Rosemary writes
Are you hungry enough for weight-loss success?

It’s the start of a new decade – when better to commit to creating a slim and fit body?

What did you weigh 10 years ago? Gaining a stone a decade is not unusual, but it doesn’t have to be like that, so let’s do something about it!

New Decade, New Diet

To celebrate the new decade, I have written a new book with a diet and exercise plan that is incredibly effective.

In trials 50 volunteers, aged between 18 and 70, followed the step-by-step diet and progressive exercise plan for four weeks and lost an average of a stone in a month!

The diet menus include high-protein and high-carb options (you choose), using normal, everyday foods.

Five steps to success

Here are my five essential steps for losing weight and getting fit this year...

Find the right diet

For fast results, follow my Amazing Inch Loss Plan, using either the book or the shortened version in the New Member’s Pack, which you receive free if you join a Rosemary Conley Class or our online club (www.rosemaryconleyonline.com). Alternatively, if “dieting” is not for you, and you’re prepared to take your time to shed your unwanted pounds, cut back your food portions by 20 per cent, cook and eat low fat and don’t snack between meals.

Exercise!

To burn fat and lose weight faster, exercise is a must. You can go to one of our classes, work out to my latest DVD “Real Results” several times a week, take part in the daily fitness challenges detailed in my new book, the New Member’s Pack, or online, plus try out my daily fitness challenge that I post on Twitter at 8pm every day. Be as active as you can and you’ll see tremendous progress.

Pop a pedometer on your waist and move about more. Just being more active will burn extra calories, although formal exercise will tone you up as you slim down, so include some each week.

Take up a sport or physical activity and have fun while you lose weight. What about dancing, ice skating, golf, tennis, running or rambling? Even a tenpin bowling session is more energetic than sitting on the sofa!

Eat low fat

Avoid adding fat to your cooking or food preparation.

Buy only foods with a maximum of five per cent fat, except some low-fat cuts of meat, porridge oats and muesli, and, oily fish such as salmon, trout, mackerel, etc, which are essential for good health.

Cut out butter or spread. Use low-fat mayonnaise or sauce instead of spread on your sandwiches.

Go easy on alcohol

Alcohol adds loads of calories to your daily intake. On my diets, I suggest you abstain for the first two weeks to give your initial weight loss a boost. Moderate your intake by having a glass of water between each glass of wine. If you are a non-dieter and just want to “cut back”, then reduce your alcohol intake by half.

You may find that switching from beer to shorts with a slimline mixer a good way of cutting back on the calories, but be careful when pouring your own drinks – you might be serving yourself a quadruple measure of gin with your slimline tonic!

Re-educate your stomach

We get used to eating a certain amount at mealtimes and over the years this can stretch our appetite and our capacity to eat more. You need to reverse that trend if you are to lose weight, but you’ll be surprised how well you cope with smaller portions if you eat foods that satisfy you for longer.

Low-Gi foods allow our blood sugar levels to rise and fall slowly, thus preventing sudden dips that can lead us towards a quick fix of a biscuit or chocolate bar. By including basmati rice, sweet potatoes, wholegrain bread, high-fibre cereals, and pasta in our daily menus, we can easily stave off hunger pangs.

High-protein foods are known for their high satiety value, which means that if you eat a high protein meal, you will feel fuller for longer.

Having a “power snack” of a small piece of fruit such as a pear or satsuma will help keep your sugar levels up until mealtimes. I include Power Snacks in all of my diets (see page 60 for ideas).

Follow this advice and you should achieve your weight and fitness goals this year. But, with any diet and fitness plan, there’s one very important proviso – you need to WANT to lose your excess weight for it to work! Unless you are hungry to do it (pardon the pun!), you probably won’t – but if you have the will to succeed, you will.