How to create a healthy diet menu to aid weight loss

We generally know what we need to do to lead healthier lives. But what can we do to eat healthily and make sure we lose weight as well? This guide aims to help you find ways to vary your food so that you can make healthy meals that will help the weight to drop off, every day!

The components

Overview
A healthy diet should be made up of about 1/3 carbohydrates, 1/3 fruits and vegetables, and 1/9 each of protein, sugary and fatty foods, and milk and dairy.
If you want to loose weight, you also have to make sure that you're consuming less calories than you are using in the day. In order to do this, you can opt for low carbohydrate meals, as carbohydrates bring a lot of calories to the diet, but a no carbohydrate diet may be too harsh. Also, replace white for wholemeal options- these have more fibre, which is not only healthier, but will also keep you fuller so you're more likely to consume less. Another way to reduce the amount of calories in your diet is to choose lean cuts of meat rather than fatty ones.
Avoid saturated fats by opting for unsaturated fats where you can- these are better for you as they are easier to break down and they may help to reduce cholesterol. Of course, a very easy way to loose weight is to cut down completely on the sugary and fatty foods.
You do need a little sugar and fat, but you can usually find this in the other food groups (such as, natural sugars in fruit rather than refined sugar from cake).

Mix and match

How to mix?
Once you know all the different foods that you should be eating, you can mix and match them in order to make different meals for each day of the week. Write your plan down in advance so you can do your shopping and avoid buying tempting foods.
If you're stuck for ideas, you can look online for free diet menus.
Plan for snacks to fall into the categories; healthy options are fruits and cereal bars for example.
Vary your snacks so that you don't get bored and eat 'bad' snacks such as chocolate bars.

Involve the family

Final word
The best way to stick to your diet?
Get everybody involved!
If every one in your house is also eating more healthily, you will find it so much easier to stick to your plan.
Not only that, but you won't have to cook multiple meals.
Get everybody moving as well- the more exercise you do, the healthier you will be and the more weight you will loose!