Do I do CD for time number 14? Or....

[Big H]

Hi Guys,

I would appreciate some advice on my next step. Basically I have done the Cambridge Diet 13 times in the past 5 years. The first time, I lost 7 stone in 13 weeks, I have since lost between 2 and 4 stone on many more occasions. Before xmas, I once again got down to my lowest weight, but since then I have gained 3 stone. So I am 4 stone lighter than my heaviest, but at least 3 stone more than I want to be and pretty damn fat!!. After 3 weeks of starting various diets and not getting past lunchtime, I have restarted Cambridge today. I could lose those 3 stones in approx. 5 weeks if I stick to CD, but then what? Every time I have done CD before I have been convinced that this time I would read the right book or find the right long term diet that would cure my ridiculous compulsion to constantly eat, but I haven’t done it yet. So I think. I’ve tried hypnosis and even seen a shrink for 4 months and I am still as rubbish as ever. Deep down, I know I should take a long term view and try to do something that loses 1-2 pounds per week, but that doesn’t help me in the meantime when I am so miserable and so self-conscious that I don’t even want to leave the house. I cannot describe how bad my compulsion to eat is. Every single emotion is ‘fed’ by food. When I am not bingeing, I can barely muster the enthusiasm to do any work (I work from home) I need something to eat before I can even pick the phone up to make a call to a customer – it’s horrible and pretty scary for somebody who in all other aspects of my life is totally in control and disciplined.

So do I do CD again and hope that afterwards or during, I can ‘cure’ myself and then maintain the weight I lose or do I just have to put up with the current misery and accept that I need to take a long term approach and that I am not going to be where I want to be for the foreseeable future.

Any advice greatly appreciated J

 

[KBQueen]

When you have done CD before have you went up the steps to learn a new relationship with food or just stopped CD and ate as you did before? If its the latter then it wont matter how many times you do CD, you will always gain weight if you return to old eating habits. If you have gone up the steps in the past then there is a deeper problem with food there and something that you should look at getting help for. Best of luck xx

 

[AOGG]

I find being aware of my feelings and dealing with them in another way.... I became my heaviest 21stone when I was my most miserable, I used to eat my feelings until they went away, I am 5stone lighter and eat about 1500cal, I go to the gym and personal train twice a week, instead of weight goals, I am only losing about a pound a week, a good week is a pound and a half, but its steady, I set fitness goals, I wan to be able to run for 30mins continous, and can run for 12 mins at the moment. I think the trick is to not rely on people or diet plans telling you what to eat, I found that I eat within my calories, whatever I want and I stop when I reach it, that way you are in control, it takes about 12 weeks to change habits, so whatever you decide to do, the first 12 weeks are the toughest!! good luck on your journey.
Btw, it took me 4 months to lose 2 stone on Cambridge, I couldn't do SS or SS+ I missed food so much, i eat on average about 1000cals a day but I lost just enough that my knees stopped hurting when I walked. I am getting stronger everyday.
Remember you are in control, even if you don't think so... you make the decisions right or wrong.... take back control, if you binge then it was a decision you made in that moment, and its in moments like that when you decide in which direction you choose. Many lose the weight but fail to make life long changes... if you see it as a six month thing, you have to do to be slim, you will just go back to how you was before, it has to be decision you make for yourself that will last your whole life!!
Good Luck

 

[Lily]

Hi Guys,

I would appreciate some advice on my next step. Basically I have done the Cambridge Diet 13 times in the past 5 years. The first time, I lost 7 stone in 13 weeks, I have since lost between 2 and 4 stone on many more occasions. Before xmas, I once again got down to my lowest weight, but since then I have gained 3 stone. So I am 4 stone lighter than my heaviest, but at least 3 stone more than I want to be and pretty damn fat!!. After 3 weeks of starting various diets and not getting past lunchtime, I have restarted Cambridge today. I could lose those 3 stones in approx. 5 weeks if I stick to CD, but then what? Every time I have done CD before I have been convinced that this time I would read the right book or find the right long term diet that would cure my ridiculous compulsion to constantly eat, but I haven’t done it yet. So I think. I’ve tried hypnosis and even seen a shrink for 4 months and I am still as rubbish as ever. Deep down, I know I should take a long term view and try to do something that loses 1-2 pounds per week, but that doesn’t help me in the meantime when I am so miserable and so self-conscious that I don’t even want to leave the house. I cannot describe how bad my compulsion to eat is. Every single emotion is ‘fed’ by food. When I am not bingeing, I can barely muster the enthusiasm to do any work (I work from home) I need something to eat before I can even pick the phone up to make a call to a customer – it’s horrible and pretty scary for somebody who in all other aspects of my life is totally in control and disciplined.

