Weight loss - how to get your 5 a day in one hit

OK - I'm being sneaky and tricked you here by showing very tempting picture of how to get one of your five a day but seriously, I have a way you can get all five in one go. 

This is going to sound unreal but I don't like eating fruit. 

Am I alone in feeling this way? 

For years my mother, God bless her, tried to make sure I got my five a day. The best route she discovered, was to make fruit dessert and lay a slab of ice cream on top. It worked but it wasn't the solution for everyday fruit consumption. 

Fruit introduced individually, say in a lunchbox just got ignored and grew old until it was eventually placed in the bin. Either that or swapped for a packet of crisps with another kid. As the years passed my sweet tooth got worse and when I lived on my own for a while I didn't bother with buying fruit as it went off so fast. If I wanted any I'd buy frozen fruit and defrost as I needed it.

Decades later I am finally facing up to the damage a fruitless life has caused to an OK body and I'm trying to eat right. 

OK - the tip I offer today is to get your five a day in one hit and first thing in the morning. 

Here is my solution - stick with me to the end on this one, OK?

Step one: place porridge and water in a glass jug and set for say 3 minutes 30 seconds in the microwave

Step two: gather your fruit and while the porridge is in the microwave prepare your fruit, slicing it up into small pieces of easy eatable sizes.

Step 3: when the porridge is cooked add the prepared fruit to it and pour a generous portion of honey into the bowl, say a dessertspoonful.

Step 4: sprinkle a generous helping of cinnamon on top of the contents of the jug and mix the lot thoroughly. This has the effect of speeding up the cooling.

For fruit, I have included:  a sliced banana, apple, orange (no pips), a pear and 4 dried prunes, 

The dried prunes are important for clearing your intestines of any bits of food that may cling to their sides as the food works its way through your body. Click here to read about more benefits of dried prunes.

This is a filling meal and a good way to start your day. It should leave you feeling full until noon and delivers the five a day that your body needs. Honey contains natural sugar but its presence enables me to eat much more fruit than if it wasn't mixed in.

Cinnamon is very good for you - click here to find out more on its health benefits

Biggest tip for weight loss - start with the shopping

 If you are finding losing weight an issue the best tip I ever got was:

If it's not in the house you can't eat it!

So losing weight is about making sensible decisions from the moment you step into the supermarket and start your shopping. Try to shop without including treats in the trolley if you are starting the weight loss program. 

Treats will only lengthen the diet process and initially if you want to see results then don't buy them. 

Swop from high calorie to low calorie or cut the items off the list entirely. 

If you can't live without bread then go for low-calorie brown bread in preference to high-calorie white.  

If you are buying yoghurts switch to low calorie rather than full-fat

Swop the full-fat cheddar for low-fat cheese triangles and try and make the triangle spread onto two crackers or bread slices. Add a salad or tomatoes to make up for the lack of cheese.

Don't buy at all:

Juices Orange, apple, any kind of fruit. All contain natural sugar and /or sweeteners. 

Flavoured drinks full stop - zero, none 

Treats - worth repeating - nothing - be hard on yourself because no one else cares enough to be. You are an adult. Take responsibility for your body. Cut out the treats. If they aren't bought then at 10:00 pm this evening you cannot weaken and find them hidden in the kitchen waiting to be eaten.

Finally - can I plant a thought? Limit your shopping to one shop and once a week? The less visits to temptation the better. It will save you money which you can spend after you have dropped the pounds!

Losing weight safely - news six months on

 It's been six months since I started this blog. It was created to help me, as much as anyone else, to lose weight and keep it off. Its been a battle I have been fighting for many years now but as I got older and less active the weight proved harder to shift. 

January - I am 65 years old and started the year at 167 pounds and through a mixture of exercise and change in eating I reached 163 pounds by the end of January. With a height of 5 foot 5 inches, my BMI was 27.2 which is above the healthy BMI reading of 25. To get there I would need to lose 18 pounds. Try it yourself with the link here

February - saw me hold that loss but not increase it. I was still eating my way through some the Christmas high-calorie treats that were still in the house. The meal portion sizes were still too large and I come from a family where food was precious and I still clear my plate at every sitting.

March - I visited my doctor and he wasn't pleased with my 5.2 high cholesterol level. I promised I'd eat more nuts and lose more weight. By the end of the month, I was 162 pounds, just down a pound.

April -  We are emerging from winter and Spring weather gets me outdoors more. I'm running 5k about twice a week and by month-end, I've dropped two more pounds and am I60 pounds.

May - is a very good month as I get my first vaccination - AZ and now walk the roads and the local beaches with our dog. I end the month on 159 pounds down one more pound.

June - the weather is great, I'm cutting grass and throwing it over the fence to the waiting herd of cows. I'm de-weeding the flower beds, I'm playing a little tennis and yes running. I reach the 30th of June and step on the scales. I'm 156 pounds 

July - the weight loss continues through a mixture of smaller portions, exercise and daily weighing. Right now I'm 155 pounds and flirting with 153 pounds. That's 12 pounds gone in six months

I hope this motivates you to change ways and lose weight safely by:

•  cutting down the number of treats, 
• eating smaller portions, 
• weighing in daily and 
• exercise more, walk, run or swim

Happy life - on we go!!