Guest Post - Getting Ready for Christmas by Dawn

f you’re trying to loose weight, Christmas can be a very challenging time. If you don’t want to see a big increase in the January Scales, then it’s worth doing some planning up front – and that means now.

Here are my top 10 tips for surviving Christmas without adding too many pounds.

1. Decide how much leeway you will give yourself now, before the madness starts. Will it be a disaster if you put on a pound? What about 7? What about 10? Decide what you are comfortable with as this will determine how strict you need to be.

2.Look at your commitments for the whole month ahead – how many parties, dinners, family meals etc do you have? If it’s only a few, then you can probably afford to relish all of them – but if it’s lots, then you’ll need to prioritise them in terms of how much you will allow yourself to consume at each.

3. On days that you don’t have festive engagements, try and stick to your normal diet, or be even stricter with yourself – that way you won’t compound any increases

4. Don’t stock up on Christmas treats early – unless you have superhuman willpower, that tin of chocolates or bottle of vodka will be gone by Christmas if you buy it by the end of November. If you want to spread the cost, get someone else to store your food. Mince pies with a best before date of Dec 15 are a definite no-no unless mince pies are included in your diet. If you want to buy early and don’t have someone to store things, buy things for the freezer – brandy cream, turkey crown, chestnut stuffing etc can all be frozen and aren’t as tempting as a bottle of Baileys.

5. Find non-foodie treats to enjoy – festive games, pampering treats, those huge bumper magazines and supplements you get at Christmas.

6.Try and plan in some fun exercise – you probably have extra time off work, so a long walk, sledging or even playing with the kids will all help burn off a few calories – but don’t eat more because you’re exercising – use this to burn off what you “had” to eat or drink at parties etc

7. Offer to drive and stay off the drink – you will be popular with everyone and won’t have added to your waistline by having “empty” calories. Make a deal that if you drive, they buy your drinks all night, and stick to low cal soft drinks.

8. Decide which festive treats you really like, and prioritise those. Which do you just eat because they are there? Can you do without them? I used to eat sausage rolls, but then realised that I didn’t really enjoy all that pastry, and so now I leave them, or just eat the sausage and leave the pastry.

9. Don’t worry about upsetting someone by saying “no” to offers of cake, sweets, food etc – it’s your body and you are the one responsible for its maintenance. You can tell them you’ve just eaten, you’re not hungry, you just don’t fancy it or that you’ve already eaten/drunk too much this Christmas – whatever you need to do. When you get on the scales in January, it will be you, not them, you will have to face up to.

10. Write your own list of goals and rules for the month ahead – things like: I will only drink on the following occasions – X, Y and Z, I will not aim to eat all the Christmas cake by New Year’s eve, I will not beat myself up about having more than 2,000 calories / 15 sins whatever, as long as I have fewer on other days, I will try and keep any weight gain to less than X lbs and I will do at least 3 30 min exercise sessions before New Year

So, everything in moderation – pig out some days, but then restrain yourself on others. But most of all, enjoy the break, find non-foodie treats and get at least a bit of exercise.

Guest Post - Lauren from LaurenFrench

Today's guest blog was written by Lauren from LaurenFrench



I'll be straight up and say I've been big my whole life, I wasn't really that bothered about my size. I was popular, had confidence, lots of friends and lived a pretty care free and fun existence. The following novel (sorry, it's long!) is what changed me.

One day, just for a laugh and after a few glasses of wine, I applied for a BBC3 documentary about obesity. Then, I got an interview. Next thing I know I'm on a plane to Argentina with a camera shoved in my face living with a random family who spoke broken English in a slum. They also had weight problems, but the weight problem was not their fault.

I went into this experience without knowing if this would change my perspective on my weight, or if I was lying to myself about being happy with my appearance, and the producers knew this too. I wasn't your stereotypical obese person who comfort ate (although I did occasionally, but it was more boredom binging) and cried into my ice cream. I had a life and was genuinely content with everything. The doctors would say my weight was damaging my health and I'd just ignore them and head straight down the pub afterwards. It just wasn't an issue for me, I could walk, dance, run (hesitantly) and if anyone called me fat I'd just laugh, thank you captain obvious. Simple right?

When I was in Argentina, I had a Harajuku moment, a moment which tipped me over the metaphorical edge. I was talking to a woman who was obese, and her obese son. Her son was really overweight, but where the slums were filled with gangs, crime and violence, he couldn't go out and play. The house was around the size of my kitchen so he couldn't exactly run laps around the room. They couldn't afford healthy food, and the cheapest food to eat was fried, starchy and sugary foods. They had nothing but love, which usually satiates everyone's needs but accompanying love, to live a fulfilling life, you need your health.

I was obese through choice. Drinking beer, eating too much crap and massive portions and this poor little boy would end up growing up with poor health and a premature death because of circumstances beyond his control and I'm not going to lie, I felt selfish and a complete failure as a human. It was that little boy that touched my soul, and I made a personal promise that I would honour everything I had learnt with these people and better my life. I lost 4 stone in 7 months following the Cambridge Diet followed by a low carb diet.

My doctor said to me that low carb diets are particularly good, because you need to think of your body like a bank. Carbs are your current account, and fat is your savings. If you have money in your current account, you'll spend that first before your savings, and once there is no money left in your account, you use your savings. That's the same with your body, once there are little or no carbs in your system, your body will work on the fat. I no longer do The Cambridge Diet anymore (£200 a month!) but my diet consists of a lot of white fish and meat, green vegetables and salad. I try to stick below 30g of carbs a day and it does work, in two weeks I lost 12lbs.

MY interim aim is to a size 16. I'm going to Ibiza with my two girlfriends and whilst I'm not too bothered about being the biggest girl out of the three, it gives me something to aim for. Another 10 inches to go...

My diet secrets for low carbing are the following tips, and eating around 1000 calories a day:

Shiritaki Noodles. You can see my blog post here on them, but these noodles have 6 calories per 150g and no other nutritional value. For this reason you must eat wholesome food with them otherwise your body will not like you! I tend to have them with tuna and a small amount of melted feta cheese, and some salad.

Cauliflour Rice. The whole website is brilliant to be honest! It tastes amazing with a little bit of garlic mixed with a teaspoon of oil, chicken and spinach.

Another thing to try and take on board is to avoid foods that are beige! Crisps, cake, bread, rice, pasta etc.

Also try and sneak some fibre in there somewhere. You can use oats mixed in with fat free yoghurt for this, otherwise you er, get a big bunged up whilst on the low carb ride. Lovely. Remember to count those carbohydrates!