Yes, I know, everybody says they have a solution for loosing weight, and yes, I know, it is so difficult to actually make it. And even though many times we really know the “rules” we don’t respect them. It’s is our personal choice, but I do believe in sharing things that helped me.

To clear up the situation: From 16 March to 24th June 2009 I have lost 26.5 lbs (~12kg), by following a diet with a nutritionist and doing some weekly aerobic exercise. For me it was not a “free lunch”, but there are some lessons I am more than happy to share for free. Already more than 6 months have passed since I have arrived to my current weight and I am successfully maintaining it, even though I allow myself to eat some sweets twice a week . About 10 of my friends now go to the same nutritionist and some have already achieved their weight targets or are on their way towards them.

To keep things simple, I will summarize the logic of my diet in the following points:

* We need to keep our stomach working and offer good/healthy nutrition to our body. This is the reason why my nutritionist recommended me to eat 5 times a day: 3 main meals, and 2 snacks (and as much as possible, do not skip any of the meals, and especially breakfast)
* My regular meal schedule (+/- 1h) is: 7am – breakfast, 10am – snack 1, 13pm – lunch, 16pm – snack, 19:30 – dinner. Of course, each of us must adapt the time of our meals to our schedule, but my nutritionist recommended me to have about 4 hours between dinner and the time I go to sleep, so keep that in mind.
* For snacks I usually eat fruits, or cereal bars, or low fat yogurts.
* Main rules for the meals, each one of them is important:
– No pork
– No fried meat, just grilled or boiled: fish, poultry, beef are recommended. Meat can only be eaten in combination with vegetables (raw or boiled), but not with potatoes, pasta or rice(digestion will be more difficult and thus we’ll gain weight)
– No sweets during the period we want to loose weight
– We eat until we don’t feel hungry anymore, but not more than that. Having our stomach stuffed is not healthy and will not help us loose weight, but also not eating enough is not good for us.
– Bread and carbohydrates are okay to eat, as long as we don’t eat them at dinner (I used to have almost everyday for breakfast two slices of bread with low-fat cream cheese and some vegetables…)
– We have to decide on using products we usually like to eat, but in the right combinations.
– Drink about 2 liters of still water/tea/lemonade everyday (we can use honey or sweeteners, but no sugar); because I like honey and I liked sweets. When I felt the need for sweets I used to take some honey (and sometimes a hand of almonds or peanuts) and eat it, I felt better, and due to the fact that honey is a natural product it seems it is easier absorbed by our bodies.
– Use as much spices as you want (but do not exaggerate on salt). Spices will give a better taste to our food and help us enjoy it more
* One thing you always need to remember: if you feel the harsh pressure of the diet, you will want to escape it; or as soon as you have finished it, you want to go back to your old habits. Because of that, if sometimes during our diet you feel too much under its pressure, it’s okay to break some rules, have some sweets (but not exaggerate) and then get back to the diet. It’s all good as long as this does not become the rule, but only the exception.
* The thing is, and I am sure you were expecting that, we can only have a long term result if we change the way we eat. It does not help if we get back to our old ways of eating after we lose some weight. Yes, we can deal with some exceptions (and we must enjoy every one of them ) but get back on track.
I hope you will find these tips & tricks helpful. As I said, I am not a specialist so please, if you know you have health problems, do not try any of my tips & tricks without asking a doctor or a nutritionist. But these are indeed some of the main elements of the diet I followed and that helped me loose 26.5 lbs in 3 months.

Happy weight loosing!