Contents

Cover

About the Book

About the Author

Also by Rosemary Conley

List of Recipes

Title Page

Acknowledgements

Useful Information

1. The Hip and Thigh Diet Phenomenon

2. The New Gi Hip and Thigh Diet – How It Works

3. A Quick Guide to Gi

4. Why Do You Want to Lose Weight?

5. Motivation – The Key to Success

6. The Amazing Shrinking Body

7. Eating for Good Health

8. Diet Instructions – Read These First!

9. The Fat Attack Fortnight

10. The Gi Hip and Thigh Diet: Phase 2

11. Free Choice Diet Menus plus Extras

Breakfasts

Lunches

Dinners

Power Snacks

Desserts

Treats

Alcoholic drinks

12. Recipes

13. How to Lose Weight Faster

14. Slim Hips and Thighs in Super-Quick Time!

15. Your Questions Answered

16. Staying Slim

Portion Pots

BMR charts

Weight-loss progress chart

Weight-loss graph

Inches/centimetre accumulator

How to measure yourself

Measurement record chart

Exercise planner

Steps per day record chart

Copyright

The diet in this book is based on sound healthy eating principles. However, it is important that you check with your doctor or GP before following any weight-reducing plan. Diabetics should always follow the eating guidelines recommended by their GP or medical practitioner.

About the Book

You won’t believe how quickly the weight and inches disappear!

Rosemary Conley CBE has taken the key elements for success from her two biggest-selling and best-known diet books, her Hip and Thigh Diet and Gi Jeans Diet, to create the ultimate, healthy weight-loss formula that promises optimum results in the shortest possible time.

Her brilliant new plan takes the hard work out of dieting by combining the scientifically proven benefits of low-fat and low-Gi eating in an easy-to-follow programme that fits into any lifestyle.

The varied and flexible menus offer plenty to eat and ample options for solo slimmers, meat-eaters and vegetarians alike, and there’s a wide selection of delicious recipes that the whole family can enjoy. In fact, it won’t feel like a diet at all but a new way of eating.

‘I guarantee that if you follow this diet you will transform your body faster than you ever believed possible. It really, really works!’

Rosemary Conley CBE

About the Author

Rosemary Conley CBE is the UK’s most successful diet and fitness expert. Her diet and fitness books, videos and DVDs have consistently topped the bestseller lists with combined sales approaching nine million copies.

Rosemary has presented more than 400 cookery programmes on television and has hosted several of her own TV series on BBC and ITV. In 1999 Rosemary was made a Deputy Lieutenant of Leicestershire. In 2001 she was given the Freedom of the City of Leicester, and in 2004 she was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List for ‘services to the fitness and diet industries’. In 2012, Rosemary was one of the oldest contestants ever to appear on Dancing on Ice.

Together with her husband, Mike Rimmington, Rosemary runs five companies: Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Clubs, which operates an award-winning national network of almost 200 franchises running around 2,000 classes weekly; Quorn House Publishing Ltd, which publishes Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness magazine; Quorn House Media Ltd, which runs rosemaryconley.tv, an online TV channel; Rosemary Conley Licences Ltd; and Rosemary Conley Enterprises.

Rosemary has a daughter, Dawn, from her first marriage. Rosemary, Mike and Dawn are all committed Christians.

Also by Rosemary Conley

Rosemary Conley’s Hip and Thigh Diet

Rosemary Conley’s Complete Hip and Thigh Diet

Rosemary Conley’s Inch Loss Plan

Rosemary Conley’s Hip and Thigh Diet Cookbook (with Patricia Bourne)

Shape Up for Summer

Rosemary Conley’s Beach Body Plan

Rosemary Conley’s Flat Stomach Plan

Be Slim! Be Fit!

Rosemary Conley’s Complete Flat Stomach Plan

Rosemary Conley’s New Body Plan

Rosemary Conle’s Low Fat Cookbook

Rosemary Conley’s Red Wine Diet

Rosemary Conley’s Low Fat Cookbook Two

Eat Yourself Slim

Rosemary Conley’s Step-by-Step Low Fat Cookbook

Rosemary Conley’s GI Jeans Diet

Rosemary Conley’s New Hip and Thigh Diet

Slim to Win Diet and Cookbook

Rosemary Conley’s Amazing Inch Loss Plan

The Secrets of Staying Young

Rosemary Conley’s

Gi Hip & Thigh Diet

The fastest, healthiest weight and inch loss plan – ever!

