You’ll be surprised at what you do eat!

Some healthy lifestyle advice from Weight Watchers leader Fiona Pediani, from King’s Park.

Have you ever started off on a weight loss plan and bought all the right foods, cooked some great healthy meals, included snacks and felt really satisfied with what you’ve eaten only to stand on the scales and there’s no difference to your weight at all?

You go over what you’ve eaten and just can’t work out where you’ve gone wrong.

Most of us eat subconsciously. The odd sweet here and there, leftovers from the kids’ plates, a couple of chips from your partner’s plate, tempting samples in the supermarket, a broken biscuit, tastes and licks of whatever we are cooking to make sure it’s okay. The list is endless.

If you’ve ever seen the TV programme Secret Eaters, then you will know that the people featured on it really think that they don’t eat a lot. They are filmed going about their everyday lives and then confronted with the evidence of what they are actually consuming in a week. They are usually horrified!

I’ve asked my Weight Watchers members to do an experiment this week. Every time they are going to eat that broken biscuit that doesn’t really count put it in a zip up plastic bag (these can be bought in a supermarket).

At the end of the week they are going to count up the ProPoints of everything that they’ve put in the bag and therefore not eaten. I’m sure they will get a big surprise and a good weight loss!

If the kitchen is where you tend to snack subconsciously then keep a bowl full of fruit on display and get into the habit of reaching for the fruit and not the biscuits. The fruit will make you feel fuller than two or three biscuits.

If you tend to eat the leftovers from the kids’ plates like chicken nuggets and fish fingers, put them straight in the bin so that you aren’t tempted.

If you keep doing this you will break the habit. Make your food interesting so that you feel satisfied with what you are eating.

I know that when I’ve not really enjoyed what I’ve eaten I started looking for something else to eat even though I’m not really hungry.

Weight Watchers members who develop good habits to replace their bad habits lose weight and maintain their weight loss very successfully.

Look up your local meeting at weightwatcherslocal.co.uk.