Susie Burrell - Losing the last 5 kg: simple steps to get the body you want now

To Mum and Dad,

Whose constant self sacrifice and unconditional love and support allow me the energy, time and space needed to continue to reach my goals.

To you I dedicate this work.

Contents

Youve wasted enough time and energy on diets that get you nowhere. The time to get your food, your behaviour, your body and your life under control is now.

You are either committed to losing weight or you are not. There is nothing in between.

One of the main reasons that many of us carry around extra weight is that its so easy to gradually put on. Its easy to ignore, relatively easy to cover up and very easy to tell ourselves that such a small amount of extra weight doesnt really matter. We will lose it eventually.

To some extent we may be kidding ourselves, but when push comes to shove, if we set our minds to it, its actually quite easy to lose the extra weight if we find and maintain our focus for a decent amount of time. Of course it would be nice to drop it in a few days, but when weight is lost that quickly its generally water not fat and rarely achieved via sustainable methods. But if youre happy to spend just a few weeks minus your worst food habits and high-calorie treats, its possible to lose and keep off your extra weight.

This book has been designed as both a quick-tip guide to dip into for those who already have a reasonably healthy lifestyle and just need a few tricks to get back on track, or as a full program from start to finish for those who need to go right back to the drawing board. In my experience working with weight-loss clients for almost 20 years, its not the super strict regimes that achieve sustainable weight loss long-term. Its the small but significant changes we can maintain for life that see weight gradually shift for good. No matter what your starting point is as you grab this book, you will find useful tips and tricks that help you lose the weight for good.

Before you use this book as yet another weight loss program that you follow for a few days before becoming bored and reverting to your midmorning banana bread and caramel latte habit, can you commit the next 24 weeks to making a serious dent in your extra weight? Are you ready to prioritise your training so you dont skip your gym session, again? Are you ready to avoid your diet-saboteur friends who offer you chocolates at work? Are you ready to rid yourself of your life-long diet mindset, which has taught you to believe that you have a slow metabolism and that you cannot lose weight? Are you ready to feel good?

While weight loss does not require you to be a diet and exercise purist, during the initial stages the more strict you are the better the immediate results will be. A small but significant weight loss experienced in the first few weeks of a new dietary regime is all you need to stay motivated and on track.

So, to move forward, clear your diary and get ready to commit to a good few weeks of healthy eating, exercise and taking control of your extra weight, once and for all.

You have got to make conscious choices every day to shed the old old issues, old guilt and old patterns.

While most of us know how to eat well and stay healthy, its often easier said than done. Busy lifestyles and family demands regularly result in health and fitness pursuits being put on the back burner, but its our small, daily food and exercise choices that determine successful weight control. Fad diets, weight-loss challenges and boot camps may all have some short-term benefits for the mind and the body, but until health and fitness is viewed as a way of life as opposed to a short-term commitment, you are likely to find yourself back to where you started signing up for yet another diet craze that takes you nowhere.

Once you prioritise looking after your body as part of your daily routine, the decisions that impact on your health are a whole lot easier to make. You dont even have to think about them. Instead of buying a pile of expensive, unappealing diet food on impulse to support a new fad regime, you automatically set aside time each week to buy the food your body needs to be at its best. You no longer have to deprive yourself of sweet treats because your desire to eat them has reduced. And most importantly, when you have indulged for a special occasion, you know what you need to do in order to get yourself back on track quickly.

Achieving the motivation and focus to implement such lifestyle changes develops gradually. First you need to admit that you are not feeling 100 per cent, and decide that you would look and feel much better if taking care of your body was part of your daily routine. Fuelling it with good-quality food, moving it regularly and keeping your intake of high-fat, highly processed foods to a minimum needs to become a habit, and the motivation to build and cement this habit has to come from somewhere deep within. Only this will drive you to do the things your body needs to be at its best, every single day.

To make changes to your health and fitness mindset, start by observing your current health-related behaviour. Take a look at your body in the mirror and see the evidence of where you have not been taking care of it. Think about how much better you would feel if you were fitter, or had less weight to carry each day. Then consider the easiest and most important changes you can make. Do you need to eat more vegetables and rely less on takeaway food? Are you choosing to drink water or sugar-laden soft drinks? Day to day, each food choice and exercise habit you reinforce contributes to your body shape and fitness level. Motivation does not come from following the latest fad diet, nor does it come from your partner, kids or workmates. It has to come from somewhere deep within and ultimately become the thing that drives you to do the things your body needs to be at its best, every single day.

Its not the occasional burger or chocolate that ruins your diet your daily routine controls your weight long-term.

We have all tried them ridiculously strict, exhausting diets that we stick to for a few days or even weeks before we eat something taboo and throw it all in. Introducing small dietary changes and regular exercise is a much more achievable alternative. While you will not see dramatic weight loss each week, unlike the various soup and shake programs you have tried before, you will feel better by losing a smaller amount but being able to keep it off.

Too often we overcommit ourselves, becoming slaves to unreasonable goals and feeling disappointed and frustrated when we dont achieve them. We expect to lose weight in an instant, train for hours on top of long working hours and family commitments, have a buzzing social life, and prepare restaurant-style dinners and nutritionally balanced lunches for the following day. No wonder we fail we set ourselves up for it.

Imagine if you could add one or two positive health changes to your day snacking on vegetables or keeping your dinner small and you could feel just as good and be losing weight at the same time. The good news is that you can. While allocating some energy and time to losing weight will help get you started on the right foot, the general rule is to only adopt changes that realistically fit into your life. Sustaining these small changes long-term will add up, and so too will your weight loss.

Planning is the key to dietary success.

It may surprise you to hear that when it comes to diets, weight control and nutrition, it is planning rather than knowledge that is the key to success. In fact, it is safe to say that most of us know what we should (or should not) be eating we know that fruit and vegetables are good, and we know that fried food is not so good. We know that chocolate is high in calories, and we know that if we eat less we will lose weight. Knowledge is not the issue.