Bird Flu Guard

If you had a bad diet day, avoid making it a bad diet week (or month) by getting right back on track.

It's all too easy to say "I've blown it now. I might as well carry on eating badly for the rest of the week".

But it's really quite difficult to eat so much that you really put on weight just from one meal or one day.

It's overeating day after day that does the damage.

The very next day after a blow-out, start the way you mean to go on with healthy eating and exercise.

1. Don't punish yourself by eating too little - eat how you need to eat to nourish your body and treat yourself well.
2. Eat little and often so that you don't feel too hungry and start hankering after yesterday's blow-out food.
3. Start the day with exercise to give your metabolism a boost
4. Plan your meals and snacks for the day so that you regain the upper hand. The idea is to get control back.
5. Choose healthy foods you like so you don't feel deprived
6. Remove temptation - get rid of any leftovers from yesterday
7. Keep busy
8. Don't spend time regretting what you ate yesterday and beating yourself up. Everyone overeats at times. You won't have done too much damage if you get right back on track today. Spend time visualizing how things will be in future to help strengthen your resolve.

Sometimes you just need to eat and fast! That's when we are most vulnerable to grabbing unhealthy food from the fridge or store cupboard, or to deciding to send out for takeaway - or worse, grabbing something unhealthy AND sending out for food.

To prevent these lapses in your weight loss efforts a bit of advance planning can work wonders - and then you can still eat fast - without breaking your diet.

1. Your Fast Food List

Have a list of healthy items that like and which you can cook in a hurry. On mine I would have things like 

• ham and mushroom omlette
• scrambled egg with smoked salmon on toast
• chicken stir fry (I buy cooked chicken from the deli)
• prawn (shrimp) curry
• pasta with tomato sauce and cheese
• sandwich
• cereal
• ready-made soup
• crunchy peanut butter on rye crackers

2. Shop Ahead

Have Ingredients for yout fast food list always to hand in your fridge, or pantry

3. Be Flexible

A meal does not have to be meat and 2 veggies. If your family objects, YOUR meal does not have to be the same as theirs. A bowl of cereal and milk with an apple for dessert may be all you need.

4. Get Help with the Prep

Buy ready-prepared salad or vegetables to accompany your main dish. Frozen veggies or canned sweetcorn can save time too. Look out for healthy pasta sauces and soups in the chiller cabinet at the store which can make a healthy meal fast when you have run out of time.

5. Cook in advance

The best meals are those which did take a bit of time to cook but you made them earlier so they are ready and waiting for you when you come in. A crock pot or slow cooker is ideal for this - or cook extra helpings when you do have time to cook then freeze portions and defrost ready for your meal.

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