carbohydrate and filling up on fruit and vegetables. But in practise if you keep quantities down you can eat more or less as you like - it just won’t be as healthy.

For most people eating this amount for lunch or dinner, a snack will be required between meals - mid morning and mid afternoon. Choose fruit, vegetables and a little lean protein to quell your hunger.

Apart from this the only thing to be aware of are the hidden calories in drinks. Drinks don’t fill you up but they can easily add as many calories as a meal. Be wary of milky drinks (including coffees) and fruit juices as well as alcohol and sugary soft drinks.

Once you have regulated the quantity of food you can tell whether the food choices you are making are causing you to lose weight, gain weight or stay the same. Generally this plan is enough to lose weight if you don’t waiver from it. If you want to waiver (and let’s face it we all have special occasions when we might want to) then you may have to start and change the type of foods you are choosing as well as the quantity.

How can I stop thinking about food?

It’s just typical isn’t it? Just when you want to reduce the amount you eat and lose weight you start thinking about food more than ever.

And to be fair - it’s hard not to think about food. It is all around us - at home, on every street corner, at every social function. We just can’t ignore it - and if we even try our hunger will bring us right back to reality.

So maybe it’s not possible to stop thinking about food altogether - we can really only try and reduce the times we think about food.

I find the best way to tackle this issue is to…

a) avoid getting bored - if you are doing something you love you will never think about food until you get hungry. Think about whether boredom is a factor and then start working on adding more interest and non-food related pleasure into your life. There is so much available to capture our imagination these days that there is no need to be bored. Whether you are bored at work or at home - tackle this problem at source - do you need a new job or a new hobby rather than a new diet?

b) plan food ahead of time. Take away the need to constantly think about food by planning your meals a week or a few days ahead and preparing them in advance too. If you always have something healthy and delicious to look forward to, you’re less likely to hanker after something else less healthy.

c) keep “unplanned” food (as much as possible) out of sight to keep it out of mind. Don’t buy what you know you don’t want to eat. Don’t wander past the bakery store of you know you’ll be tempted. Turn off the TV or avoid the commercial breaks.
d) never ban food - it only serves to make you want it more. If there is a particular food you love, which is not particularly healthy, plan small amounts with your meals or snacks

e) eat enough so that you are not hungry all the time - if you are trying to lose weight fast with a starvation diet of course you’ll be able to think of nothing else but food

I’ve been introduced to InnerLight and the Miracle PH Diet of Dr Robert Young. Are you familiar with his theory of alkalising for health by only eating alkaline food (mostly greens, beans no meat, wheat or dairy) together with reducing toxicity and stress in lifestyle.

I can’t say I’ve come across this diet but to be honest I’m not in a rush to advise anyone to go and try it out.

In my experience as a weight loss coach, for the most part, people have enough difficulty with diets which force them to give up junk food like cookies, cakes, pastries and pies, soda, candy and fries or in reducing their portion sizes to a moderate amount never mind trying to stick to something that sounds so far removed from their current eating habits.

This is the kind of diet that you try for a week and lose weight (with so many restrictions you almost can’t fail to do that and frankly, who wants to overeat beans and greens anyway?) but do you really want to keep it up for a lifetime? Through holidays and trips abroad? Through good times and bad? Weddings and parties?

It’s my belief that food is a sociable thing and that following a diet which divides you from the rest of the world by what you can and can’t eat is not good for the soul. Learning to make healthy food choices over unhealthy choices in a world where we are constantly bombarded with junk food offerings - now that is something worth pursuing - along with getting used to eating the right amount to keep your body slim.

But you can make healthy choices without restricting food so much - food is meant to be enjoyed not endured.

I’m not saying that this diet is unhealthy (for all I know it’s the healthiest in the world) but I think that a good life and good food is all about balance and moderation. If you can learn to eat and enjoy mainly healthy food and to be satisfied with modest portions you will be doing better than most.

