Time to try and bring all the different strands of my ramblings together. So to recap the key themes:

–          Simple or processed carbohydrates (i.e. things made from wheat such as bread, pizza and pasta,  products containing added sugar such as biscuits, fruit juice, rice, beer and potatoes) play a key role in making us put and keep weight on – eating as little of these therefore will help you lose weight

–          Drinking lots of water, chewing your food slowly, healthy snacking so you’re not starving when you have a meal, and allowing time for your brain to catch up with your stomach, will help too

–          If you do fancy a “little treat”, make it little; buy small portions of these

–          Eat only when you’re hungry – don’t feel you need to eat everything on the plate

–          And remember that if you’re “good” for 6 days a week, you can be “bad” for the other day; you’re not giving up treats for ever, just for a few days each week.

One other thing I haven’t mentioned previously, but I think is important to share – don’t necessarily trust food that branded as “low fat” or “lower fat”. A lot of time the difference with the “normal” version of the product is minimal (there was a Which? Study done on this very recently, you just pay extra for the priviledge), and a lot of the time, they’ll add sugar to the product instead, so it can still make you fat!

I’ve had a few messages from people asking for practical advice on what you can actually eat for meals, so here goes.  

Breakfast:

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to have bacon, sausages and eggs every morning if you’re following a low carb plan. I really enjoy these foods, but as they are processed meats, I will only have a fry up once a week, normally on my cheat day – reason for this is a cheat day has less of an impact if you start the day off with lots of protein.

Other things I have for breakfast:

–          A slice or two of brown toast (the small loaf variety, or just one of the standard size) with a big spread of peanut butter (the no added sugar stuff, so no Sunpat!) – peanut butter is very filling;

–          Scrambled eggs or omelettes with different fillings;

–          Lizzie’s Granola which is deliberately slow release carbs, with a small amount of milk – portion size is key here, so don’t have loads – and with berries;

–          A berry smoothie with unsweetened yoghurt, with optional peanut butter.