Kick Start Your Monday Diet With These 5 Foods!

Weekends are not always good for our diets. Summer weekends, even more difficult. Between patios and BBQs, diet traps abound. But don't fret. If you need serious help getting yourself back into gear -- or into gear in the first place, we've got 5 foods you should stock up on immediately: Fillet Steak: Grab some good quality beef. Doing so will give you a dose of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which is a compound that has been shown to help you whittle your core. Coconut Flakes: Make sure they are unsweetened, it should be easy to find on the label. Coconut flakes are full of medium-chain triglycerides which get burned as energy instead of being stored like other fats. Spinach: This leafy green is great for helping you lose weight. Spinach contains thylakoids which help keep you full as you burn fat. You can't lose. Barley: Barley is perfect when you want to get a little hit of carbs without eating an entire bread basket. You can add it to soups and casseroles or you can make it on its own as a rice alternative. Cherries: Sleep is essential to weight loss and eating cherries can help you get a good night's rest. They are a natural source of melatonin which helps you sleep at night but also aides in regulating hunger. If you are looking to drop weight fast, you should also have these foods on hand:

1. Yogurt
2. Tomato
3. Balsamic vinegar
4. Honey
5. Almond butter
6. Cinnamon
7. Garlic
8. Lime
9. Coriander
10. Dark chocolate

Looking for ways to easily add these foods to your routine? Look no more, here are 2 easy snack recipes: Crunchy energy bites Mix together 3 tbsp honey, 175g uncooked barley, 50g chopped cherries, 4 tbsp almond butter, and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. Roll into eight circles (like a biscuit), and place on parchment paper. Then refrigerate for at least 20 minutes, before serving. Chocolate-covered cherries Break 30g of good-quality dark chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Microwave for 15 seconds before removing and stirring. Pop back in for ten seconds if required, and repeat until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Then dip four/six whole cherries in the chocolate to coat. Place on a plate and sprinkle with one generous tsp of coconut flakes. I'm thinking of making chocolate covered cherries right now! What are you waiting for?