Ask the expert: I want to lose weight for New Year’s Eve

I want to lose weight before the family New Year Eve party and would like to start eating healthy. But I can never stick to a diet – could you suggest some quick fixes?

To get in shape without going on a full-blown diet, try some of these tips. They are easy to follow:

2. Eat your heavy carbs at breakfast and lunch. Carbs can work for you if you time them correctly. Choose from white rice, whole wheat, quinoa, sweet potato or regular potato.

If you’re including heavy carbs, make sure to add an insulin-sensitising ingredient to your meal, such as vinegar to your fried rice, ghee to your paratha or cinnamon powder to your biryani. These have shown to make your body more sensitive to the hormone insulin, which helps keep sugar levels steady.

3. Avoid active carbs after 2pm. Unless you are working out in the evening, you should drop the carbs post lunch and stick with foods such as nuts, meat, lentils and avocado.