More than a diet.

emmaleighjohnson

Pink and Fluffy Poster
I did the Slimming World plan for a long time and lost a lot of weight (I'm only half a pound lighter now than my lowest weight at Slimming World). However, I never learned about myself as a person or my habits around food.

The Cambridge Diet for me has been more than a diet and I thought I'd post some ramblings from my journal to illustrate this and also to see if anyone else is experiencing this lightbulb moment along with me.

We went to Camden yesterday and it was lovely... I got to see so many things I would usually miss because previously I have been so fixated on food. I saw things I might actually like to eat which I would otherwise have never realised were there because we'd already have spent our money on fudge and chinese! We also went to Thorpe Park on Saturday and that was also an insight into the real world. Husband and I had our shake and it gave me a chance to see what other people CHOOSE to eat.

Thorpe Park has a massive array of foods to choose from and three of our party had panninis, just panninis. If that were me it would have been panini, crisps and a desserty thing like a muffin or something.

Normal people can just have a sandwich and when faced with KFC, Burger King or a sandwich shops they can choose the sandwich shop because they want to eat that. They don't feel compelled to eat grease and chips and to excess. They can buy a bag of something e.g. hot donuts they can share them out and not eat them all to themselves. If there are chocolate bars on three for two a normal person can buy three and eat just one and save the third for in the week.

This experience has been really important and valuble to me. I've learnt so much about myself as a person and an eater and also about the experiences of other's. Eddie said it would be nice to 'shadow' a normal eater for a week or so and see what they do; being on The Cambridge Diet has allowed me to do this.

If I were to approach this diet as a restrictive process for losing weigh then I may have gone insane by now. However, it has been so much more to me. It has been an insightful and developmental experience which I couldn't have ever predicted AND I've lost weight.


I always knew that my eating was somehow wrong but I maintaned that it couldn't be THAT wrong and that everyone must binge. Not eating myself has allowed me time to observe others and for that I am truely thankful.

:):):)
 
Sometimes-only sometimes! when I have been virtuous on my Cambridge, I can sit in a cafe with my black coffee feeling very happy and confident. Especially if my clothes are slightly looser!
 
Thanks for sharing Emma, I have been fascinated at the choices that 'normal' people make.

CD is definitely more than a diet, excellent post :)
 
What a excellent post emma.I find it the same i look at other things now that i would not have eaten before cd. I look at bf eating chinese and i think how rotton it looks. I was like that say got a bag of donuts i wouldnt stop at one 2 maybe even 3 in one day talk about a pig!!!

becky xx
 
I can totally relate to this.

One of the reasons i chose CD to lose weight was because i'd become so disenchanted with food. Nothing appealed to me. Deciding what to cook for us as a family every day was a chore. I appreciated nothing that i was putting in my mouth and was eating for eatings sake. I needed how to learn how to appreciate all food again, not just the instant gratification provided by szchuan beef & chips or a chicken saag, because i was becoming more & more reliant on high cal fatty food in massive portions to get my food kicks. And the constant grazing on anything & everything while i tasted & sampled & tried to find something that was what i REALLY wanted to eat was so destructive.

Cd has definately renewed that appreciation for even the simplest of foods. I make a salad & i'm thinking how good it would be to taste that fresh, clean crispness of crunchy lettuce & cucumber. If you'd offered me salad pre-CD i'd have turned my nose up then slathered it in Helmanns & ate it anyway before convincing myself i was still hungry & popping out to buy a consolation half dozen packs of McCoys.
Plain grilled chicken? Today that would be something heavenly to eat. Only a few months ago it certainly would have been on the menu but its gorgeous taste would have been obliterated by some heavily herbed sauce made from extra thick double cream and served with enough pasta to feed three people let alone one.

I got a real sense of how anaesthetised to food i had become on Saturday when i took a trip into the city. For the first time i could notice the food smells, before CD they were still there obviously but it was background noise & somehting that only made its way to the forefront when i thought it must be high time i was eating - hungry or not.
I savoured every single smell on saturday without feeling that to appreciate them i had also to eat the source of the smell. I sat under a large tree with a black tea & realised its not actually a prerequisite to accompany that by a whole bar of chocolate or a BBs raspberry & apple crumble muffin. And like you i sat & had my lunchtime cuppa and just watched others. I noted the mum & daughter who each had a kiddies meal ( i'd have "gone large" and had something else along with it). The couple in the coffee shop sharing a slice of cake. The group of ten sharing a KFC bargain bucket ( me & OH would have eaten one between the two of us).

So yes i'm learning a lot on CD, & its definately not just about losing weight. I think many of us conciously choose this diet, not just for quick results but for the insights into how we used to eat & to change the relationships we have with food.

sorry about the extremely long waffly post :eek:
 
KarenO - your post was really touching. Thank you. It is really nice to know someone else out there understands my new perspective.

I find is really enlightening to have this new vision and understanding around food which I simply wouldn't have managed if I hadn't had time out from it. It's phenomenal.
 
What a thought provoking post, thank you for sharing your thoughts. It has given me someting to think about in relation to how I veiw my own eating habits xx
 
This is the most important lesson this diet teaches you in my opinion. I went through a rubbish phase last year & quit CD but I still went on to lose another 3 stone because my mindset had changed. If you can change your attitude doing the diet then most of the time afterwards you will be successful. I think the people who only see it as X months of not eating and then eat anything & everything once they finish CD because the restriction is gone are the ones who keep coming back. It happens on all diets, if you change it works but I think CD/LL are most successful because you're given this time of total abstinence to re-evaluate the role of food in your life.
 
I wholeheartedly agree with all the posts in this thread!! Can I join in? :D

Since being a CDer, I've noticed:

1. Thin people eat things a lot slower than I used to do. They don't eat by giving the food a brief, cursory chew before swallowing and forcing in the next bite.

2. People actually leave food on their plates -- never again to be reclaimed -- if they get too big a portion.

3. Some people actually don't eat the batter from fish and chips. :eek:

4. Some people actually share a portion of fish and chips and don't feel hard done by and sulky. :eek:

5. Thin people (i.e. the other half) can have chocolate bars in the fridge all week and forget he has them there.

6. Thin people take time choosing what they want to eat.


Me xxxx
 
A great thought provoking post to which I truly relate. I am continuing to learn that food can be enjoyed without excess by being on CD. For me it will be an ongoing process for some time until I managed to shed the remaining extra weight and the maintain. I won't give up.
 
A great thought provoking post to which I truly relate. I am continuing to learn that food can be enjoyed without excess by being on CD. For me it will be an ongoing process for some time until I managed to shed the remaining extra weight and the maintain. I won't give up.

We'll if you ever need support or perspective I have been doing some interesting reading and intend to stay around for the foreseeable future. I think eating distress is the industry for me!!
 
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