Traffic Light Your Diet

A great way to start losing weight is to use a system of 'traffic lights' which divides your food into green, amber and red foods. With this system the green 'go' foods can be eaten as much as you want, the red 'stop' ones are occassional treats and eamber ones are the foods you should limit but can have on a fairly regular basis.

One traffic light system that has been created in the past goes as follows:
• Green Foods: Fruit and Vegetables (frozen or fresh but not dried apart from apricots and prunes), whole-grains, whole-wheat pasta, wholemeal bread, whole-grain cereals, kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, butter beans, fish, shellfish, low-fat dairy products, fromage-frais, poultry and game, vegetarian meat substitutes e.g. tofu.

• Amber Foods: White bread, cooking oil, dried fruit, full-fat dairy products and medium fat cheese, eggs, lean red meat, nuts and seeds (not salted or roasted), processed meat, low-fat spreads, fruits juice, alcoholic drinks.

• Red Foods: Cakes, biscuits, chocolate, sweets, butter, margarine, lard, cream, pastry, salt, full fat cheese, meat with fat, sugary drinks, deep-fat-fried foods, chips, ice cream.

Make a list like this for yourself and print it out, pin it up in your kitchen or in the food cupboards and take note of it when you go to eat anything. You can refer to it when making meals so that you make sure you get a good balance in your diet.

If you regularly go for a biscuit, or any typically 'bad' food, when you are hungry between meals then why not prepare some cut up raw fruit and vegetables and store them in the biscuit cupboard? That way you see them alongside each other, and with the chart in mind, as well as wanting to lose weight, you can think about whether you really want to use up one of your helpings of the red foods.

If you really want to make a plan for yourself then decide how many red and amber foods you will allow yourself an dmake a tally chart so you cross off one of your allowance when you eat something from that group. This will help you lose weight a lot easier as you have basically made yourself a progress chart. If you really want to lose weight then why not try cutting the red foods out altogether, although you need to think about whether not allowing yourself the odd treat will just lead to you craving it and breaking your diet because of this.

Plan your shopping lists around the traffic light plan and making sure that proportionately you buy many more ‘green products’ than amber, and more amber than red. To take it a step further try labelling your food with little red, amber and green dots, this helps you stay organised and not make any mistakes.

Remember that even though green foods are not restricted, you should not consume them excessively as, even though they are low in calories, they can still add up and mean that you go over you calorie allowance without even realising it.

Use a plan like this along with a good exercise regime so that you lose weight in an easier and healthy way.

Don’t get too drawn in to the plan and make sure you do allow yourself some ‘bad’ foods as everyone needs some fats. But by organising your foods similarly to this you will feel more in control and be able to monitor more closely what goes in to your stomach.