So do I do CD again and hope that afterwards or during, I can ‘cure’ myself and then maintain the weight I lose or do I just have to put up with the current misery and accept that I need to take a long term approach and that I am not going to be where I want to be for the foreseeable future.

Any advice greatly appreciated J

The answer isn't in a book and every diet will work if you follow the rules. The answer is 'commitment'.

It sounds like you're a bit like me. Because I'm quite a bit lighter than I was at my heaviest, I feel comparatively slim now, even though by some people's standards I'm 4 stone overweight (maybe more ). I feel reasonably normal, actually, which is plain daft cos according to the charts, I'm obese.

I have this game I play whereby I'll lose a stone to a stone and a half on Cambridge, then come off for some 'special' event (it's amazing what sort of things I've managed to class as 'special' over the years ), telling myself it'll be easy to get back on track and I won't do much damage cos on Cambridge the weight comes off really quickly, so once I get restarted tomorrow / next week / next month, all will be well.

Except I don't. And I spend tomorrow / the following week / the following month stuffing my face because 'when I get restarted, it'll fall off, cos it does on Cambridge, you know!'. Meanwhile, I pile a couple of stone back on.

It's those 'special events'. I've got to stop thinking famine or feast when it comes to 'time off' the diet (particularly a diet like Cambridge cos a stone can pile back on within a few days). It's about commitment and following through. Am I interested in losing weight, or am I committed to losing weight?

On a good day, like today, I'll tell you I'm committed. Tomorrow, I might discover that I wasn't and that it took nothing at all to send me hurtling to the fridge to stuff my face with whatever I could find.

But the point is, it's my choice. No one else is stuffing that food into my face. No one else is insisting that I decide that a particular event is a 'special' event. I don't actually think I'm an emotional overeater, although there's no question that occasionally I am overwhelmed by my emotions and want to squash them down with food. But I don't do that all the time. I can go for weeks without doing that. I'm not a compulsive overeater (God, that'd be terrifying ). I'm an impulsive overeater. I get the impulse to eat and that's what I do. But I could stop that if I wanted to. Trouble is, sometimes I just don't want to.

The thing is though, I often don't want to go to work, but I have to because if I don't, I'll have no money, no home, etc. And I don't want to be on a diet but I need to be, because I'm overweight, and if I don't lose weight, I'm in danger of having no health, and ultimately, no life.

So like you, here I am, still trying to get this right. You're not a failure until you give up, so I'm told.

I don't know if you've ever read the Beck Diet Solution by Judith Beck? There's some pretty good techniques in there you can learn to deal with your approach to food on a minute by minute basis. I can also recommend (to add to your collection if you haven't got it ) Life is Hard, Food is Easy by Linda Spangle or her other book, 100 Days of Weight Loss.

 

[Big H]

Thanks for the advice guys, very much appreciated.

AOGG - i like your approach, well done to you

Jewell - Yes I always work up the plans and I always seem to be in control for several weeks after, but it never lasts.

Lily - A lot of what you say rings tru with me, but I have got a much bigger compulsion than you by the sound of things. I am readin the Beck book actually. I have done the Day 1 exercise, so I am going to follow the book and take one day at a time

Thanks again

 

[Mrs Taurus]

Hi Big H, I understand exactly where you are coming from, infact I am so desperate I have an EFT/hypnosis session booked for a week on Saturday, and am now eating us out of house and home!

