The 3 Initial Rules...

Half the bad food.

If you do nothing more than HALVE the bad food you are eating now, you will reduce your kilojoule/calorie intake.  Start now. 

To do this, start slowly, reduce the bad food you are eating now by HALF.

That is, if you grab biscuits for morning tea, take half of what you would have yesterday.

If you have a piece of cake, take half the size you would have yesterday.

You are not missing out, you are already reducing.

What is bad food? Really, you know what the bad food is.  Chocolate, biscuits, lollies/sweets, anything fried, pastry, too much fat, sugar or higher in kilojoules/calories than the healthy benefits. More later.

NO seconds, NO exceptions

Seconds were our big downfall. We would prepare good healthy meals, then keep eating until we were full (or just to finish the prepared food).

From now on, you will not prepare a second plate of whatever you are eating.

When you dish up your meal and if there are leftover, seal those leftovers immediately into a container and refrigerate.

Let me be clear, leftovers are a meal, not a snack. Leftovers are not meant for a midnight snack, not as a nuisance to be finished off so they won't go to waste. They are another meal (tomorrow’s lunch, or even the day after tomorrow’s lunch. If not for you for your partner. If not going to be eaten in two days, freeze it immediately, for a meal another day).

500g pasta, will make 6 meals. Serve immediately your serves and put the rest in containers for later use.  If you do not eat leftovers, then measure and cook enough for one meal only.  If you cook too much, you will only eat it, and that is not the point.  So 500g pasta, divide by 3 to serve 2 (165g) and only cook that amount.

Limit of one to two serves of carbohydrates per meal

When you start this diet, do not avoid carbs altogether because you may become irritable, anxious, grumpy, etc.

Carbohydrates are pasta, any breads, sweet potatoes, rice, beans, lentils (beans & lentils are protein as well as carbs).

One serve of carb is about 20 to 25 g carbs.

Read the label on the loaf of bread to determine how many slices of bread = 25g carbs. Similar for pasta. How many serves per packet.

We found that the amount of rice for one serve of carb was so small that it was no longer viable to cook two serves of rice, so we abandoned rice (which we used to LOVE).

And to emphasise, you are limiting the serves of carbs to replace carbs with vegetables, not with more meat/protein.