Acknowledgements

I have enjoyed writing this book for many reasons. It has been exciting to relive some of the wonderful memories of writing my original Hip and Thigh Diet more than 20 years ago. Then, more recently, I had the challenge of upgrading and rewriting it to include my very latest and proven philosophy of incorporating low-Gi foods into low-fat, calorie-controlled meals and combining this with regular exercise to give the healthiest and fastest weight and inch losses ever!

I could not have written this book without the help and support of the great team with whom I have the pleasure of working, so thank you to chef Dean Simpole-Clarke, who has created lots of delicious recipes for you to enjoy; to my secretary Anja Zeman for calculating the nutrition content of the meals; to my good friend and colleague Mary Morris, fitness expert, for her encouragement and help in putting together the exercise chapters; to Teresa Keates for following the diet religiously for four weeks – she lost 14lb! – and for testing the shopping lists for me.

The introduction of Portion Pots in this diet involved a lot of work in establishing portion sizes and the corresponding weights and calorie calculations. My daughter, Dawn, undertook this meticulous task on my behalf. Without her help I do not see how this book could have been made so helpful and comprehensive for the dieter. Thank you, Dawn, for your tremendous input, hard work and perseverance.

Thank you also to my husband, Mike, for his love and support not only during the writing of my original Hip and Thigh Diet, but throughout the preparation of all my subsequent diets, including this one.

As always, I want to thank my very hard-working editor, Jan Bowmer, who magically pulls together my somewhat disjointed manuscript into a readable volume! Also, thanks to Roger Walker for designing the inside pages and to my commissioning editor, Hannah Black, at Random House for her support and belief in yet another diet book from me! And to everyone else who has played a part in making this book what it is. Thank you all.

Useful information

Body weight conversions

Linear measurements

Spoon measures

Abbreviations and symbols used

The Hip & Thigh Diet Phenomenon

WOULD YOU LIKE to get rid of your excess pounds fast, easily and safely and still eat lots of delicious foods? Well, now you can! You won’t believe how quickly you can lose weight on my Gi Hip and Thigh Diet! You could shed 7lb in the first two weeks and then progress to the very easy-to-follow Phase 2 of the diet until you reach your ultimate goal.

The diet is extremely flexible as all the menus are interchangeable. You can select which breakfast, lunch or dinner you like best for each day – and there are loads to choose from. All the calorie counting has been done for you to make it even easier and more effective and there’s no need to count fat grams or Gi values. Also, you can tone up as you slim down with an easy-to-fit-into-your-life daily activity challenge. Losing weight has never been simpler, faster, healthier or more fun!

How it all began

My original Hip and Thigh Diet was published in 1988 after I discovered, quite by accident, the dramatic effect of eating a diet that was very low in fat.

It all started in 1986 when I was diagnosed with a gallstone problem after falling ill and being rushed into hospital. The doctors recommended immediate surgery to remove my gall bladder. As I was in the process of winding up a slimming club I had been running for an international magazine company, I couldn’t afford the eight weeks off to recover from, what was then, a major operation. I was told that the only alternative was to eat a very-low-fat diet and then, maybe, I would be all right. So that’s what I did, and then a miracle happened. I lost 6lb of fat – that’s 2.7 kilos – and it all seemed to go from my hips and thighs!

I had suffered with fat, horrible thighs since my teens. In my efforts to reduce the ugly cellulite that was so prevalent I even used to massage them with a rolling pin! At my heaviest I weighed 10st 4lb, which was a lot for my small-framed, 5ft 2in body, and when I started on the very-low-fat diet, I weighed 8st 6lb. It took six weeks to lose that 6lb and for the first time in my adult life I had slim thighs!

Members of the exercise classes I was teaching at the time couldn’t help noticing my changing shape and begged me to design a very-low-fat diet for them. This I gladly did and when they, too, started losing inches from their hips and thighs, I realised I had hit on something significant.

I’d already had three books published, and this was my opportunity to write a fourth. First, I needed to test the diet further, so I enlisted the help of local radio to ask for volunteers to follow the diet for eight weeks and then fill in a questionnaire. The requests flooded in.

Eight weeks later, the completed questionnaires began to arrive. The results were astounding. Everyone who sent them back had lost weight, but what surprised members of the trial team most was the reduction in inches – particularly from around their hips and thighs. They had written comments such as, ‘I have tried more diets than I care to remember but none has had the effect of slimming down my enormous thighs as much as your diet. I couldn’t be more thrilled – or grateful!’

So I analysed the results of the trial dieters and collated their encouraging comments and inspiring reports of health benefits. I extended the diet from the small version I had supplied to my trialists and, some months later, the book was ready to send off to the publishers. I had a feeling it was going to be a bestseller.

