Keeping it off

[littlemissspendthrift]

i agree that is definately about getting your head right. on prev diets i could feel myself thinking 'only 9 months of this and then i can go back to eating normally'

thing was i was never eating normally.. if that was the case then i wouldnt have gained 10 stone!!
so on this diet well before i started it, i had to accept that i will never be able to go back to my old ways, or eat the way i used to. so when i come off this plan which im convinced will work 100%, it will be a whole new way of eating. somethings like chocolate will be enjoyed occassionally, but not on the scale i used to (massive bars nightly)
i think people put it on when they thnk like i used to, that suddenly because they are slim, they can eat what they want again. but thats never the case.

 

[icemoose]

For me it was all about removing the emotional benefit I got from food, for me I used food as my weapon of choice to cheer myself up, relieve the boredom of life, comfort myself and generally linked so much emotion to food that they became one and the same.

Hence the key was to not use food anymore to change my state and I found that about 9 months after finishing the diet from memory.

It doesn't mean I don't enjoy food as I love it and I love going out for nice meals and the benefit I now get is appropriate to my other life values such as health & family.

 

[KD]

It doesn't mean I don't enjoy food

Don't know about you Mike, but I reckon I love it even more now. It means something different these days.

It's something I can wait for. Something I have control over. Something I can really taste. It wasn't like that before.

 

[icemoose]

Absolutely KD, I actually do enjoy food now, I even eat it slow enough to taste it now I also find now that I choose my food based on what I fancy as opposed to either what is the biggest thing or the most healthy thing on the menu.

For me food is a choice now, it isn't on my radar of things to worry about and be concerned with and when I have had a bad day at work, or a row with a neighbour, or forgot to pay my Next bill it never occurs to me to turn to the fridge like the old Mike would have.

As I said food was my weapon of choice (after I gave up smoking, drugs and gambling!) and boy did I like my weapon loaded !

It definately took me to actually like myself for the first time in 20 years to suddenly find that I just like food, but to an appropriate level that isn't going to shorten my life.

 

[johnips]

I guess it does not really matter which diet you choose because its only really about reducing calories.

I understand the weapon of choice thing. Never thought about it that way. Guess i do need my head sorting out!

Any suggestions? No shotguns please.
Most people seem to be in therapy as long as they are on diets!

 

[trapped.in.a.fat.persons.]

I suppose what id say john is that ive been on ww sw, rosemary conely, u name it, and its taken that long 2 get the hang of the diet that ive got bored, so never got 2 a healthy weight. ive spent all my time writing down calories, points, green days reds days etc, and felt like ive put loadsa hard work in2 it, and never lost enough to notice. With cambridge it takes all this totally out of the equation. U drink what ure given and thats it, wham bam. No worrying about getting up 2 27 points or worrying about eatin green on only green days etc. My time wil come when i will have 2 write down calories etc but thats when i maintain. and im happy 2 do that, because the main bulk of hard work will be over, thats shifting the weight, then the journey will begin to keep it off. Thats how ive seen cambridge, a quick sprint, thats the diet, then the marathon is the healthy eating lifestyle ill adopt.

Have u previously done other diets john? What r ure reservations for CD, apart from the keeping it off bit? x x x

 

[trapped.in.a.fat.persons.]

Found this in a thread 2 years ago, thought it was quite right.

"Hi Debz

Yes, my sister... it was her success that inspired me.

She lost over 6 stone on Howards Way (another VLCD - came as CD but tastes worse and is more expensive!). She has maintained exactly the same weight since she finished it 6 months ago. She loosely follows GI diet type principles for most of the time, but still manages to go out and get legless every weekend with her friends (she's in her 20's), and eats out once every week or so.

She says that the key is being good most of the time, which then lets her drink and eat out. However, she has radically changed her diet from before... she never used to eat fruit and veg, but now really enjoys them. I think that having the break from food when on the diet gives you the chance to re-educate your pallate."

I like the bit where she writes

I think that having the break from food when on the diet gives you the chance to re-educate your pallate.

Thats the words ive been looking for!!!! lol

xx xx xx

 

[icemoose]

For me the key was when I stopped having to think about food, also originally I lived in fear of putting the weight back on but that means you end up focussing on what you don't want as opposed to what you do want. Therefore now I just enjoy being slim and therefore why would I choose to put weight back on.

 

[susan70]

I know Im new to this diet and no where near my goal but for me this diet gives me the space I need , I dont need to think about food for me and thats is breaking the habit of eating at meal times weather hungry or not. i just dont think about it anymore and I Love It.lol
You are all such an insperation, well done to you all.x

 

[johnips]

sorry to be such a party pooper but so many people on this forum seem to be on the journey or still on the journey if they do lose the weight.

Mike seems to be the only one who no longer seems to be on a diet.

why is this?
is there anyone else?

 

[KD]

Mike seems to be the only one who no longer seems to be on a diet.

I'm not on a diet. Haven't dieted in almost 3 years.

 

[johnips]

cool KD but you two a really unusual when i read lots of other posts. lots of people seem to be re-starters, needing support, just failed and starting again etc So many people seem to be struggling, if tese diets work why are their so many people who are still in trouble?

 

[KD]

cool KD but you two a really unusual when i read lots of other posts. lots of people seem to be re-starters, needing support, just failed and starting again etc So many people seem to be struggling, if tese diets work why are their so many people who are still in trouble?

Oh, the diets work. Pretty much any diet works, but maintenance is a different ball game.

The diet gets you to the starting point. You then have to work out how to maintain. Where people often go wrong (eek..hate to put it like that..but can't find an alternative for the mo), is they treat maintenance like a diet.

If you are on a diet, there's a good chance you'll fall off at some time. It stops being maintenance and turns into yoyo dieting.

