The Daly Dish Diary 8-page weight loss special for fast foodies

Get your weight-loss goals on track with this inspirational planner from the people who bought you the phenomenal, best-selling healthy eating cookbook for fakeaway fans

We’re back! Hello, and welcome to this diary that’s going to help you keep on top of your daily and weekly food routine and make things a little easier for you.

What worked for us when it came to losing weight and maintaining it?

Well first off, let’s talk about the d-word — the diet. Some people think: I’ll go on a diet and that’ll sort me out, and it does and will. But for us, we found that instead of dieting every now and then (which never really worked), we just decided to have a healthy, balanced plan when it came to our eating.

We wanted a lifestyle change and not just a quick fix. We wanted not only to lose weight but to feel healthier in both mind and body. And it’s true — when you get into a routine where you’re eating better food, you feel so much better in yourself, which will motivate you to stay on track. Balance is the key here — it’s OK to treat yourself now and then.

One of the biggest reasons people fall off the wagon when dieting is because they’re not eating something they like. Then the cravings get too much and boom, you’re neck-deep in a tub of Ben & Jerry’s choc brownie ice-cream.

For some people, the thought of making food from scratch can be daunting, but in reality, it’s so much easier and it allows you to see and control what exactly goes into what you’re eating.

It also allows you to tweak recipes as you see fit — you can add a bit more of this, a little less of that, and so on. But it also needs to be exciting and enjoyable and, most importantly, stuff you actually want to eat. This is where we come in handy!

So, why a food diary? Well, I’m glad you asked. If you use one for your week, it makes it easier for you to keep on top of things and not have to worry about what to be cooking up each day as you’ve already planned ahead. See? Genius.

Obviously, it’s a guideline, and if you fancy something different then you can change it up a little.

The great thing about having a planner is that you can sit down at the start of the week and go through exactly what you want to have – basically, building the perfect shopping list.

It’ll help you stay focused throughout the week and you’ll find that once you’ve a plan in place, you’ll be more likely to stick to it. It’ll also save you a fortune as you’ll have less waste and won’t be buying the stuff you don’t need.

When you don’t plan your week scenario

There is nothing worse than standing staring into the fridge and not having a notion what to cook.

Chances are, if you are tired or not feeling in the best of form because you’re starving, you will reach for something that needs to be slapped out of your hand.

The freezer drawer will be slyly slipped open to see if there are any frozen gems in there that you can just lash on for the family, and ‘sure I’ll just have a little nibble on that and I’ll be more organised tomorrow’. Then your tomorrow turns into a 48-hour food bender, and before you know it, you’ll be the ‘sure I’ll get back to it on Monday’ person and next thing it’s six months later and you are standing in front of the mirror wondering what just happened! Trust me, we’ve been there more than once, and we ain’t going back there again!

What we do and how we plan

It’s all well and good sitting down with your new shiny planner and your brand-new pen, full of great intentions, until you start asking: How do I plan a week? What will I actually eat? How do I know what I need or don’t need? Relax, don’t panic — let us talk you through what we do, and it might make things a bit easier to follow.

We sit down on a Sunday (or the night before your shopping day) with a cuppa and pick a full list of what we’d like to cook for the week ahead.

We choose breakfasts, lunches and dinners from our book and our Instagram feed, and then add a few new ideas. Then, we write out all the ingredients, starting with:

You feel better in a routine of good food

1 The meat

2 The veg

3 The spices and herbs

4 The pasta, the rice and the spuds

5 The sauces

We have a nosey through the fridge and presses to see what we already have, then tick the things we need, and off we go to the shop, only buying what we need. Trust me, you’ll save a fortune, and you’ll also be less likely to find a tin of beans from 1965 in the back of your press because the other 25 tins you didn’t need were hiding it!