I was keen to have the book serialised in a national newspaper. A friend and ex-colleague, Christine, spoke to a contact of hers at the Sunday Express and asked them to listen to what I had to say about the diet. They did, a deal was made and the serialisation ran over the first two weeks of January 1988 to coincide with publication of the book.

After Christmas, people are ready to follow a diet and my Hip and Thigh Diet seemed to work brilliantly for those who tried it. The book shot to No. 2 in the bestseller charts and by the following week it was No. 1. It stayed in that coveted position for many months. The book ‘flew’ off the shelves and was reprinted no less than nine times that year.

I started to receive a huge postbag of letters from people who were following the diet and achieving amazing success. My husband, Mike, and I worked from a little office at home, coping with our vast mailbag and fending off the press, who all wanted to interview me. Soon videos and TV offers followed and by August 1988 we were off to Australia on book tour where the Hip and Thigh Diet became a No. 1 bestseller, too.

It became obvious that people wanted more, so I wrote a sequel and my Complete Hip and Thigh Diet was published in 1989. By now we had a couple of staff in our office – first Diane, then Angie – to cope with the workload, both of whom still work with us today.

My Complete Hip and Thigh Diet shot straight to No. 1 in the UK bestseller charts and, later, also in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. It went on to sell a monumental two million copies and was reprinted 25 times! Little did I know that my Hip and Thigh Diet books would provide the foundation for the low-fat eating trend we know so well today.

Why was my Hip and Thigh Diet so successful?

The diet’s success was due to its low-fat eating formula. There’s no doubt that the fat we eat is stored as fat on our bodies. Research has shown that fat is at the bottom of the priority table when the body calls upon its food stores for energy. Only when its supplies of protein and carbohydrate have been exhausted will it draw on its fat stores for fuel. On a calorie-controlled low-fat diet, such as the one in this book, you won’t replenish those fat stores, so you lose lots of inches. That’s why my hips and thighs slimmed down so dramatically, because it’s where I stored most of my fat. After I dramatically reduced my fat intake, those stores became smaller and I literally shrank. It is as simple as that.

Moreover, my Hip and Thigh Diet was very easy to follow – dieters could eat any food they liked as long as it was low in fat, and they could have unlimited portions of rice, pasta, potatoes and vegetables, providing they did not add any fat during cooking or serving. They were allowed three meals a day and could drink alcohol in moderation. There were no calories to count and everyone loved the freedom of choice.

However, over time, followers of the diet found that their rate of weight loss slowed down and this was down to the fact that their servings of rice, pasta and potatoes had become larger! I therefore modified the diet to make it more prescriptive, specifying portion sizes and recommending a daily exercise routine in my subsequent book, Inch Loss Plan, which was published in 1990. This, too, became a No. 1 bestseller and went on to sell over 800,000 copies. People liked the fact that each day they were told exactly what to eat and which exercises to do.

Further books followed – almost 30 in fact – along with as many fitness videos, now available as DVDs, and a national TV series. In 1993 we launched Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Clubs as a franchise and, in 1996, Rosemary Conley Diet & Fitness magazine. It has been an incredibly exciting journey and I have enjoyed every moment.

A new decade, a new diet

During the 20 years between publication of my first Hip and Thigh Diet and this Gi Hip and Thigh Diet the number of low-fat food products available in UK supermarkets has gone from just a few low-fat or lower-fat alternatives to tens of thousands of options. There are now endless food ranges to choose from where ‘low fat’ is the key selling point.

Confronted by so much choice, we can no longer rely on eating low-fat foods alone if we want to lose weight; we have to consider our calorie intake as well. Also, it became apparent in the late nineties that people who couldn’t live without eating the occasional bar of chocolate or bag of crisps felt they weren’t able to go on my low-fat diet. With that in mind, I have modified the eating plans over the last few years to allow slimmers to enjoy a few high-fat treats if they so choose.

To ensure an optimal level of weight loss, I recommended that each individual stick to a daily calorie allowance based on their basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is scientifically calculated according to their gender, age and current weight. Then, adding in some exercise would dramatically accelerate their rate of weight loss so that they could eat plenty yet still lose weight. And it worked brilliantly.

The Glycaemic Index

Then came the Glycaemic Index (Gi), which was originally created to help diabetics. It was discovered that eating certain carbohydrate foods which caused their blood sugar to rise slowly helped stabilise their insulin levels. Not only that, but it soon became evident that eating low-Gi foods also improved heart health.

But there is another big bonus that comes from eating a low-Gi diet. As low-Gi foods are less processed and higher in fibre than other carbohydrates, they take longer to digest and therefore keep us feeling fuller for longer. Just what the dieter needs – a diet that fills them up and prevents hunger pangs between meals!

