My 6 sure-fire tips for weight-loss plus 1!

I notice a lot of my posts are centered around weight maintenance, probably because that is where I am at. This post is a reminder to myself about what it took to lose the weight in the first place. If you have a goal to lose fat, here are my six sure-fire tips (plus 1!) to fat-burning (you'll notice they are very nutrition-based because losing weight is 80% nutrition!):

1. Cut out the fat. Let me be the first to say that fat is extremely important in a healthy diet. However, if you're trying to kick-start your body into burning stored fat - you can't be eating any. That means no butter on toast, no oil in salad dressings, trim milk in tea or coffee, low-fat cottage cheese and yogurt, and lean meats. This isn't forever ... it is just for the first 4-6 weeks to get your metabolism up and running. Then you'll be having fat in a weekly free-meal and you can introduce 1 tablespoon of food fat (I use flaxseed oil) each day.

2. Eat every three to three-and-a-half hours. The body needs regular re-fueling to ensure it does not go into 'starvation and storage' mode.

3. Eat protein and carbohydrates together at meals and snacks. Protein keeps the blood sugar stable while the carbs give you the energy. I'm not an expert on the science but it works! You won't be starving an hour after eating.

4. Do not eat heavy carbohydrates at your evening meal. Carbs such as bread, potatoes, rice and pasta get stored as fat if you have them during your evening meal. Unless you are an athlete, you don't need these carbs at dinner.

5. Drink lots of water. You need to be peeing clear.

6. Exercise. I am not talking about training for a marathon - or even slogging it out for an hour at the gym. Just walking 40-60 minutes 4-5 days a week at a moderately brisk pace is all it takes for the body to burn fat.

And here's my extra tip which is the best!

7. Eat a free meal each week. After you've been following the above for approximately four weeks (on average you should be losing 500g or a pound a week) ... add in a free meal. Pig out - anything goes. You need it. It will stop your weight-loss from plateauing. Read more about the coveted free meal.

Sound simple? It is! Truly. I highly recommend visiting a nutritionist/dietician to get your food programme spot-on. However, if you just want an idea of what I ate to lose weight and keep it off, I wrote a post about it here.

Eggplant - here are the top 2 ways to mouth-watering perfection!

If you have eaten eggplant in the past and not enjoyed it (join the ranks of my husband), this post may or not be for you. I must say this right now though - how eggplant is cooked makes or breaks it. I will give you my two best cooking methods.

I LOVE eggplant. It is my absolute, number one favourite vegetable. I think it is perfect. I could eat them every day and not get tired of their creamy texture and subtle flavour. What's even better is that eggplant is ideal for my nutrition programme - it is low-carb and fat-free. And to top it all off, they are supremely filling. I slap half an eggplant on my plate at dinner with a side of steak, and I am so full, there is no hankering for any dessert afterwards!

My husband loathes 'aubergine' as he calls them and then performs an eloquent gagging noise. Apparently he was put off them before my time. So, he will happily cook them up to perfection on the barbecue for me but won't ingest them for love nor money. More recently, my three-year-old son has taken a liking to them and, as much as it pains me, I have to hand over a few slices whenever he sees them on my dinner plate.

So, what's the secret to mouth-watering, addictive eggplant??

Here are my top two methods for cooking: (there is no need to salt & rinse eggplant these days - the bitterness has been bred out):

1. Sizzled on the barbecue: Cut eggplant into 1 cm slices - do not remove the skin (any thinner and they will dry up, any thicker and they won't get cooked through before the outside is burnt). Brush lightly with olive oil. Heat barbecue plate to medium heat and cook eggplant slices until they are lightly browned on both sides (turning only once) and squidgy in the middle. Sprinkle with your favourite salt - eat immediately.

2. Baked in the oven: Pre-heat oven to 180 deg Celcius. Cut eggplant in half long-ways. Brush both cut-side halves lightly & thoroughly with olive oil. Place a piece of baking paper on a baking tray, lay eggplant skin-side down (cut-side up). Bake for approximately 35-45 mins depending on the size of the eggplant. It should be quite brown on top and squidgy in the middle. Sprinkle with your favourite salt - eat immediately.

Please try some soon!

Coffee - the alternative to sweets after lunch

The simplest way to put it is: I have a sweet tooth. Maybe there's more to it on the physiological and psychological levels. But really, I love to eat sweet foods - especially cookies, cakes and chocolate. Oh, and then there are slices, pastries and scones. I love them all. I especially enjoy having something sweet after lunch. Before I was on this nutrition programme, the sweet treat after lunch was actually the best part of lunch!! The slice of chocolate cake just seemed to finish it all off.