I did lose weight and keep it off successfully until I had my son and lost my mum in the same year ......how I did it was not very healthy, as I ate little and felt dizzy a lot, but I did introduce exercise into my life and became a regular gym member until I developed glandular fever, then fell pregnant. I found the fitness goals really worked, although don't get me wrong food still had a huge hold over me and I fell into binge/starve mode for several years to maintain my new weight.
I know going to the gym would help me a great deal, only now I have the tie of looking after my little one because Mr T often away, however I am hoping to get some motivation to get moving through the EFT.
Good luck on your quest to find an answer.

Mrs T X

 

[Big H]

Hi Big H, I understand exactly where you are coming from, infact I am so desperate I have an EFT/hypnosis session booked for a week on Saturday, and am now eating us out of house and home!

I did lose weight and keep it off successfully until I had my son and lost my mum in the same year ......how I did it was not very healthy, as I ate little and felt dizzy a lot, but I did introduce exercise into my life and became a regular gym member until I developed glandular fever, then fell pregnant. I found the fitness goals really worked, although don't get me wrong food still had a huge hold over me and I fell into binge/starve mode for several years to maintain my new weight.
I know going to the gym would help me a great deal, only now I have the tie of looking after my little one because Mr T often away, however I am hoping to get some motivation to get moving through the EFT.
Good luck on your quest to find an answer.

Mrs T X

Thanks Mrs T - good luck to you too.

I found that hypnosis helped me to a degree and perhaps I should've continied with it. There are foods that I never eat, because the hypnosis put me off of them - so it does work

 

[Lily]

Good to know about the hypnosis. I haven't tried that... yet.

When you say you've got a bigger compulsion than me...

You know, it's interesting, but I actually deleted my first response to you before I could post it. Because it went along the lines of, "Are you sure you're ready to give up food? Are you sure you want to?"

And then I thought, no, can't post that. But maybe I should have.

I think a lot of us overeat sometimes because we want to have a reason to beat ourselves up, and it's become an easy way to beat ourselves up - except overeating isn't really what made us cross with ourselves in the first place and we don't want to deal with what really made us cross.

The other thing I've noticed over the years that people who are successful at keeping the weight off seem to substitute one compulsion (overeating) with another (for example, exercise). Or they run slimming clubs, or become Cambridge Counsellors. Because, I suppose, the underlying problem is akin to addiction.

The thing I hate having to admit to myself - but I know it to be true - is that I will always have a problem maintaining my weight. I will always have to be on my guard to stop old habits creeping in. It's tempting to think that one day, when I've lost all my weight, I won't ever have to think about controlling my food intake again. But that day won't come. :sigh: And I'll have to learn to be a grown-up, and deal with it.

 

[Mrs Taurus]

Hi Lily, the eating for an excuse to beat ourselves up makes excellent sense! This week is the most out of control I've been in 2011, and strangely enough I am feeling rubbish about a few other issues in me life e.g Mother's Day reminding me that I am motherless(pathetic I know) and Mr T being grumpy with work stress and no smoking......it's like well if I am going to feel rubbish let it be due to something I choose to do,not what life throws at me.

Thanks Lily x

 

[Big H]

Good to know about the hypnosis. I haven't tried that... yet.

When you say you've got a bigger compulsion than me...

You know, it's interesting, but I actually deleted my first response to you before I could post it. Because it went along the lines of, "Are you sure you're ready to give up food? Are you sure you want to?"

And then I thought, no, can't post that. But maybe I should have.

I think a lot of us overeat sometimes because we want to have a reason to beat ourselves up, and it's become an easy way to beat ourselves up - except overeating isn't really what made us cross with ourselves in the first place and we don't want to deal with what really made us cross.

The other thing I've noticed over the years that people who are successful at keeping the weight off seem to substitute one compulsion (overeating) with another (for example, exercise). Or they run slimming clubs, or become Cambridge Counsellors. Because, I suppose, the underlying problem is akin to addiction.

The thing I hate having to admit to myself - but I know it to be true - is that I will always have a problem maintaining my weight. I will always have to be on my guard to stop old habits creeping in. It's tempting to think that one day, when I've lost all my weight, I won't ever have to think about controlling my food intake again. But that day won't come. :sigh: And I'll have to learn to be a grown-up, and deal with it.

Yep, that makes so much sense.