Healthy Eating tips

Healthy eating doesn’t just last for a few weeks while you’re ‘on a diet’. The only way to lose weight and keep it off is to make long-lasting changes to your activity levels, and maintain a balanced diet.

Achieving your weight loss goals with the alli programme isn’t complicated, it just takes practice to get into the new habits. Like most things, once you’re used to them, healthy eating and maintaining a higher activity level will simply become part of your daily routine.

The sections below show how a little forward planning can go a long way when it comes to losing weight with alli.

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Plan your meals

Knowing what you’re going to eat a few days in advance puts you in control. It helps you keep to a balanced diet and avoid making last-minute choices that are too high in fat and calories.

In reality, you probably won’t be able to plan every single meal and snack. However, as you learn more, you’ll be able to work out what you should and shouldn’t eat while on the alli weight loss programme.

Also remember that eating too much fat at any one meal may increase your chances of experiencing diet-related treatment effects. These can include wind with or without oily spotting, fatty or oily stools, or sudden bowel motions.

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Shopping for success

Try not to shop when you’re hungry. You might be tempted by fatty convenience foods and start snacking on your way home.

If you don’t already make shopping lists, now’s a good time to start: it can help you save time and money in the supermarket; and of course reduce the chances of you picking the wrong foods.

Take control of what goes in your shopping trolley – if it doesn’t go in the trolley, it doesn’t go in your cupboards or fridge

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Portions

Measuring spoons and a set of weighing scales for the kitchen are cheap and effective tools to help you be sure of your portion sizes. Try to get into the habit of weighing your food – it only takes a few extra seconds and could help make a positive difference to your weight loss.

Use a smaller plate; one that’s 8 inches or 20cm across will look fuller and help you to avoid overloading.

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Managing cravings

At some point, nearly everyone who’s trying to lose weight will experience food cravings. If this happens to you, it doesn’t have to mean giving into it and undoing all your hard work. To overcome these urges, you’ll need to recognise whether your body is hungry, or if you’re just craving something. Hunger is an empty feeling in your stomach – a signal that you haven’t eaten anything for several hours. A craving doesn’t mean that your body is hungry – it usually happens when you feel like eating a certain type of food. It can be triggered by stimuli outside the body, such as stress, changes in emotions and seeing or smelling something appetising.

It would be unrealistic to tell you that you won’t experience cravings, but it is possible to control them and limit the damage they can cause.

Try drinking a glass or two of water: sometimes your body is thirsty rather than hungry. Also distraction can work well: try phoning a friend when a craving strikes.