RTM is very important to follow - it stabilises your body over the period of 12 weeks, if you start eating even a little bit more in the first 5-6 weeks you WILL put weight back on. I mean your body has been in starvation mode, any extra and it'll go into overload. Excercise is very helpful also because your metabolism will be very slow at this point. Even about 10-15 mins of powerwalking up and down your street WILL help!
At the end of the day, while doing RTM I found it very useful to actually assess my reaction to different foods and how they make me feel and whether I'm likely to start bingeing after eating them.. Surprisingly enough grapes made me want to go crazy for food! While sugar-free jellies filled me up and satisfied my hunger.
The most important thing to do - even after RTM is to keep on top of your food.. Some helpful tips are:
Work out a daily time schedule such as :
Have breakfast (30g Special K + skimmed milk) and note down in your head how many calories it is approximately.. Never skip breakfast - it makes it more likely that you'll get very hungry later and binge!
Then work out a time for lunch ~ about 3:30pm-4pm, a light tuna/chicken salad. Actually write down what you will have and how much!
Then dinner at about 7:30-8pm.. It is useful to at least in the first week measure out 50g uncooked rice/pasta measurements.. It doesn't look like much, but it does expand! Then follow up with whatever you want to have with it.
As far as snacking goes - if you have a weak spot for desserts (like I do!!) buy a small bar of chocolate or whatever you want.
I buy the 46g Galaxy bar = 250 calories in it, and I enjoy it more because I savour the taste, and I know I can have it!
Also another great tip is - have a fruit bowl ready in the kitchen. If you feel peckish, wash an apple and take it away to another room! If you take your healthy snack away from the kitchen - you're less likely to return for more snacks! Plenty of fluids also help, I consume amazing amounts of coffee!
Also - keep busy!
It took me quite a few months to work all of this out for myself to be honest. I finished LL 8 stone ligher mid-october and did RTM. Christmas got in the way though, and I gained about 10 pounds back. But I've been fighting hard to work out something that works out for me. Gone back on LL a week ago, want to shed the pounds I've gained and reach my target weight!
However, if you are redoing LL for the 3rd time, 4th time or what not.. Do you not feel the need to work something out? There is obviously something going wrong, maybe not enough excercise, maybe your relationship with food hasn't changed as much as it should have, or you just aren't as careful with portion sizes (something I still need to work on! Portion sizes :sigh
Maybe pay closer attention to your calorie intake, actually write down *everything* you're having for about a week and tally up the calories... But only after RTM - which you should follow down to the dot - your body needs a very slow re-introduction!
I don't know.. lol. Good luck.
Maybe this was helpful in some way.
