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Weight loss comes down to the things you eat on a daily basis, not just the things you eat once in a while.
Cutting out these 7 things from my diet has not only contributed to maintaining my weight but also to steady weight loss over time.
In this blog post, I’ll be sharing with you exactly what works and WHY.
Read on to discover my 7 weight loss secrets of the things I NEVER eat.
Weight Loss Secret #1: I avoid cooking with sugar
I rarely ever use sugar in the kitchen for cooking for example when I make pasta sauces or salads.
Don’t get me wrong, I love sweet things, but I refrain from using sugar to add to my dishes. Instead, I try and bring out more natural flavours from the ingredients I use. One of my tricks is to use lemon juice to bring out the acidity in tomatoes before I turn them into a pasta sauce.
If I want a bit of sweetness in salads I use fruit. My favourite fruit to add is papaya, watermelon or honey melon. Papaya, just like watermelon, is relatively low in calories, only contains 51 calories per serving which is perfect for weight loss. I’ve also used nectarines and grapes in salads before and it’s delicious plus it adds a splash of color.
My Breakfast Oats Recipe – A Powerful Weight Loss Superfood
For my blueberry breakfast oats, I use a handful of frozen berries for sweetness. Check out my delicious recipe here.
Did you know? Most foods are already perfectly sweet naturally. But because our taste buds are overstimulated by refined sugar used in the food industry pretty much in all products (from bread to yoghurts) you crave sweetness.
Give your taste buds a rest from sugar
Once you give your taste buds a rest they’ll reset. You’ll find that you start to taste and appreciate foods natural sweetness and can go without reaching for a chocolate bar much easier.
The more you reduce your sugar intake, the faster you’ll see results on your waistline.
Whenever I cut out refined sugar I see my weight drop almost instantly. And once it starts to drop it continues to drop, because my body burns up all the store fat to make up for the sudden calorie deficit.
Weight Loss Secret #2: I avoid soda pops
I don’t like to drink my calories. It’s something I’ve always done because I rather eat a piece of cake or a doughnut than drinking a sugary drink.
The other day we were at a Mexican place for tacos and I ordered a lemonade. I thought it would be water with freshly squeezed lime juice. Instead, I got a can of “Schweppes – Lemonade”. This one little 375ml can contains 41.3 grams of sugar! That’s DOUBLE the amount of sugar you should consume in an entire day. I had to sent it back and ordered still water instead.
Why “sugar-free” or “0% sugar” is still bad for you
Although you might think that “sugar-free” drinks are ok they actually might put you on more body fat. Let me explain why.
As soon as food enters your body, your body tries to identify it instantly as either:
- carbs
- fat
- protein
- vitamin or
- minerals.
Artificial sweeteners used in “sugar-free” products, for example, don’t fall in any of these categories. And if it doesn’t fall into one of these categories, your body can’t identify it. Because your body can’t identify it then it doesn’t know how to use it or break it down.
Furthermore, your body can’t identify whether what you are consuming is harmful or harmless.
Anything harmful gets stored away as BODY FAT.
Did you know….?
Why artificial sweeteners make you gain weight
Your body’s main role is to protect your organs from harmful substances.
Your body can’t identify artificial sweetener and to be safe, it puts them down as harmful.
And your body’s coping mechanism to protect your organs from this harmful substance is to store it far away from your organs in fat cells.
So, all excess body fat really is, is storage for harmful substances.
Hence you’ll put on weight around your waistline from drinking sugar-free drinks alone.
You’re better off enjoying a full-sugar drink here and there because your body can turn sugar into energy and uses it up before it hits your waistline.
That’s one reason I LOVE the IsaLean weight loss shakes by Isagenix, because they contain real sugar and NO artificial sweeteners. I’ll include a link here. Simple pick the ones you want to try and place your order.
Also check out my post Why Meal Replacement Shakes Might Be the Simplest Way to Lose Weight You Haven’t Tried Yet
Naturally sweet – Homemade
To cut out soda pops opt for naturally flavoured options like infused water with lemon, berries or cucumber. My favourite recipe is watermelon. Just add a few chunks of freshly cut watermelon to a glass of chilled filtered water, let it infuse for a few minutes, and voila, your natural fruit drink is ready :).
Weight Loss Secret #3: I avoid store-bought dressings, sauces or dips
Why homemade dressing matters for weight loss: It’s not just about taste — when you skip the hidden sugars and processed fats, your body digests food more cleanly, and your energy stays steady (which means fewer cravings and less fat storage).
Preferably I make my own, dressing, dips and sauces with ingredients from my pantry, like peanut butter or any nut butter, lemon juice, a splash of soy sauce, salt, pepper, spices like cayenne pepper, garlic, mustard, fresh herbs like parsley, coriander or basil, cinnamon.
One of my favourite bases for homemade dips is Japanese mayonnaise called Kewpie. As a vegetarian, I’m not too keen on eggs. Kewpie mayo only uses egg yolks instead of whole eggs compared to regular mayo which gives it a less eggy taste.
But here are a few of my favorite homemade dips recipes for you to try.
Homemade Aioli Recipe
The other day I attempted to make an aioli dip using this recipe by Cookie and Kate to go with sweet potato fries. I was very surprised by how tasty it was!
What makes this recipe great is that you grate the garlic before adding it to your mix to avoid biting on chunks of garlic later. The only thing I did differently is I swapped out regular mayonnaise for my favorite Japanese Kewpie mayo.
Homemade Basil Pesto Recipe
If you have a food processor you can make your own pesto in under a minute. Basil pesto by far is my favourite to go with pasta. All you need are the following ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
- 45g (1/4 cup) pine nuts
- 2 small garlic cloves, halved
- 60g (3/4 cup) shredded parmesan
- 5 tablespoons olive oil
Mix all the ingredients together in a food processor and blitz into a pesto-texture like paste. Keep adding olive oil until it has reached its perfect consistency. Use pinches of salt and pepper for seasoning and finish off with a drizzle of olive oil.
