Saturday, 08 June 2013 12:14

Creating Low Calorie Meals is easier than you might think.

There is no escaping the fact that to lose weight, we need to take notice of what we are eating, and try to prepare low calorie meals more consistently. Keeping the foods we eat to as near to "natural" as possible is a great start in losing weight, but it is also important to keep the number of calories we consume daily down as well.  Many start on the road to weight loss, but lose interest too early, often because it all seems "too hard". For many, this is an all too familiar story.


A very common reason people fail to successfully achieve their weight loss goals is that they fail to understand food groups and how they come together to form low calorie meals. So too, many people become confused about what ingredients help or hinder weight loss.

I would like to share with you here some tips and hints I have gained when creating low calorie meals for my family, which are not complex or difficult to create.

These tips and suggestions are all learned from my own successful weight loss journey, and are based on a few simple and basic rules:

Eat as much natural (grown) foods as possible and keep your daily sugar intake as low as possible. Track your calorie intake on a daily basis. (this is much easier than you might think)

OK, so let’s look at what foods will help, so you can create some low calorie meals:

Breakfast:

Start the day with a large sized portion as it will assist in setting us up for the day ahead. As the day progresses, reduce portion sizes for each meal. If you don't have a lot of time in the mornings as many don't in our busy lives now days, cereals are a great quick choice. Many however, are very high in sugar and calories, so we need to choose carefully.

I recommend Oats (porridge) and milk, Vita Brits and milk, or Weetbix with milk (full fat milk is preferred).

All of these cereals are low in sugar and high in fiber and as long as we don’t add sugar to sweeten, all are great starters for quick and easy low calorie meals.

If time is on your side, then the full breakfast of Bacon, eggs, wholemeal toast or muffins with butter rather than margarine are all fine as well.

Hint: Stay away from jams and honey on the toast. They are full of sugar and calories. L

Lunch:

If bread is your preference, wholemeal or multigrain are best to keep the sugars as low as possible.

Use as many fresh vegetable as you like as the "salad" part of your fillings.

If you enjoy meat in your roll or sandwich, any meats are fine as long as they are not "processed". Low calorie meals which contain meat need to be a natural as possible. Chicken, pork, lamb, beef and fish are all fine as long as they are not too heavily processed.

Salads without without your choice of meat are also another very healthy choice for sticking to low calorie meals.

Also remember to keep your portions on the “medium” end of the size scale.

Dinner:

The evening meal, like lunch, can in many cases include all of or some of these foods in hot or cold presentation.

Meats (all types which are not processed) are fine combined with what ever vegetables you prefer. The secret with the dinner meal is to keep the portions more on the smaller side, and by avoiding sauces and gravy, you are creating very effective low calorie meals which do taste great. Tip! If you find it difficult to give up gravy or sauce, try adding a "dollop" of butter on your meat and veges. Butter is a much healthier substitute.

It really is not that hard is it?

All of the foods mentioned above are “Natural” and low in both calories and sugar, which are the two main elements we need to keep to a minimum if our aim is to lose weight or manage our weight.

What about "Snacks"?

For many of us in our quest to lose weight, it is our choice and quantity of snacks that brings us undone.

If you are hoping to lose weight, choosing thew right type of snacks is really important. Brazil nuts and Walnuts are great alternatives to fruit at least in the early months. There is a very good reason for this, but as mentioned earlier, I am attempting to take the “complexity” out of weight loss.

Raw vegetables such as carrots, and mushrooms are also great healthy snack choices.

Cheese and dry biscuits are a much better option to sweet biscuits or sweet snacks in general.

When feeling hungry, making better choices about which snacks to eat, can be the difference between losing weight or not.

After struggling for years to lose weight, due in part to poor eating habits and lack of mobility, my doctor offered me a challenge to lose 15 Kilograms of weight without exercising just by reducing my sugar intake.

Of course, accepted this challenge and after just two weeks, had shed 3 kilos, and now I am at my original goal weight, and finding it easy to manage my weight for the fist time.

I am keen to share this method with others, as doctors are too learning that promoting low fat diets are a thing of the past.

If you are serious about losing weight, and more importantly, living a more healthy life, please check out my website by clicking here where I share tips and recipes which take the challenge of losing weight. http://www.amazines.com/

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