A lifelong slim plan

Step 1: Change environment

You can change your environment, move to a secluded place in the countryside, far from all temptations. A place from where you have to cycle for at least an hour before you reach a store. Where there is no television connection and therefore no seductive TV advertising. But that is of course not always possible. So go quickly to step two!

Step 2: Thick?

First determine whether it is necessary to lose weight. A good way is to measure the waist circumference. Wrap a tape measure around your bare stomach, between your ribs and hip bones. For men, less than 94 centimeters is ideal and 102 centimeters is really too much. For women, a waist circumference of less than 80 centimeters is fine, but a circumference of 88 centimeters too much.

Step 3: Food diary

Too many centimeters? Keep a food diary. Most people underestimate how much they actually eat. Only when you know what you eat do you know what to cut. Or you can discuss the food diary with a dietitian and create a diet plan together.

Step 4: Together

Tempt your partner to also eat healthy and slim. Eating healthier and losing weight is best done together. If he or she likes to indulge in fat and sweet and a lot, then it will be very difficult for you to eat steamed vegetables with a piece of fish every day. Compare it to quitting smoking: if your partner also quits, you have a much better chance of success.

Step 5: Small steps

Losing weight is best done in small steps. If you eat 100 kilocalories less per day, you will eventually lose 5 kilograms. That just takes years. You can also start with 300 kilocalories less per day, then that 5 kilograms will be lost after six months. From now on, eat 100 kilocalories less daily than you did before the diet, otherwise the kilos will come back on.

Step 6: Protein and Fiber

Anyone can lose weight with a diet, as long as you stick with it. It doesn’t matter what diet you follow. You lose weight because a diet forbids certain things, so that you can no longer spontaneously eat when and what you want. Because foods with a lot of protein and a lot of fiber provide a feeling of satiety for longer, a diet rich in protein and fiber is easier to maintain.

Step 7: Plan

Losing weight is not easy. The longer you follow a diet, the greater the resistance becomes. After about three months, four out of five people revert to their old eating habits.

If you don’t want that to happen to you, then you need to realize that you’ve set yourself a tough job. You have to change your lifestyle permanently and that is difficult. That is why it is important to have a plan ready in advance to ensure that you do not fall back into your old eating habits after your diet: which calories do you cut out, which foods do you leave out? Staying slim means eating a little less throughout your life.

Step 8: Against sweet

Permanently replace sweets with fruit. Do you feel a ‘sweet’ binge coming on? Then quickly brush your teeth. Because of the fresh taste you probably don’t feel like sweets anymore. Chewing gum is also fresh, but by chewing your stomach thinks that food is coming and you promote the feeling of hunger.

Step 9: Tricks

There are a few more ways to make sure you consume fewer calories every day. The most famous is: drink a lot water. This reduces the feeling of hunger and drinking water is also good for bowel movements. A small plate and small cutlery also mean that you eat less. It is also important that you always eat slowly. It takes about twenty minutes before the brain can give off the ‘full’ signal. If you have finished your meal within that time, you often serve again. After each bite, put your knife and fork down and chew well.

Step 10: Sugars

Keep an eye out for hidden sugars. We know that sweets and soft drinks contain a lot of sugar. But also study the labels of tomato ketchup, gingerbread and fruit juice. Furthermore, you can assume that if a product contains zero percent fat, it often means: a lot of sugar.

And your shopping list? What’s on it? Delete anything that is intended as a snack or candy. Do not buy it. Because you can’t eat what you don’t have at home.

Step 11: More Movement

Find out for yourself how you can move more. You can subscribe to a gym, you can also buy an exercise bike or a pair of running shoes. Increase your daily exercise: cycling to the supermarket, walking the dog, gardening, painting the house, vacuuming. All movement counts. If you exercise half an hour more every day, you will consume exactly those extra calories that are needed to not gain weight again after weight loss.

Step 12: Television Off

Which also helps: getting rid of the TV. You will automatically lose weight, probably because you will start to move more if you no longer hang out in front of the tube for hours. Or because you no longer mindlessly munch on a bag of chips or a bar of chocolate while watching. If not having a TV at all is too big a step, you can limit the number of hours you spend in front of the TV. And what applies to the TV, also applies to the computer: turn that thing off.