If you can work the maintenance, so you aren't dieting, just eating as a normal person...then you just have to remember to stay normal

Not sure that makes sense. Just off to work

 

[mandye]

As already said if you do not address what made you overwieght in the first place no diet is going to work long term .

I am a newbie to the maintance part of my life and things are going ok but I do still feel as though Im on a diet .

Not sure when I will ever loose the diet feeling but slowly I am gaining confidence about my food choices .I started off needing to set out my days in take every morning knowing quainties and cals for everything .Now I make choices for my meals and snacks then add them up at the end of the day still need to check myself but getting it right 90% of the time.I use foodfocus to help me great site and free .

I spent a lot of my time while on CD worring about afterwards and spent many hours in libaray or on the net researching healthy eating ,it became my hobby lol.I now have 2 folders of great heathy recipes .

So whether you are doing slimmers world weight watchers or vlcd its not about the diet you choose its about teaching yourself a new eating habit

Hope this makes sense Mandy xxx

 

[johnips]

Thanks everyone.

For me it's like giving up smoking. You can stop smoking but if you still crave a fag you have not really given up.
It seems to me that this thing of 'maintaining' is a big problem. If you do manage to get to your goal weight what is going to stop you putting it back on? All these diets seem to talk about getting the weight off but not realy about maintaining. I just wonder why so many people seem to have so much trouble keeping it off? It seems that a huge amount of people spend a huge amount of their time worrying about food. I want to know how i can be like my friend Phil who is a normal size and has always been a nomal size and does not really think about food much. People like me who are fat seem to think about food way to much.

How do i get to be more like Phil. He never been fat and and has never needeed to be on a diet. i don't want to do diets any more.

Anybody know how to get me to stop thinking about food? I don't want to have to 'maintain', I want to think about other things.

Help!

 

[icemoose]

If you focus on not wanting something then you are concentrating on it so much that you tend to get it more.

My friend has a phobia of wasps, we were chatting and she said that the threat was very real and that she had been stung 7 times in the past 2 years, I haven't been stung since I was a kid, therefore the more she seems to be scared and concentrating on not getting stung then the more she gets stung.

I suppose it is like when you try to think about not slipping over on ice, you concentrate so hard that you slip.

Not sure that makes sense to anyone else but it does to me lol

Food is not on my radar of things to worry about anymore than a heroine addiction as I don't need to think about heroine as I have no problem with it and hence it is now the same with food.

Living in fear of putting weight back on which seems quite common means that you focus on what you don't want and not what you do want. So very much I recommend focus on being happy and being healthy and slim, enjoy that and focus on that.

I never set out to lose weight and if you lose something you look for it, I set out to be slim and phase 1 was getting the weight off, it was then all about changing abstination into moderation and making sure I valued being slim highly, it is up there with my other life values such as being with friends and family, before the diet I didn't really value my body and therefore guess what I let happen to it.

The biggest shift change for me though was the day I realised that actually I like me and therefore I don't need to use food to hurt myself anymore.

M.

 

[KD]

I think mike and I approached things differently, but there are a lot of similarities.

I think I'm right in saying that neither of us have foods that are off limits and both of us have done a lot of reading

I found that at the beginning I did have to think about food. Again, nothing off limit...but teaching myself not to diet...that I could have anything I wanted. I did have to teach myself that wanting things meant just that. I wanted them...I didn't have to have them straight away, but I could have them at some point.

I taught myself to pause. Trying to break the chain from 'wanting' to 'having now'

I've got it now, but it takes time. Today I popped into the garage and they had some muffins reduced to 5p. Umm. Fancied one of those. I bought it, carried it home, and popped it in the freezer for when I really wanted it.

I didn't give it a moments thought. I didn't have to battle with the temptation. Didn't have to ask myself if I wanted it and what could I do to stop myself eating it. I just automatically put it away because I obviously didn't need it straight away.

In fact, it's only now that I realise what I did. That would have been unheard of pre-diet. In fact, I would have struggled with it in the early part of maintenance. It's only now I can see how far I've come.

I don't think dieting really teaches you about this. The dieting is to get the weight off, then the work begins.

Doesn't mean you have diet again, but it's unlikely that you will get to goal and everything will fall into place straight away.

Oh...and BTW, you asked

but you two a really unusual when i read lots of other posts. lots of people seem to be re-starters, needing support, just failed and starting again etc

Because it's a diet support forum more than a maintainers forum. Sadly, most people do put the weight back on, but I expect a fair few do the diet, leave the forum and maintain. Why stay on a diet forum when you are 'normal' and not thinking about food, just like your friend phil

 

[melliepigpog]

I think the diet is for loosing the weight, not for dealing with the emotional mental side of how you think or how you deal with the way you approach food. I am sure your friend Phil thinks differently about so many things than the way you think about them, so why should you expect to think the same way as him about food. If you really want to tackle the way you think about food, then you need to approach that from a different angle as thats not what the diet will deal with. If you also want to lose weight then dieting is the way to do it. If you want to lose it quickly without having to think about daily menus, weighing portions, count points or any of that then a TFR diet could be the answer. For me, I need to learn how to not attribute food to every emotion i ever have. Sadness, happiness, celebration, being in love, going through a divorce, having friends round, staying in alone, everything surrounds food. SO for me, doing CD means I avoid all of this, lose the weight and get fitter and healthier. I also am seeing a counsellor to help me deal with my divorce which is also helping understand alot more about myself, including my approach to food. Anyway, a longwinded answer to say basically the first sentence on my post - dieting is to lose the weight, to lose the way you think about something you need to understand why you think they way you do in the first place. Perhaps counselling, even if its 'self counselling' might be a good path for you. All the best, whichever path you choose.