This is the ultimate cheat path for those of us who find it difficult to follow through a diet or rigid meal plan – if you’re looking to get a fab waistline, this isn’t the blog for you. If dropping those extras have been difficult for you, continue reading, this is the solution you’ve always wanted.

Let’s get right into it:

1. Time Your Meals: If you weren’t a slow eater before you decided to lose weight, it’s time for some rebranding. Set a timer for 20minutes for each meal. You have to take your time on each meal, eating slowly and savouring every bite of your food. This will help your brain think you’ve been at the table for long enough to be full. If you rush your food, you aren’t giving your brain enough time to have that conversation with your stomach and this will lead to overeating. You want those extras? Be as slow and stealth as a ninja.
   
2. Eat At Home: How often do you eat home-cooked meals in a week? Cooking isn’t as hard as you think; it’s healthier and will help you achieve your weight loss goals than opting for other fast and available options at the mall, on the street or at the restaurants. Try to eat at home five times in a week.
3. Try the 80-20 rule: We are used to stuffing ourself up when we eat. People aren’t necessarily eating because they see food as a necessity; sometimes, we eat because we have to eat and so we keep stuffing until our stomach can’t take no more. But there’s a set of people who have naturally evolved out of this human flaw; the residents of Okinawa. They serve themselves 80% of meals, finish it and go about their day.
   
4. Eat less meat: Find a way to stack up on filling proteins other than red meat. Instead of your usual double-decker beef or bacon burger, go for a veggie burger. Cut down on the meat by infusing a little fibre into your diet.
5. Get portioning right: At the end of the day, it isn’t what we eat that hunts us but how much of what we eat. This is a skill you must acquire if you really want to lose weight. Put your meals together in the right portions, cutting less on carbs and stacking up on proteins and vegetables.
   
6. Get strong mint: Reach out for a sugarless gum when the cravings of excessive snacking come rushing in – especially during TV time, phone time and socializing. Get yourself strong flavoured gum and chew on. The chances of desiring junk after chewing this for a while are low.
7. Know your ‘eating pause”: It has been scientifically proven that all of us have moments in between meals when we just pause; like we are done with the meal. We all just stop during the meal; it is a subconscious tell that we are full but not stuffed. See it as your internal alarm to stop eating.
   
8. Smart sips: Green tea isn’t a joke! Green tea is a refreshing drink without the tons of calories that sodas and juices come with. Do more green teas and your weight loss journey is becoming a reality.
9. Eat your colours: Thank God vegetables and fruits aren’t boring, plain and rigid. Do veggies, do fruits, blend them, marinate them, barbecue them, slice them, dress them, put it together, do a thousand and one things with these colourful varieties.
   
10. Whole grains: these are commonly available now. They will fill you up, even make you feel heavy sometimes and they have lower calories, improve your cholesterol. You’ll find whole grains as brown rice, oats, whole wheat, whole wheat white bread, etc.

These are few easy steps that don’t include you dropping your sweet, savoury and taste meals. These are cautionary steps that will help check your weight and health. Do you have any other hack you use?