If you love food, here’s a little guide to shaping up, minus the dieting.
• Make friends with food: Banish the word diet and think healthy, moderate eating!
• Make your own food: Know your ingredients and influence what ends up on your plate.
• Focus on the experience: If you enjoy what you eat, you’re less likely to fall into the restrict and binge cycle.
• Reinvent your favourite naughty dishes: If you like ice cream, try making it with coconut milk and stevia instead.
• Keep it social: Get your friends involved in a healthy feast with a bring a dish date. Food is here to be enjoyed.
If you are struggling to stick to your resolutions – look at these tips to stay strong in the face of tempting cupcakes, pricey shoes, and hitting the snooze button instead of the gym.
• Make one change at a time: You have limited willpower, that is why multiple resolutions aren’t likely to work.
• Break it up: The better you are at making small changes, the easier it will be to keep going.
• Lift your Spirits: Watch funny movies, or do anything that puts you in a good mood — it helps when willpower starts wearing down. • Have some OJ: a glass of orange juice or lemonade can replen- ish your self-control. The brain relies almost exclusively on glu- cose for energy— artificially sweetened drinks won’t deliver the jolt.
• Outwit your inner rebel: Give your willpower some wiggle room, avoid making 100% resolutions. Instead, set restrictions like “I’ll have sweets only when I’m in a restaurant.”
• Crank up your greatest hits: Write down things you’re proud of, right down to ‘I get out of bed when I don’t want to.’ It’ll remind you how much willpower you really have.
• Up your senses: Draw on the strength of images – put up a photo of a thinner you on the fridge, or a picture of a Caribbean beach in your wallet near your credit cards to remind yourself of the holiday you’re saving for.