How My Clients Lose Weight Without Tracking

Many many, years ago, there were no apps to track your food! Shocking I know! How on earth did people lose weight and keep it off?

They mostly listened to their body and not their brain. 

Here are the 8 things I get my clients to do so they don't have to track a single calorie and successfully lose weight.

Don't get me wrong, they still had to do work, it just wasn't weighing and tracking food!

1. Eat Only When They Are Physically (Body Not Brain) Hungry. Not to the clock (because it's 12pm or 6pm) but because you have the tell tale signs it's time to eat, rumbling in the stomach, an empty or hollow feeling in your stomach, it comes on slowly over time, desire for food that sounds appealing not just sweet stuff, mental clarity over what you would like to eat rather than reacting impulsively, slight drop in energy levels (not to the point you are shaky or weak), physically feeling better after you eat, not guilty or shame.

Not because they are bored/sad/frustrated/tired/angry/it's X o'clock etc........

Try this for one day, wait until you feel the actual physical signs from your body that it needs fuel and not the clock, wait for the sighs before you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and  definitely don't snack if there is no hunger. See how long it actually takes you between meals to get physically hungry. It's quite eye opening! For me it can be anywhere between 3-6 hours!

2. Eat To Enough. This means taking your time when you eat! Enjoy and savour your food as you are eating it, be aware of how it's making you feel. It also means not just eating everything on your plate because it's there. It means not eating until you are completely full and can't eat another bite or feeling stuffed. This is a mindful way of eating and at the end of a meal you should feel like you have had enough not that you literally cannot put anything more into your stomach! You are looking for a feeling of satisfaction, lightness but not the heaviness of overeating.

3. Do An Initial Food Diary. I like to do this because it shows both of us where their nutrition is working and where it can be adjusted if necessary. My focus is always on are they eating enough protein, fat and fibre, the carbs just make up the balance.

4. Build A List of Favourite Meals. Planning meals may seem like a lot of work but it really isn't, we start with the outline of your favourite meals to get you in the swing of not always choosing food you "should" eat to lose weight! Breakfast, lunches and dinners you actually enjoy eating, not just food you think are healthy. Also write a list of the foods/drinks you overeat on things like crisps, chocolate, biscuits, nuts. 

5. Make A Daily/Weekly Meal Plan. The plan can be changed at any point, for example if you decide last minute to go out with a friend for dinner instead of cooking, cool, go out and enjoy (but still only eat enough!). The plan is not set in stone!

This does not have to be recipe instructions and super detailed it can be as simple as this plan I have for today.

Breakfast - Banana Pancakes, Greek Yogurt, Cherries, Honey. 

Lunch - Tuna & Cheese Toastie with salad. 

Dinner - Sausage Cassoulet & Vegetables. 

I also plan a daily snack, today it is a chocolate orange protein bar and some kiwi fruit.

The added bonus of planning your meals is you get to choose your favourite meals, you have a ready made shopping list, you don't get decision fatigue about what you are going to eat every day, you get to enjoy some of your favourite meals because you actually sat down and thought about it!

6. Plan Foods They Tend To Overeat. If part of the reason you want to lose weight is because you overeat foods that you also restrict a lot of the time, we have to change your thought process around that food. Whether it's crisps, chocolate or alcohol it's time to add it in where necessary. There is absolutely no point making a meal plan that has none of your favourite foods or foods you later overeat. So, we add in a nice portion of them (every day initially if necessary!) and we sit down and enjoy them. We do not plan them and stand in front of the cupboards mindlessly eating them! I promise you chocolate is not the issue, how much you are overeating it is!!!

7. Prioritise Protein and Fibre. This doesn't mean we eat it when we are not hungry just to hit a certain number, we make them the foundations of our meals, enough to be healthy. Prioritising protein also increases satiety so you will find that you can go longer between meals when you eat enough of it. For those with body composition goals then we need to be a little more dialled in to this but when fat loss is the initial goal we just make sure we are eating enough protein to start with.

8. Nightly Review. Every night my clients sit down and reflect on what went well, what didn't and let me know of any issues they had (they can message me at any time if they are struggling) and how they would do things better next time. If you don't ever reflect, you don't acknowledge the wins and the work you need to do. It doesn't take long, like 5 minutes but it is very helpful.

Your brain will follow the patterns of the past, eat when I'm bored, eat when I'm sad, eat when I'm tired, and so on. We need to reframe these old patterns so that we can actually achieve our goals.

Does overeating when you have an emotional need actually make the situation better,? In my experience (and most of my clients) the answer is no, it usually makes us feel worse, guilt, shame, disappointment. So, it's cleat this old way of thinking and acting is now not serving us, time for a change.

This is also not about being 100% perfect. I'm a big fan of Imperfect Action. 

I'm not saying you will not/cannot ever overeat. That's not even necessary but if it's stopping you achieving your goals, we have to find new ways to reduce how much overeating you do.

Listening to your body and not your brain is a really important skill to learn. It's about honouring who you are and what your body needs. So, we plan your favourite foods, to honour who you are and the fact that your body is telling you it's hungry, and it's something you enjoy, we can enjoy food that's fun and food that's fuel.

If you think you couldn't trust yourself to do this, I want you to challenge that thought because with the right support all of my clients have done this. Is it easy, NO, is it worth it 100% YES.

Any questions, get in touch x