For anyone who wants to try an ultra-health promising regime - make sure you check it out with your doctor - and think about what it really means to eat in that way for the rest of your life. (and if so, you’re probably on the wrong site because I don’t generally talk about restrictive diets here - we are aiming for progress not perfection)

How do you stay motivated when you start to feel deprived of all the good-tasting stuff?

It really depends on how you are losing weight.

If you are following a weight loss program where you have rules where foods you love are forbidden then you can start to crave the good stuff more than you ever did before.

This takes iron will-power especially when the food you love is on offer in a restaurant or at a friend’s house. (You aren’t tempting yourself are you, I hope, by keeping the food around at home…?)

You may want to practice pausing at the moment you are tempted and remind yourself why you want to lose weight and what it means for you - run through the end result in your head - and then compare that with the momentary pleasure of the food.

But I tend to tackle this issue by working on removing the feeling of deprivation altogether.

In my program I have my clients tackle this problem by encouraging them to :-

a) eat the food they love, to buy the very best and to eat it in small portions, sitting down, very slowly, enjoying every moment. If you really taste the food, eat it when you are hungry and “know” you are consuming it - then a small amount is much more likely to satisfy you than if you stuff down a huge portion guiltily by the fridge.

b) find new healthy satisfying recipes and foods so that over time the food they love and the food that does them good get closer together. Healthy food does not have to be wall to wall salad and cottage cheese - there are loads of fantastic real food dishes which taste great, fill you up and satisfy your hunger for the good things in life so that you’d never know you were trying to lose weight.

These two approaches take away every sense of deprivation - the sort of diet mentality where you can’t have this and you can’t have that … until you come off the diet, eat it all again (in large amounts) and put the weight back on.

I keep picking at food all day. What can I do to stop doing this?

When you pick at food all day it’s generally for one of two reasons:-

a) you are not eating satisfying meals (maybe thinking that this will help you lose weight)
b) you are bored (or stressed or lonely) and picking at food gives you a lift or something to take your mind off things

What can you do about it?

1. Eat enough food at mealtimes. I don’t mean stuff yourself full - I just mean eat enough so that you feel you’ve had a meal and not a light snack.

2. Include all the food groups. If you include some lean protein (such as chicken, eggs or fish) you will generally remain satisfied for longer after your meal. A small portion of slow-release whole grain carbohydrates such as whole meal bread or brown rice will help there too. And you need to also add some healthy fat (such as avocado or a little olive oil) to make your meal more satisfying and slower to digest.

3. Cut down on sweet and starchy foods (desserts, sweets, white bread and pasta) if you want reduce the nibbles because they cause a sudden rise and then fall in your blood sugar levels and your body will crave more sugar or starch to plug the gap (even if you ate not very long ago).

4. Keep food out of sight. Sometimes we pick just because food is THERE tempting us. Don’t buy it in the first place and don’t have it on display/in easy reach.

5. Look at what feelings (boredom, stress etc) are creating the need to nibble and tackle the root cause of the problem rather than allowing yourself to mask them with food. What else could you do to help because food is not the answer for more than the two seconds it is on your lips and it surely is not helping once it turns to fat on your body?

6. If you can’t stop yourself picking, limit the damage with the foods you choose. Picking at chopped vegetables, dill pickles, hard boiled eggs and so on is much less damaging than nibbling on cookies, cake and lumps of cheese.

How can I control my chocolate consumption (I don’t eat any other ’sweet’ items!)?

I’m very fond of chocolate myself so I’m with you on that - there’s nothing quite like the mixture of sugar, fat and cocoa beans in the world and I would not want to give it up. I do control the urge to eat too much of it though by

a) not banning it - putting something on a forbidden food list just makes it more attractive

b) establishing a habit where I eat 4 squares of chocolate for dessert most nights with coffee - something I look forward to - you may want to eat less if you are trying to lose weight - I am just maintaining mine

c) buying the best chocolate ( i.e. the brand I like the most) so that it is a real treat

d) eating the chocolate slowly and truly enjoying it - when I eat chocolate I know I’m eating it (so much food we feel guilty about is stuffed down almost without tasting it)

If this is enough for you to control your consumption then that’s fine but if you truly can’t stop eating chocolate and tend to binge on it then you may want to take this further.

