Wednesday 2 January 2013

Diets Don't Work!

Simples really - Diets don't work -

They make us feel a failure

They make us obsess about food

They make banned foods even more tempting

They make us obsess about a number on the scales

Last but by no means least they make us fat!

Yes thats right. Statistics show that most people that diet put on all the weight they lost and more. I was one of those people. I dieted most years did well for so long, then put it all back plus more.

One of my realisations was to watch naturally skinny people around food.  Do they eat lettuce all day?? Do they live of muller lights??  Do they eat weeny slices of bread??  Do they eat diet food?? Do they starve themselves once a week for weigh day and binge after weigh in???  NO to all of this!  They eat what they fancy and stop when full!   They simply don't have food hang ups.  To them food is food. Food is fuel.  Do they weigh twice a day? No they go by how their clothes feel, if gets too tight they look at what they are eating or add in abit more exercise, they simply don't obsess about every morsel that hits their lips.  Slimpods help with all of this.  They gradually change old ingrained habits around food.

This year I won't be dieting. Dieting does not deal with our emotional attachment too food, any of our food issues, if anything, for me, diets made all that worse. The second I said 'diet' I craved all the foods 'I shouldn't be having'.

This year I am starting without a diet.  :) I am starting 2013 with a normal relationship with food because I spent 2012 dealing with the 'head' with my 'emotional attachment' to food.  At the end of 2012 food was simply = food = fuel :) I cannot tell you how liberating this is.

I now look at all the diet ads which are quite frankly doing my head in and roll my eyes. I'm just as sick of the junk emails from them, from other companies too trying to remind me 'new year = new plan = new diet = new fitness routine'

Why?

Because its what they do every year. New Year = New Diet = New Plan = New Years Resolutions!

Well not for me it doesn't !

This year New Year = New Me!

I am no longer food obsessed.

I am no longer a binge eater.

I am no longer an all day grazer.

I am no longer a lazy moo I now exercise regularly in fact I missed my TTapp over the holiday period and looked forward to it this morning.

I am no longer a chocoholic.

I no longer wake and go to bed thinking of food.

I no longer spend my days wondering what I can eat next.

I no longer eat for the sake of eating.

Food is no longer an emergency.

I am worth it.

Scales can and do lie they don't consider so many things I am proof of that. Drop 61 inches and weigh 1-2lb heavier than when I started. So scales say I failed. I didn't fail at all = they lie.

I am no longer a serial weigher because of the above. If I was I'd be a very unhappy person.

I no longer have zero confidence.

I am no longer a negative person.

I am no longer a stress head - I am one of the calmest Mums on the playground.

I eat healthily because I want to but I always have exactly what I fancy even if its chips! cake! whatever it is. That way I don't feel deprived. I'm never deprived. I can have exactly what I want when I want it, but do you know what?? Often because its not banned I simply don't want it!!

I have no wagon to fall off.

I no longer allow the scales or the diet market to decide how I feel. Its me that decides how I feel and I feel good actually!

I stand up for myself.

I find the positive in every day even if its a tough one.

I read somewhere that an emotion lasts all of 6 mins. So ride it out rather than shove it down with food. Food didn't solve any of my problems it just added to them.

If I want chocolate I have it. Sometimes a few chocolates, sometimes just one, depends how I feel.  Its no longer an obsession though. I can have it in the house and not be bothered by it for weeks, but if I want it I have it.

We eat as a family.  No more cooking different for me as I'm on a diet!

No more - should I have this?? Omg I ate a packet of crisps the world will end! am I allowed that? I can have just what I want.

I can now simply eat when hungry and stop when full.

I often leave food on my plate - I was brought up to clear my plate a) my mother had paid for that food i'd eat it! b) there are hungry children in Africa who would do anything for that food etc etc - thing is if I left it on my plate they didn't get it did they?  But it was drummed into us to clear our plates it was manners. Even if the plate was piled a foot high we ate it!

My ibs is more or less non existant I lived with it for 26 years.

I no longer live on immodium in fact its been around 6 months since I had one :) thought no longer enters my head :) they ruled my life before and so did my ibs

I used to be so anxious. I had panic attacks - no longer

No more secret eating and hiding the evidence

Sleep better

Speak to people I don't know

can use the telephone confidently

Walk tall rather than head to the floor

Hardly ever snack between meals

I have faith in me

I can achieve anything I put my mind too

I no longer inhale my food, I enjoy each mouthful

Losing weight is not a race

I don't expect miracles I just set myself up to succeed

Little changes = big changes



The list is endless - thank you Slimpod - Thankyou Harshani - Thankyou Trevor - Thankyou Sandra - Thankyou Dawn - thankyou each and every one of you that helped me see that light at the end of the tunnel. That helped me through last year. This year is going to be fab!

Also thank you Dr. Bob Schwartz for 'Diets Don't Work'  that book was like the icing on the cake for me. It really slotted everything into place, made me see what the slimpods were doing and I was fighting them!


So Happy New Year to all my lovely friends - Don't let food control you - put yourself back in control of food!  If I can do it - anyone can!!!!!!!!!!!