Meal inspo

I've been consistently eating 1.1-1.3k calories a day for a couple months now and have lost 4.5 stone. Here are my tips:

• EAT FRUIT AND VEG!!! Literally the easiest hack for volume eating. You can eat SO much veg and it'll add to hardly anything. If your yummy meal looks depressingly small add a fat salad on the side.

• on this note, stop buying salad dressings (specifically cream based ones). My fav homemade salad dressing is 50g Greek yoghurt, 20g ketchup, and some seasoning. Absolutely delicious for a fraction of the calories.

• switch to sweet potatoes. Yes, they're about the same amount of calories but they have so many more nutrients than normal potatoes.

• swap your 20% fat beef mince for a 50/50 mix of turkey mince and 15% or less beef mince. Tastes the same but way less calories.

• stop using oil / limit it. It's difficult to track accurately and you can easily swap fried eggs for boiled eggs or get spray oil so it's easier to control and track how much you're using.

• utilise chia seeds in any way you can. Add them into your pasta sauce, your salads, your yoghurt etc. Huge fibre boost and hardly noticeable when mixed into a meal. (Make sure to hydrate them properly!!)

• on the note of pasta sauces, try to switch to tomato based ones not cream based ones. (Similar to swapping the salad dressings)

• swap white pasta / bread / crackers etc for wholemeal ones. Same calories but much more filling and prevents sugar spikes and cravings.

• if you drink a lot of milk then I highly recommend switching cows milk for almond milk – higher calcium level but a fraction of the calories.

• WEIGH YOUR FOOD!! If you aren't weighing it then you're more than likely eating much more than 1.2k calories.

• understand that you will have to make sacrifices. You likely won't be able to consume any alcohol, you won't be able to spontaneously get a takeaway. You might not be able to go out for dinner with friends as often as you used to etc.

Most importantly of all, understand that if you go from eating unhealthy foods to suddenly eating 1.2k calories you're much more likely to fail at sticking to it. It took me 6 months to slowly change my diet / calorie intake. You'll still lose weight during this process so you might as well go slow and steady than shock your body into survival mode.