I read an interesting experiment in an Anthony Robbins book a few years ago (can’t remember which one - “Awaken the Giants Within” I think) where he cured someone of their self-professed chocolate addiction by challenging them to eat nothing but chocolate for two days - apparently after eating nothing but chocolate for that time the guy couldn’t face another chocolate without feeling sick.

You’ll also find an effective (though less dramatic) approach in Jason Vale’s book “Chocolate Busters” which is a whole program to help you stop eating chocolate. You might be able to get it in your local library and it’s also available on Amazon.com (see below)

For the UK:-

How do I find the will power not to eat from 2pm until supper at 5pm?

I’m not sure which program you are following because I don’t think that’s a sensible rule for most people if you mean that you’re not allowed anything to eat at all. It’s a particularly difficult one because it is quite normal to get hungry mid-afternoon especially if you have had a lunch with a lot of carbohydrates and not much in the way of fat and protein. It’s the time when low blood sugar tends to hit and we feel in need of a boost to raise our flagging energy.

In my program I would advise you to have a light healthy snack mid-afternoon to keep you going until dinner if (and only if) you are physically hungry. If you do this it means that you are more likely to

a) make sensible choices for dinner
b) have the energy to prepare and cook something
c) keep your metabolism ticking over

Now if the problem is that you are not eating for hunger but are falling prey to the proximity of the chocolate machine or the cookie jar that’s another matter…

For this willpower IS required…a few things which might help - maybe others can suggest more things which help them

1. have a healthier snack on hand and ready-prepared so that you less likely to succumb if you get hungry/need a boost
2. avoid having unhealthy foods to tempt you at home (or keep them well out of the way and out of sight) and avoid the area with the chocolate machines at work
3. keep a record of how often you manage to resist (e.g. a chart with stars or ticks) and reward yourself when you reach 100 with something you really want but are willing to deny yourself until you earn it
4. make yourself pay a forfeit whenever you give into the urge - money to a charity you don’t like, having to walk off all the calories you ate after dinner etc

I don’t eat vegetables. How can I diet without eating them?

This question is a bit similar to the one from the lady who couldn’t eat salad (”Salad upsets my stomach“) but also subtly different so I wanted to answer it too.

There are so many people who just don’t eat vegetables - and at least two of my friends run a mile from anything green.

First of all, do you have to eat vegetables to be slim?

No - neither of my friends are carrying too many pounds

Do you have to eat vegetables to lose weight?

Here I would have to say that they definitely help - they add a huge amount of bulk to your diet without adding many calories at all.

I usually recommend that you try and fill half your plate with vegetables or salad and then have a quarter lean protein and a quarter whole grain carbohydrates. Without the vegetables you can’t add much more carbohydrate or protein (which are relatively calorie dense) to fill you up.

So if you try and lose weight without them you will probably get hungrier than your friends who eat more veggies. You may also have to go into calorie counting mode because you won’t just be able to rely on the fullness signals you get.

I just wonder why you are so against vegetables.

Maybe you were forced to eat them as a child and swore never to eat them again once you had a choice. But there are so many different varieties and so many ways of cooking them that I wonder if you could not learn to love them for the sake of your health as well as your weight.

If you want to give vegetables another try, some ideas which work for my friends “because they don’t taste like vegetables” are

• roasting vegetables in a little olive oil in the oven to create a sweet taste and crunchy texture - great for carrots, peppers, parsnips and sweet potatoes
• making them into soup - even disguising them completely by pureeing the soup in a blender
• adding them to a curry, casserole or stew - where the taste of the sauce disguises that of the veggies
• adding grated vegetables to bulk out minced (ground) meat in a bolognaise or chilli dish
• mixing in vegetables in a macaroni cheese (e.g frozen peas and sweetcorn)
• stir frying them and adding a strong stir fry sauce which disguises the vegetables
• combining mashed potato with mashed root vegetables

Each of these ideas will add bulk to your diet without the calories and without that heavy boiled sprouts and cabbage taste you might have grown up to dislike.