Start by following one of these goals below and once you are
comfortable with that, you can add another.
• Eat three meals a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• Down size your portion size. Try using a smaller plate.
You can also set yourself some goals. These may be nutritional
or exercise goals. An example of an exercise goal is to walk for 5
minutes a day, or walk a certain distance, and gradually increase
this each week. Remember it is more motivating to exercise with
others, so including your family, is one way of being successful in
taking up a habit of regular exercise.
• Use a healthy plate model – ½ plate vegetables, ¼ plate of
meat, chicken, fish etc, ¼ plate of potato, or rice or pasta etc.
• You can have three small snacks a day. A snack is a piece of
fruit OR 2 crackers with a topping OR one piece of bread with a
topping OR a pottle of yoghurt.
• Concentrate on quality of food not quantity – high sugar and
high fat foods (eg takeaways, pies, lollies and biscuits) are NOT
good quality foods.
• Sip on water during the day. You will not be able to drink fizzy
drinks after surgery so get used to it now.
• Get into a habit of regular exercise.
Some things you may find helpful:
• Sit at the table to eat your meals. This will make you focus on
the food and take notice of what and how much you are eating.
• Take small bites. This will slow you down so that you have a
better chance of recognising those ‘I have had enough’ signals.
• Cut food into small pieces and put your knife and fork down
between each mouthful. This will slow your eating and maximise
satisfaction with each mouthful.
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