The mystical, amazing fantastic SECRET TO WEIGHTLOSS!!

I know. It's been ages, never mind, I'm back from my little sordid affair with Mr Gastro and Mr Flu.

Back to the topic at hand. I am SO sick and tired of hearing the following:- 'Oh, my gosh I need to lose some weight, so I'm just going to cut out carbs.' or I'm not dieting, I'm changing my lifestyle, so I'm cutting out carbs, you know bread, pasta, potatoes etc, all the bad food that makes you fat.'

WHAT A LOAD OF CODSWALLOP.

WAKE UP and smell the Low Glycemic Index Bread!!

My best friend in the whole world is a dietician, and I will ask her to make sure I don't say anything out of line but here.

I personally feel that, having lost 28kgs in 8 months, I am a relatively good authority on the subject of weightloss. Yes, 28kgs. Now that you've gotten over the shock, here are the before and after pics....

Before

After

RIGHT.

SO. Basically what I want to say is, if you want to lose weight, for heavens sake, be sensible. Use your brain! Think about something that you learn in primary school.....the food pyramid!! Lets review the food pyramid shall we?

(Thanks I took this from this site) http://www.superquinn.ie/download/1/food-pyramid+portions.jpg

It's very, VERY, simple...your diet should be made up of, mostly high-fibre, low Glycemic carbs, then fruits and vegetables, THEN dairy, THEN protein, then fat.

I'm sure that you are at least a little bit interested in what I did to lose all that weight....well, I'm going to tell you the secret....only, it's not a secret, it's nothing magical, it's nothing amazing, I didn't take any magical fat-melting, fat-blocking, lose weight now tablets, I didn't follow a low carb diet, and live on millet porridge and h'duki beans....all I did, was join Weighless, which is based on....THE FOOD PYRAMID. Here is one of my days basic menu:-

Breakfast

60grams of all bran cereal

125ml low fat milk

1 cup of decaf coffee

Snack

1 banana

1 yoghurt

Lunch

4 slices of slim-slice bread made into 2 sandwiches

filled with, 90grams of cold meat and about a tablespoon of Woolies reduced oil mayo, and some sliced tomato and lettuce or homemade coleslaw (if I have any)

1 can of coke light

Snack

1 Apple

1 yoghurt coated rice cake

1 cup of decaf coffee

Dinner

Lemon and Herb marinated chicken breasts from woolies (110grams of this)

salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrot, little bit of feta) woolies reduced fat mayo

Woolies microwave in the bag garlic and herb butter baby potatoes (90grams of these)

1 can of coke light/light juice.

Dessert

whatever fruits I have left in my allowance

if it's cold 1 cup of Cadbury's lite hot chocolate made with milk.

I also always drink 8 glasses of water a day which is surprisingly easy.

I would like to point out that I too have tried all the 'fashionable' diets, Dr Cohen, and a low carb diet or seven...they do work...BUT you feel like you want to die, your breath stinks and it is completely, totally and utterly unsustainable, and yes, I put on all the weight I had lost PLUS more.

The biggest secret to weightloss (in my humble opinion) is to ensure that whatever you do to lose weight, is sustainable. It has to be a life change, you have to be willing to eat a certain way for the rest of your life and that, I'm afraid is all there is to it. I have made that change and I couldn't be happier. We still 'cheat' and have steers once or twice a month and I eat all my chips! We have been to spur a few times and i have had, steak, chips a chocolate brownie and ice-cream, and loved every single solitary mouthful. I do not deprive myself of the things i love (chocolate, and ice-cream mainly) but i have changed my thinking about food entirely, i don't reward myself by having 'something nice to eat' food is not a reward, it's something we eat to sustain our bodies and to keep healthy and also for enjoyment, but junk food is not the only food that is completely totally and utterly delicious. Pink Lady apples are the bomb. Smoothies are your friend, you can conjure up the most divine healthy smoothies really easily and they taste great.

It is so unhealthy to go a low carb diet, here are 15 reasons from SideRoad.com why you shouldn't cut carbs:-

"1. Low carb (ketogenic) diets deplete the healthy glycogen (the storage form of glucose) stores in your muscles and liver.

2. Depletion of muscle glycogen causes you to fatigue easily, and makes exercise and movement uncomfortable.

3. Depletion of muscle glycogen leads to muscle atrophy (loss of muscle).

4. Loss of muscle causes a decrease in your basal metabolic rate.

5. Your muscles and skin lack tone and are saggy.

6. Some proponents of low carb diets recommend avoiding carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, potatoes, carrots, etc. because of they are high on the Glycemic index - causing a sharp rise in insulin.

7. Much of the weight loss on a low carb, high protein diet, especially in the first few weeks, is actually because of dehydration and muscle loss.

8. The percentage of people that re-gain the weight they've lost with most methods of weight loss is high, but it's even higher with low carb, high protein diets. This is primarily due to three factors:

A. You have lost muscle. With that comes a slower metabolism which means fewer calories are burned 24 hours-a-day. A loss of muscle during the process of losing weight is almost a guarantee for re-gaining the lost weight, and more.

B. You re-gain the healthy fluid lost because of glycogen depletion.

C. It's difficult to maintain that type of diet long-term.

D. You have not made a change to a long-term healthy lifestyle.

9. Eating too much fat is just not healthy.

10. As someone recently told me, "it must work - people are losing weight". People that are truly losing fat on low carb, high protein diets, are doing so because they are eating fewer calories - that's the bottom line. There is no magic - the same can be done on a healthy diet.

11. Low carb diets are lacking in fiber.

12. Low carb diets lack sufficient quantities of the the many nutrients / phytonutrients / antioxidants.

13. Americans already consume more than twice the amount of protein needed.

14. Low carb, high protein diets cause an unhealthy physiological state called ketosis, a type of metabolic acidosis.

15. Bad breath."

You've got the facts, so do something about it! Don't waste time and money on stupid meal replacements etc. The mystical, amazing fantastic secret to weightloss is....

There isn't one, and more importantly, we shouldn't aspire to be tiny little, skinny little thin little creatures, we should aspire to be healthy, happy, and confident in who we are.