A beautician who shed eight stone has shared her top tips for New Year weight loss, including getting rid of Christmas chocolate and taking ‘before’ pictures to track your progress.
Sinead McCarthy, 31, tipped the scales at 20st but slimmed down to 12st after committing to a diet plan of 1,700 calories plus 10,000 steps a day.
Sinead believes anyone looking to shed pounds in January should bin any temptations and rack up steps while watching TV.
She said losing weight is all about a lifestyle change and that ‘quick fixes and crazy diets’ don’t work.
Sinead, from Barrhead, East Renfrewshire, said: “Getting started after Christmas can be hard but I say just take one day at a time.
“If you are making a New Year’s resolution don’t think too far into the future wishing you were a certain size or weight. Take it day by day.”
“If you look too far ahead you can start to feel like you will never be able to stick to the changes, but just tick one day off and then try to do the next one.
“The time will pass anyway, if you stick to all the little check list of things - steps, calories and weight-based training - you will lose the weight.
“At home, get rid of anything that may tempt you.
“All the chocolate you have lying around after Christmas make sure it’s gone before you start, especially if you don’t have a lot of willpower.
“I always say best way to kick start your weight loss is take photos in your underwear.
“It can be really hard at the time but you will be thankful for it in the long run.
“When you feel like you are not losing anything you can look back at the pictures and see how far you have come.
“Hang up some item of clothing you want to fit into as inspiration.”
Self-employed Sinead said bulking out every meal with spinach helped supercharge her weight loss, as well as snacking on eggs, tins of fish and soups.
She would put spinach in smoothies, spag bol, and scrambled eggs, and said it helps bulk out your meals because you can have so much of it.
She said: “Spinach really helped supercharge my weight loss.
“I put spinach in everything I ate, it bulks up your meals and is so good for you.
“It wilts down so much when you cook it you can have loads.
“Choose protein as base over anything and build meals from there.
“I would snack on tins of tuna or eggs because that fills you up more than having a biscuit.”
And she said doing steps in front of the tele to get in 10,000 a day will help keep the pounds off when struggling to get motivated to go out in the cold.
Sinead said: “Get in 10,000 steps a day.
“Go outside, we don’t need a gym to get the steps in, nature and outside is the most underused therapy for everyone.
“Or watching TV just march on the stop.
“When it’s freezing outside it’s hard to get the motivation to go outside and do your steps so stick something on the TV and get them done in the house.
“It’s all about keeping moving.”
