Lose 5kg: Week 2 of our diet

If you followed Week 1, you’re probably well on track to losing 5kg for the holidays. Keep it up and carry on seeing results

WELCOME to the second week of our four-week eating plan to get ready for the holidays – and if you’ve stuck to Week 1’s plan, you may well be between ½kg and 1kg down! Rochez O’Grady and Sarah Gouws, registered dieticians with Cape Town’s Munchwize Dieticians, have devised a healthy eating plan specially for YOU readers who want to hit the year-end celebrations on a feel-good high.

This is a four-week plan for you to cut out and keep – but if you missed out on Week 1, don’t worry! Simply get in touch with us (see the next page). In a few weeks’ time when you’re done with Week 4, start again with Week 1 to keep the results coming.

Sticking to this plan means you could lose up to 1kg a week. Between ½kg and 1kg a week is the healthiest rate of weight loss, according to O’Grady. A more extreme diet that has you los- ing more than that probably isn’t sustainable in the long term – and you could find those kilos creeping back on.

No matter how dedicated you are, it’s not easy to stick to your guns at this time of year with all the office parties and family get-togethers rolling around.

But O’Grady, who encourages a mindful approach to eating, believes treating yourself every once in a while is perfectly okay. “I think that having a cheat meal or a treat is normal eating behaviour. You can save it for special occasions.”

So a glass of bubbly at your end-of-year function or a handful of crisps at a family braai is no reason to throw in the towel.

“The most important thing is what you do with your day-to-day meals, not what you do on the special occasions as they’re not frequent,” O’Grady says.