Diet

As in the food I eat, not the "diet" I'm on.

I plan on sticking with eating this way, that's why I've not cut out anything, I'm just eating a lot more of the good stuff and a lot less of the junk. I eat loads of fresh fruit and veg (aim for more than 5 a day) and have cut chocolate back to being a once a week thing rather than an every day thing. I try to keep things as natural as possible and prefer to go for the organic options too. I'm thinking about what I'm eating and when I'm eating, if I'm "hungry" I'll have a think about whether I am actually hungry or just bored. I always have bottle of water to hand (aim for more than 2L a day) and I never have chocolate, sweets, cakes, crisps or other junk food in the house. I don't eat ready meals, take away or fast food (other than the very occasional Dominoes pizza!) I like my meals homemade, it's just as quick, it's easy, it's cheaper and I can have it exactly how I like it! Plus processed foods and takeaway no longer agree with me at all, it's like my body rejects them now...

I used to follow diets and I would tell myself it was just to "kickstart" things, if I had the quick results from 2 weeks of Special K it would encourage me to eat healthy from then on. Yeah right! I got bored bored bored and I binged!!
However I still keep my trusty Rosemary Conley book nearby and use at least 1 of her recipe's each week - the book does have a naffy diet plan but it does actually do a good job at encouraging healthy eating as a long term thing and most of her recipes get you cooking meals from scratch using good, healthy, wholesome ingredients.

I also plan a lot more now. When I do my weekly food shopping I'll get out the recipe books and pick a different selection of recipe's each week to build my shopping list around. Not having a car I use online shopping so once everything arrives I check the dates and plan which meals to have when.
I prepare tubs of food to take to work with me every evening, takes 10-20mins, I also weigh all my ingredients so I know just what I'm eating. I'll weight out some oats for my breakfast, salad and meat for my lunch, yogurt and fruit to snack on and make sure it's all ready to go before I head for bed.

I keep an online food diary to keep track of what's going in and what I'm burning off, I often fill this out in the evenings or as I eat my porridge at work to help me stick to the plan for the day, otherwise I really am prone to falling off the wagon and wondering down to Starbucks...
I enter everything I eat or drink and try to enter weights/quantities as accurately as I can, everything is split by meal and I get a daily calorie allowance based on my height, weight, lifestyle and how much weight I want to lose. Currently I have it set for 1.5lbs per week.