To lose weight and keep it off, I had to change this habit. I had to reign in my sweet tooth. And I have succeeded - with a replacement. I now finish off my lunch with a satisfying cup of plunger coffee. My favourite brand is Hummingbird coffee, it is fair trade and organic. I make it strong with plenty of trim milk and no sugar. It tastes wonderful!

The coffee really signals the end of the meal for me. It is warming, filling and seems to cut through any lingering peckish-ness for something sweet. It still feels like a treat with its heady aroma and strong flavour. Once I've had the last delicious slurp, I am full and have completely forgotten about trying to sneak in some chocolate-laden morsel.

recipe: meatloaf - no-carb, reduced fat

I use minced beef quite a lot - mainly because it is quick, easy and inexpensive. Mince doesn't have to be fatty. It is simple to brown mince, drain off the fat & rinse under hot water to expel the rest of the fat.

To make this meatloaf no-carb and reduced fat, I omit the breadcrumbs (which just absorb all the fat anyway) and at the end of the baking time, I remove the loaf and immediately drain off all the liquid fat.

500g lean minced beef

1 onion chopped super fine (I use the food processor)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon rosemary

1 tablespoon sage

1 tablespoon oregano

1 teaspoon salt

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. In a large mixing bowl combine meat and all other ingredients. Mix with a fork until well combined. Place mixture in a glass loaf dish. Press down firmly with a fork. Bake for approximately 50 minutes and the mince is cooked through. Remove from oven and immediately drain off the liquid fat. Serve with your favourite sauce such as ketchup, chutney or minted plain yogurt. Serves 2 with leftovers for 1 lunch.

Premeditated pig-out

I wouldn't be writing this blog if I didn't have issues with food. I like to eat. I have to be extremely unwell to not eat or god forbid forget to eat. I never forget to eat. My husband does it all the time. He'll come home and say, "I am so hungry!" as he rummages through the fridge looking for a snack. I say, "What did you have for lunch?" thinking it obviously wasn't filling enough. There will be a pause, then: "Lunch?"

But I digress. Suffice to say - I like to eat. I enjoy it - much, much more than your average 'slim' person. From the outside I look like just another slim person walking around. But on the inside, food is still a struggle for me. Even though I follow this nutrition programme, and I have kept my weight pretty much at a 20+ loss, there are still plenty of times when I am feeling tired or stressed and I pig out.

While the pig-out is still the same (I can consume quite a few calories in one sitting!), the thought process around pig-outs is different. I actually think about what I am going to do before I start instead of just mindlessly or defiantly raiding the cupboard and stuffing my face. This is what goes through my mind:

"Hmmm, I really feel like eating potato chips (or chocolate or ice cream or cake). So, if I eat this today that means on Saturday (my regular free meal day) I won't be having my free meal. Hmmm. Do I want still want to do this?" I have to say, 95% of the time when I am feeling like this the answer is YES! There are the times when that upcoming Saturday might be a party or event that I am looking forward to and there will be delicious food involved. I can actually reel myself in and think - no, I can wait and really enjoy my free meal then.

It is clear to me that this is emotional eating. I am trying to solve how I feel with food because it brings me enjoyment. It lifts my mood. I don't think it is a great solution - at all! But it is where I am at right now.

Thankfully, I understand the principles of my nutrition programme to know that one pig-out every so often is not going to saddle me with an extra five pounds. In the past, I would have pigged-out and got depressed about what a failure I was at sticking to a healthy diet. Then I would think, "Well, what the heck. I've wrecked it now, I might as well eat all the stuff I've been wanting." It was the slippery slope of packing on pounds. The premeditated pig-out is definitely an improvement!

How I enjoy holiday eating - and not gain weight

I love Christmas and New Year's and all the delicious treats that go with the holidays. Bring on the mince tarts, Christmas cakes, chocolate, turkey with stuffing, potatoes and gravy, pavlova and cream! The holidays are times for treats, special occasions with special food - lovingly prepared and thoroughly enjoyed.

In the past, Christmas and the ensuing weeks of being in holiday mode meant weight gain for me. When the first Christmas goodies started arriving - usually in the form of end-of-year parties, morning teas, and gift hampers - I would indulge. It's Christmas, after-all! Well, technically Christmas was probably at least two weeks away, but by golly, I was not going to miss out on all the delicious foods on offer. So, I would be munching my way through thousands of calories for days on end (but who was counting? Not me!). Christmas day would come, and I would still be feasting. Then there were all the leftovers and more foodie gifts to keep me going well into New Year's.

