A mum who overhauled her diet and lost eight stone in the process is sharing her top diet tips to success, in the hope of encouraging others to lead a more healthier lifestyle in the new year. Sinead McCarthy weighed 20 stone at her heaviest.
The beautician put on weight during the first lockdown. She was eager to lose weight and put new habits in place which would see her eat healthier food and move more.
One of Sinead's previous eating habits before her dietary change included polishing off family-sized chocolate bars every night. Sinead knew she had to change and enlisted the help of a coach, who helped her drop five dress sizes from 22 to a 12, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Sinead is now sharing her top tips for people looking to shed some pounds in January, including binning any temptations and doing steps while watching the TV. She said losing weight is all about a lifestyle change and that "quick fixes and crazy diets" don’t work.
The 31-year-old, from Barrhead 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. If you look too far ahead you can start to feel like you will never be able to stick to the changes.
"Instead, 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, 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."
Sinead said bulking out every meal with spinach helped supercharge her weight loss. She also snacked on eggs, tins of fish and soups.
She would put spinach in smoothies, bolognese and scrambled eggs, and said it helps bulk out your meals because you can have so much of it. Sinead said: “Spinach really helped supercharge my weight loss.
"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."
She said doing 10,000 steps a day will help keep the pounds off. She added: "Go outside, we don’t need a gym to get the steps in, nature and outside is the most underused therapy for everyone.
“Or watch TV whilst just marching on the spot. 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."
