Never be fat again

By identifying what kind of over-eater you are – addictive, emotional, habitual, destructive or angry – you can ditch bad eating habits. The best way is to cut out wheat, including bread and cakes, pasta and white rice. And also potatoes and dairy products – cows' milk, cheese, cream and yoghurt.

Your ability to see yourself as slimmer, to believe you can become and stay lighter, and be indifferent to food is immeasurably powerful. Changing your thinking can and does change your body.

Only two per cent of dieters manage to keep their weight off but today, we show how you can stay slim for ever...

1 STOP MAKING EXCUSES
Don't say things such as: "I gain weight just by looking at food." Or: "I have a slow metabolism." Or: "Once I start eating biscuits I can't stop." You are making your mind and body believe these things and act upon them. Changing your eating habits is not enough – you must change your thoughts, beliefs and words.

2  GET A NATURAL HIGH
You probably crave refined carbohydrates, such as cakes and biscuits, because they boost serotonin levels and, albeit temporarily, lift your mood. Control these cravings by eating healthier foods which naturally increase serotonin, including bananas, eggs, turkey, avocado and coriander. Chewing food slowly can also help maintain serotonin levels and reduce appetite.

3 FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE
Stop negative thoughts and focus only on what you want to achieve. Instead of saying, "I don't look so overweight now," think, "My body's leaner and healthier." Don't say, "I am not so hungry any more," try, "I feel full and satisfied".

4  TRY VISUALISATION
Concentrating on what you feel, hear and say makes visualising and therefore achieving, the new, slim you easier. So feel that there is less of you when showering, hear people telling you how much slimmer you look and see yourself buying clothes in a smaller size.

5 HAVE FAITH
Throw out your fat clothes. What kind of message are you sending yourself by doing that? And don't keep buying clothes that are bigger than you need because you don't believe you will keep the weight off. Have faith, conviction and certainty that you will be slim for ever.

6 SEE FOOD FOR WHAT IT REALLY IS
Put yourself off crisps by holding one over a small flame. See how slowly it burns and how much fat drips off it - you could get up to a full teaspoon!

7 PLAY THE LONG GAME
When you come across foods you've told yourself are hard to resist, remind yourself:
1. I will always have another day to eat this.
2. It's not free and it will cost me to eat this.
3. I have all my life to eat cake/pizza. Looking the way I want to look is more important right now.

8 REMEMBER WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO LOOK GOOD
Close your eyes and imagine yourself in a shop trying on beautiful clothes in your dream size and looking good in them. Then imagine yourself in a supermarket trying to find a food that could give you that same feeling. Nothing you eat could taste as good as looking good feels.

9 CONTROL CRAVINGS
Cravings do not start in your body, because it hates being overfed indigestible, processed food. They come from your mind. The good news is that since it's your mind, you can ignore these cravings and even change them into a desire for healthy foods.

10 REMIND YOURSELF OF THE COST
Spend five minutes writing down your answers to the following: What is it costing you to eat the way you are? What will it go on costing? What price are you paying when you overeat? Are you prepared to pay that price? What are you missing out on? Read through your list and decide if you are willing to pay these prices.

11 REMEMBER, IT'S YOUR CHOICE
Once you know that you can choose to be thinner, you can understand that every time you eat pizza and chips followed by cake, you are choosing to remain overweight. If you opt to eat fruit instead of a dessert, you are choosing to become slimmer. You have been tending to believe that you can't help it - from now on you can choose not to believe that.

12 TELL YOURSELF THE TRUTH
If you go to the gym and tell yourself you hate it, and eat salads while telling yourself you hate them, you will quickly go back to your old, destructive behaviour. Tell yourself that your body loves exercise - you will be telling yourself the truth.

13 AVOID TEMPTATION
Change what foods you keep in the house. Stop buying sweets, biscuits, crisps and chocolate. You don't need to keep them for visitors or for your children. If you feel you have to buy junk food for others, choose things you don't like.

14 HAVE SIMPLE MEALS
Limit the variety of food you eat. Have a range of healthy food over a day but have less variety at each meal. We all have an inbuilt "sensory specific satiety", which means there is only so much of one food we can eat before we naturally stop eating it. This appetite control is over-ridden by variety – the reason you can feel stuffed after a Sunday lunch but still be tempted by pudding.

15 TAKE A CARRY OUT
While going out for movies or picnics, take healthy foods like fruit and nuts with you so you don't have to eat junk. People break their diets when they're too tired to wait to eat, so they grab sugary snacks.