1                       Lose weight if you are overweight; cut your intake to around 1500 calories or slightly higher if you have a lot of weight to lose or you are very active

2                              Eat regular meals (especially breakfast), with a couple of small snacks during the day.  Don’t let yourself get too hungry.  As you will be eating quite regularly watch your portion sizes; you could try eating from a smaller plate.

3                              Follow a low GI diet by subsdituting low GI carbs for the high GI ones See the Table below for some tips

4                              Keep the fat level in your diet down; cutting down particularly on saturated and trans fats (e.g. fatty meat, butter, cakes, pastry and biscuits (cookies))

5                              Use as little salt as possible and look at labels of processed food to try and keep within 6g a day total

6                              Eat al least five helpings of fruit and veg every day

7                              Have a fibre rich diet by eating wholefrain rather than refined cereals and plenty of fruit , veg beans, peas and lentils wih some nuts and seeds

8                              Try and get some physical activity every day; half an hour is great but an hour is fantastic if possible as it will help keep your weight in control.

9                              Enjoy a variety of food, eating mostly healthy stuff but don’t feel guilty ifyou have the odd treat now such as a dessert, cake or chocolate.

10                           Just because you are trying to eat healthily does not mean you can’t enjoy eating with your friends and family; your healthy habits may even rub off on them!

Table

Substituting not so good carbs for good carbs