Here at Network Marketing Towers, we don't just have great marketing and digital job stats to share in our blog posts, we also love our food! So we thought we'd share some of that too. With many of us constantly training for upcoming marathons and triathlons across the North, we too know what that January feeling is like. After eating like kings in December (er and November) and now avoiding the scales… you feel desperate to get back in to shape. The big question though is how? How do you diet but still satisfy those naughty cravings? We've tried most of them so here are the ones that we liked. Celebrity Slim Recently there has been this huge craze about protein shakes and substituting them for meals. One of the most popular brands is Celebrity Slim. Celebrities promote the brand by posting Instagram pictures of themselves taking their delivery of the shakes. Now, you're not expected to never eat again which is a good thing for us in the office! People use the shakes in different ways, for example using for breakfast and lunch and having a healthy meal in the evening. For those who stay strict with themselves and don’t take it too far I would say it is very effective for loosing weight quickly. (They even have a Latte flavour, for all us hard workers/coffee addicts!).

Weight Watchers Another great diet at the moment is the Weight Watchers diet. Their marketing strategy at the moment is using adverts on the TV/radio and they've previously "gone heavy" on celebrity endorsement. Weight Watchers are very effective by creating low calorie meals and snacks where you can monitor exactly how many calories you are eating. They provide healthy options of delicious meals in which you would usually steer away from. To do this they will use low calorie ingredients and monitor the portion size. Weight Watchers is great as they do all the work for you, you don’t need to worry about what you are eating! They even create low calorie chocolate bars which I love…500 Calories A Day Diet This was mentioned on Capital radio if anyone was listening! This diet relies on your self restraint so can be a bit harder, but you can always buy healthy meals like weight watchers and other equivalent ones in supermarkets. However it is a great way for shrinking your stomach and limiting your portion size. Again this is a good one to loose weight quickly although we're not sure who could stick to just 500 a day considering a large glass of Sauvignon is 266 calories!

Paleo Diet This is the diet that everyone is talking about at the moment. The idea is effectively that you are only allowed to eat unprocessed foods. So only natural ingredients that grow on plants or that you can catch. Well… we all have been in the office! It is basically no eating carbs and replacing them with other alternatives! A great way to replace potato is using sweet potato... if you have not tried it yet you are missing out… It’s delicious and so much healthier!

What are our top Tips?

• Eat Kale- it's become very popular in salads especially—really tasty- full of vitamin C and calcium and has been proved to reduce cholesterol!
• Eat Sweet Potato- Delicious... and healthy. I love sweet potato in salads and really fills you up.
• Eat Low Low cheese- This was advertised in the Weight Watchers magazine the other day and is a great option if you are a cheese lover but don’t want to break the diet!

Breakfast Ideas:

• Greek Yogurt- lovely with honey and fruit
• Porridge- great in winter as it warms you up and fills you up really quickly and if you don’t put too much golden syrup in it its really healthy!

Lunch Ideas:

• Tortilla Pizza- If pizza is your weakness then go for a tortilla base instead - tasty and healthy but just a bit floppy
• Soup- Another favourite lunch time dishes, it again warms you up in these cold months. Home made is best - full of fibre!

Dinner Ideas:

• Meat & Veg- I try not eat carbs on an evening as I get back from work. If I am feeling carbs-low I'll either have new potatoes or sweet potato.

[gallery ids="3028,3020,3018,3025,3019,3041"]   We hope our Network Natter January Diet Guide is helpful - we spend most of our time going on about food in the office so think we know what we are talking about! IMAGE CREDITS: UTIMES.PITT, THEFABWEB, CELEBRITYSLIM, JANESHEALTHYKITCHEN, SNAPTASTEBLOGIT, ICELAND, CROSSFITLONDONUK, SCOTTISHGROCER, BBC