By the middle of January all my clothes would be tight and uncomfortable. I would have put on 10 pounds! The New Year's resolution was always: lose 20 pounds.

I am so glad those days are behind me. I don't gain weight over the holidays any more. But I still enjoy my holiday treat foods. Here's how I do it - and surprisingly it doesn't take much willpower to make it work:

I choose one day of the two holiday weeks - it's usually Christmas Day and New Year's Eve - and during the one day I thoroughly enjoy a sumptious array of holiday foods. I eat, drink and am very merry!

The next day, I am back on my regular nutrition programme, eating my normal healthy food. I don't pick at the leftovers in the fridge, I don't nibble at scorched almonds and I don't have 'just a little piece' of fruit cake after my lunch. It's like turning off a switch for me. I can see all the treat foods there but (amazingly) I've trained myself to just see them as being completely off-limits. I will admit sometimes I get annoyed that I can't have them, but really it's just an annoyance because I feel so much better being back on a clean, healthy programme; and I also love having my clothes fit!

My best wishes to everyone for a safe, happy and treat-filled Christmas!

Eat Fat Lose Fat ... maybe not

I haven't posted in quite some time (as I was reminded by a friend: "Posts for November. Zero!"). It has everything to do with this book: Eat Fat Lose Fat. It is co-written by one of the same authors as Nourishing Traditions which I have found to be an extremely informative and useful book.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Eat Fat Lose Fat. But first, this post isn't intended as a book review. Not at all. What happened was this ... I read Nourishing Traditions and thought it was great. I found that Sally Fallon co-authored EFLF and was very excited about the prospect of getting to eat LOTS OF FAT!!! Butter on toast? Ya, babeee! Cream on my porridge? Bring it on! Fat with breakfast, lunch and dinner? Yes, please! To some people that probably sounds disgusting, but to me it sounds delicious.

So, here's what happened. I read the book. I drooled. I couldn't wait to get started. But I was scared. Here was a book saying (with heaps of testimonials I read on different websites) you could add a lot of fat (mainly butter, coconut oil, cream, and olive oil) into your diet and actually have fat loss. This was a direct contradiction to my nutrition programme - I had to cut out fat to lose fat. It would be remiss of me not to mention that the EFLF nutrition guidelines are all about eating real foods - wholesome, organic foods that humans are designed to eat - get rid of the white flour, sugar and processed foods. This is my philosophy too.

Despite my fear of eating loads of fat ... I had a go at the programme anyway. (Even as I type this I am thinking: why, why, why did I ever think this was going to work for me when I have been successfully maintaining my weight on a low-fat diet for the past 5 years? Calories in/calories out - eat more than you burn and you're gonna gain weight. I'm either stupid or a chow hound. I'm a stupid chow-hound. Ha!)

However, my first stumbling block with EFLF is they recommend only eating 3 meals per day (I eat every 3 hours!). The idea is that your meals are loaded with enough fat to satiate you until the next meal and you actually eat less calories (than what, I don't know) by not having snacks in between meals. On the first morning I drank a cup of warm water with a tablespoon of coconut oil dissolved in it. The coconut oil is known to initiate fat loss. My first meal on EFLF consisted of oatmeal porridge with low fat yogurt and about one tablespoon of butter. It was tasty, I enjoyed it and felt full - like really full. I was feeling quite smug. Here it was 8am, I'm really, really full and I won't need to eat again for hours - realistically I needed to last until 1pm. By 11am I was starving. Hmmm, that's not how it's supposed to work. The fear set in again. I went back to eating my normal low-fat fare for the rest of the day.

On day two, had the coconut water again then breakfast which was oatmeal porridge, FULL fat yogurt and three tablespoons of butter. That should do it - I figured my problem the previous day was I had low-fat yogurt and not enough butter - just not enough fat to satiate me. Three hours later I was hungry. Nooooooo! This was so not working for me. How was I ever going to manage on just three meals per day when I was hungry every three hours?? I'd be having dinner by 2pm!

On day three I repeated the breakfast regime of day two with sinking hopes. Maybe something would be different on this day. Nope. Three hours later - hungry. My husband said perhaps it is because my body is just too well-trained with my three-hourly eating. Or perhaps this programme just doesn't work for every body.

In reality, I didn't give EFLF a true trial - I couldn't even stick to it past breakfast. But that sums up the fact it just wasn't working for me. I wasn't even trying to lose weight, I was just hoping to maintain my weight - and get to eat lots of fat in the process.

So, after this bizarre diversion from my successful nutrition programme and some soul-searching questions such as: 'what was I thinking???', I'm truly convinced I'm on the right track with my nutrition programme and keeping my fat rolls in check.