My little one loves it!
Why olive oil is perfect for weight loss
Olive oil is a good fat that is loaded with powerful antioxidants and monounsaturated fatty acids. These fatty acids help keep blood sugar levels stable which may assist weight loss. You’ll feel satisfied and full, which prevents you from bingeing on refined or trans-fat sources laden with empty calories.
Weight Loss Secret #4: I avoid ice cream in a cone
Instead of eating ice cream in a sweet waffle cone, I eat it in a recyclable paper cup. My philosophy is “either-or”. If I already consume calories from ice cream I don’t need the waffle to add more calories and sugar to it.
Knowing I’m not loading up on just sugar in one go makes me enjoy it more.
Most times I go for a refreshing sorbet instead of ice cream which has fewer calories naturally (taking a typical example, 100g of vanilla ice cream contains 11g of fat together with 21g of sugar adding up to 207 calories. The same quantity of sorbet will have, on average, just 2g of fat but 27g of sugar and 110 calories.) Sorbet contains more sugar than ice cream, yes, but that’s because it’s made from real fruit instead of added sugars like in chocolate ice cream, for example.
And I prefer to just get one scoop, not two or three, just because I don’t want to “use up” all my calories with just one ice cream. I prefer to just get a hit of it than overindulging on it.
Weight Loss Secret #5: No dessert right after my main
One thing I never do is order dessert in a restaurant.
It’s the best feeling then when you’re all satisfied and happy after a savoury meal, right?
There’s something nice about keeping the flavours in my mouth for longer. And a sweet dessert ruins this satisfying feeling after a savoury meal. It gets my taste buds fired up again and leaves me wanting more sugar. Do you know that feeling?
If the dessert, however, is cheese I’d probably have some but otherwise, I tend to stay away from sweet desserts right after a savory meal.
Weight Loss Secret #6: I avoid ready meals and take-aways
I cook everything from scratch because I simply like to cook. Cooking relaxes me, it’s fun, creative and I enjoy tasting and finessing my recipes, my presentation and my flavor combinations. Cooking gives me pleasure and it’s a form of self-love that I practice every day.
Is cooking cheaper than ordering take-away?
You might be wondering if buying groceries vs ordering food makes financial sense. And to be honest with you, sometimes my grocery bill comes in the same as a takeaway meal.
For example, the other night I made potato rostis with smoked salmon for dinner.
My bill came in over A$38 for.
- a bag of salad
- a large onion
- fresh herbs
- one avocado
- bag of potatoes
- 300 grams of Tassie smoked salmon
- Japanese mayonnaise Kewpie.
That’s roughly the same it would have cost the two of us to order take-away from our favourite Mexican place. But I also had potatoes and salmon over for the coming days and of course plenty of mayonnaise.
Overall, I find that buying fresh ingredients is not cheap but usually I’ll have ingredients over that I can use again.
And compared to ordering a takeaway I know exactly what goes in the food.
At the end of the day, for me, cooking is always worth it and I would miss something if I didn’t cook my meals. But I also get that cooking is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Start simple
If you do want to give it a try then start off with cooking simple dishes like salads with cucumber and tomato and adding couscous or brown rice to it to prepare a filling lunch.
Once you start to get a feel for ingredients and flavor combinations you’ll find cooking opens you up to a lot of possibilities in the kitchen.
Weight Loss Secret #7: I avoid free food
Free food can be SO tempting to snack on. Especially when you’re not paying for it, right?
Back in my office days back working in advertising agencies, there was a lot of free food around constantly: Crackers, crisps, cheese, brownies, dips, muffins, sandwiches. But it wasn’t quality food. It was the cheap crappy food that you can buy for a dollar at the supermarket, do you know what I mean?
But, just because it’s available for free, doesn’t mean I tuck in. Here’s why.
My rule of thumb is:
If I wouldn’t buy it myself, I won’t eat it just because it’s free either.
This vicious cycle starts with one snack and a handful here and there
When you’re hungry it’s especially hard to resist free snacks. But cheap sugary, flavour-enhanced snacks are more-ish and it only takes a few snacks here and there to make me not care how much I eat. Before I know it I’ve eaten the whole bag of crisps or 3 muffins – just because it’s free.
I find it much harder to get back on track than to resist it in the first place. So I rather resist and find something to eat that I don’t regret later.
Does it offend people when you don’t eat their free food?
To be honest, some people might feel offended, especially if it’s party food and nibbles at family get-togethers. But at the end of the day, it’s your body and you have the right to decide what you put in it. Just because everybody is eating it, doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
So I stick to my rule: If it’s not good enough to buy, it’s not good enough to eat — even if it’s free.
Hope you’ve enjoyed my 7 weight loss secrets and I’m curious to know…
Which secret tip resonates the most with you?
Would love to read about it in the comments which ones of these tips you feel called to try! And remember, I am not a nutritionist or dietician. I am just sharing what has worked for me personally on my weight loss journey. Always consult a dietician, doctor or nutritionist first if you have health or weight loss concerns.
Kris x
Hi, I’m Kris — founder of HappySkinny!Since 2014, I’ve been passionate about natural wellness, clean nutrition, and smart weight management. I’ve worked with health food startups, explored powerful ingredients like raw cacao and turmeric, and tested everything from protein shakes to cleansing ingredients . I discovered Isagenix in 2017 and still use their products to support my wellness and weight loss goals. Here on HappySkinny, I share my experience, of how to manage and lose weight WITHOUT crazy diets or workouts.
