The Hairy Bikers - The Hairy Dieters Make It Easy: Lose weight and keep it off the easy way

Wed like to dedicate this book to Amanda Harris, with much respect, love and affection. She has been a constant source of inspiration, guidance and fun for the past decade. CONTENTS Believe us, we know as well as anybody that dieting is hard. This book is filled with our winning tips on how to make losing weight as easy, delicious and filling as possible! The aim of this book is to make life and weight loss just that bit easier. These recipes will help you shed the pounds and youll eat well in the process. Remember low-cal doesnt have to mean low-taste. This food is fantastic.

We love food and cooking and, in the bad old days, we thought that meant dieting would mean misery. Now, thanks to working on our Hairy Dieters books, we know better you can cook great food, enjoy eating, feel full and still lose weight. Weve both struggled with busy schedules and weight loss goals. We understand the pressures of modern life and we know that lots of us find it hard to make time for cooking. Our hope is that you will use this book on a daily basis and so weve taken care to make the recipes as simple and no-fuss as possible. THE COLD HARD FACTS Weve learned the hard way that the sooner you face up to weight problems the better. THE COLD HARD FACTS Weve learned the hard way that the sooner you face up to weight problems the better.

Theyre not going to go away by themselves. You have to change your lifestyle. And the real challenge is keeping the weight off once youve lost it. Maintaining a healthy weight really is vital. Its not just about being beach body ready! Every day we hear more and more about the effect that being overweight has on your health. Now for once were going to get serious. Now for once were going to get serious.

Its scary facing up to the truth and we all want to bury our heads in the sand, but these are the cold hard facts from the NHS. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of many serious illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and strokes, as well as cancer. Obesity has been blamed for about 30,000 deaths a year in the UK 9,000 of those taking place before retirement age. The latest research from the World Health Organisation warns that being overweight or obese is the most important avoidable cause of cancer after tobacco. A study has shown links between excess weight and ten types of cancer, including bowel, kidney and cervical, and estimates that weight problems are behind about 18,000 cases of cancer a year in the UK. KEEPING THE WEIGHT OFF Fad diets that whack the weight off quickly are all very well, but if you then go back to your old ways you will just put it all on again and more. Yo-yo diets are a risk to health and self esteem.

Its much better to lose weight by slow, steady changes rather than by cutting out whole food groups or adopting weird ways of eating, neither of which are sustainable in the long run. Weight loss is all about calories in and calories out. You can lose weight by restricting your calorie intake or by burning more calories, but the best way is to do a bit of both small changes to diet combined with some exercise. This doesnt have to mean going to the gym. Just get off the sofa and move and that can be walking, cycling, dancing, playing a sport you love, whatever takes your fancy. The main thing is to find some exercise you enjoy.

If you do, you are more likely to do it and keep doing it. Simple innit! And once youve lost the weight, keep a check on the scales. Its much better to address any issues when youre a kilo or so over than to let it creep up to five or ten or more. If, when you go to buy new clothes or look out your summer gear, you find stuff mysteriously doesnt fit any more, dont automatically settle for a bigger size. Face facts, be honest with yourself and do something about it. We know its easier said than done but this book is here to help.

QUICK AND EASY COOKING Weve taken the faff out of food in these recipes so you can cook great meals that will help you lose weight. Each recipe is calorie counted so you can control your portions. It is very hard to estimate the number of calories in a dish just by looking at it even nutritionists get it wrong. If you cook your own meals you know exactly whats in them. Were learning more and more about the possible dangers to our health of eating too much heavily processed food. Cooking your own has to be the way to go.

Recent research has shown that we buy a huge amount of ultra-processed food in this country food that is barely recognisable as food. The best way to avoid this is to cook your own, using ingredients that have had as little done to them as possible. These recipes show that it can be done and weve made them as easy as we can so you can achieve your goals and stay healthy Having a well-stocked fridge, freezer and store cupboard is a great help. If you have good stuff available to make healthy food youre less likely to be tempted to eat a ready meal or a takeaway. Make sure you eat plenty of fresh veg and dont assume that anything in a can or packet is bad for you. Frozen veg are fine, as are canned tomatoes and beans, cooked lentils and so on.

Some little cheats work brilliantly; just dont buy them from the chippy. THOSE LOVELY VEG We learned so much about cooking veg when we wrote our Go Veggie book and, although were not vegetarians, veg play a big part in our diet. Vegetables are your best friends when youre trying to eat healthily. Most are fat-free and low in calories, and they add fibre (a nutrient most of us dont eat enough of), vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals to our diet. And for anyone trying to lose weight, theres another big advantage: veg bulk out a meal and make it more satisfying and filling. Think of it this way, the longer food takes to digest, the longer it keeps you full! We all should be eating at least five portions of veg and fruit a day preferably more.

As always, weve included plenty of veg in the recipes in this book, but an extra helping of most types of vegetable makes very little difference to the calorie counts. Dont be shy about eating vegetables and get in the habit of throwing a handful of extra veg such as peas, sweetcorn or beans into your meal and serve extra greens on the side. Its easy peasy. Just look at these all the calorie counts below are for one 80 gram serving: BROCCOLI: 27 CALORIES PEAS: 76 CALORIES GREEN BEANS: 28 CALORIES CARROTS: 34 CALORIES CAULIFLOWER: 26 CALORIES COURGETTE: 18 CALORIES SWEETCORN: 68 CALORIES RED PEPPER: 21 CALORIES DRINKS HMMM! Now, this is a tough one for us, but we do know willpower dissolves in alcohol. After a drink or two everyone is more prone to overeating so you do need to make an effort not to drink too much when youre dieting. In one experiment in the States, some students were invited to eat what they wanted from a buffet on two separate occasions the first time after drinking non-alcoholic beers and the second after drinking alcoholic beers.