A great deal of work has now been done to establish which foods have a low Glycaemic Index rating, but it isn’t an exact science. Ratings can be manipulated by increasing other elements, such as fat, during the food manufacturing process and, as a result, some high-fat foods have been labelled as ‘low Gi’. So, take the trouble to check the nutrition labels of food products, as eating high-fat foods will not help you to lose weight.

For simplicity, I prefer not to state the calculated Gi values in my diets. I select carbohydrate foods that are known to have a low-Gi ranking and that are also low in fat. This makes the diet really healthy. I eat this type of diet every day and I certainly feel better for it and find I can easily maintain my weight.

So here I am celebrating 20 years of the Hip and Thigh Diet and putting together a twenty-first century version for a whole new generation of readers. Over the last couple of decades, I have been privileged to work with some top nutrition scientists and fitness experts from whom I have learned so much. I certainly know a great deal more now than I did in 1988 – and it’s all in this book!

The New Gi Hip and Thigh Diet – How It Works

THIS GI HIP and Thigh Diet is based on a culmination of two extensive trials and my own experience over the years. I have also borne in mind the desires and needs of the dieter who wants to lose weight fast.

Perfect portion control

Overestimating portion sizes is the biggest single reason why dieters don’t lose weight as fast as they think they deserve to. It’s easy to become complacent and that’s when the extra calories can creep in and slow down your weight-loss progress. Portion control therefore is crucial to successful weight loss.

However, it is unrealistic to imagine that we are going to weigh our portions of rice or pasta on the scales every time we want to eat them. That’s why I have created my Rosemary Conley Portion Pots. These are handy tools for measuring cereal, rice, pasta and other basic foods.

The pots come in four different colours and sizes with the following liquid capacities:

When measuring solids, the quantities and weights in the portion pots will vary according to the density of the specific food (see here). But you don’t have to worry, as I have done all the relevant calculations for you in this Gi Hip and Thigh Diet. The pots also come with an easy guide as to which pot holds how much of various everyday foods. They make it incredibly quick and simple to accurately gauge your portion sizes that it will soon become automatic. So, if you stick to the recommended menus in this diet and make sure you eat the correct quantities of foods, you will maximise your weight-loss progress.

My portion pots are such a great aid that I have two sets and, for speed and convenience, I keep the appropriately sized pot in the relevant food storage container. For instance, I keep the yellow one with my muesli and I know that just one scoop is 183 calories-worth, and I keep a blue one with my porridge oats (one scoop of dry oats is equivalent to 125 calories). A blue portion pot of uncooked basmati rice will give me 205 calories when cooked, the same as a red portion pot of cooked basmati rice. (To order the pots, visit www.rosemaryconley.com/pots and quote offer ‘pots’ at the checkout.)

The optimum weight- and inch-loss formula

I believe that I now have the optimum formula to effect a quick weight and inch loss, one that combines a healthy, nutritious eating plan with a fitness regime that will burn fat, strengthen your muscles and, as a result, increase your fitness and fat-burning potential not only now but also well into the future. I’ll explain exactly how this happens in a later chapter.

This diet and fitness programme is designed in such a way that you will experience a significant weight loss in the first two weeks as you follow Phase 1, the Fat Attack Fortnight. Then, having lost around 7lb in the first 14 days and seen a significant number of inches disappear from around your waist, hips and thighs, you will hopefully feel totally committed to continue on the more generous Phase 2 of the Gi Hip and Thigh Diet.

There is a choice of a set diet plan to follow or you can plan your own daily menus from the meal options given in chapter 11. Remember, all the meals are totally interchangeable, so if there is one breakfast you particularly like, you can have it every day if you wish. There is also a daily exercise challenge to speed up your weight loss and tone you up as you slim down.

After the first two weeks, you may also add a daily treat, which can be high or low fat and high or low Gi, plus you can enjoy an alcoholic drink if you want to. In addition, if your personal calorie allowance permits, you can include a dessert each day to have with your evening meal or you can increase your portion sizes of foods such as cereal, rice, pasta and potatoes. Again, all this has been calculated for you, using the portion pots.

This diet is incredibly versatile. You can choose which meals you want to eat from the vast number of options and you can eat them when you want. You can eat or drink your treats whenever you choose or save them up for a special occasion. Also, you can use your daily milk allowance of 450ml/¾ pint in tea and coffee and on your breakfast cereals. If you don’t drink much milk, you can swap 150ml milk for 1 × 125ml low-fat yogurt with a maximum of 75 calories.

This diet is easy to fit into your lifestyle and you won’t feel you are on a diet at all – it will just become a new way of eating.

Diet & Fitness