RTM is very tough today

[Kenj]

Well,
New boy here still learning the idea of how to use this forum
Today has been the hardest day in 5 weeks of RTM. Cheated with peanuts and 2 cheese rolls for no good reason. I cannot get my head around sticking to the list of allowed foods. I keep thinking it will be alright to eat something off the list - But of course that is not true
This is why I have just joined up here - Maybe This forum will help me to stick with the program 100%
Try agian tomorrow. Does anyone else think like this?
kenj

 

[Alibongo]

Hi Ken

RTM can be very tough, it is a whole lot harder than abstaining.
It is easy to be tempted by next weeks list, or the week after.
Some peanuts and 2 cheese rolls is not actually that bad in the grand scheme of things. Not helpful, but it won't kill you, right it off and start afresh today.
Try and get the most out of what is on this weeks list, we can all help with ideas if you are stuck.
On week 5 I was having
scrambled egg, grilled tomatoes with mushrooms fried in stock, very tasty and filling.
roast lamb with mashed swede and veg.
bolognese with courgette ribbons as pasta
the korma recipe from week 4 served in portobello mushrooms (it is very mild so you might want to add something to spice it up a bit)
mousaka stuffed aubergines.
If you are on week 5 then soup is on the menu which I found a nice change and booze of course

 

[Slimseaa]

Don't worry about it Kenj, like Ali said start afresh today!

Ali can I have your advice please! I have started Week 5 today and I know you can haev 2 protein meals. Just wanted to know what I can have, as I am confused.

Could I have 2 Boiled Eggs with salad for lunch (as I don't know whether the cottage cheese at work is low fat) and then for dinner- tuna with salad again.

I feel like i will be eating a lot:

1 pear, 2 manderines, 2 total greek yogurt, 1 pot jelly, 10 strawberries, 2 foodpacks and 2 protein meals! Is that right?

Pls advise, as soon as possible, thank you !

 

[Alibongo]

That is correct 2 protein meals and 2 foodpacks, plus snacks. It does seem a lot to start but you need to gradually bring your metabolism up.

What you are having all seems about right to me.

The cottage cheese at work will probably not be low fat it usually isn't.

 

[Slimseaa]

Thanks Ali, what is classed as the snacks?

Would that be the Jelly, Yogurt, Fruit e.t.c., or is that serperate?

 

[Alibongo]

When they say snacks it is your 450g per day veg snack. All the rest is on top of that.
I know it sounds a lot, but there isn't much to it as far as calories go.

 

[Slimseaa]

Ok, thanks Ali, gotch ya

 

[Linze01]

Hi Kenj,

I feel like I struggle with cravings all the time on RtM, but yesterday I decided to go through my food and mood logs in my journal and noticed that it's only every nine or ten days that I have a really hungry day. It's really helped to put it into perspective and I realise that most of the time is fine and I don't have constant cravings at all. Therefore, my advice would be to write in your journal, even when you're not cheating as it helps you to see patterns in your thoughts. Now I know to be wary in about five days time when I'm due another day or two of fighting cravings!

Well done all of us, I say! We are all more or less succeeding at something that one year ago would have been impossible: weight holding! Doesn't it feel grand?!

 

[Alibongo]

Nice one linze.
It is good to keep these things in perspective.
It is easy to think I am constantly craving all this bad stuff, I am never going to be able to do this, but actually if you really think about, a lot of it comes naturally, it is what LL call unconscious competence, it is actually a good place to be.
We have been doing this in our sessions just recently. It is like driving, you quite often think, 'oh heck I just drove from my house to tesco and I don't remember doing it'. That is unconscious competence. We know what we are doing and how do to it, and rarely even think about it.

Most of us start RTM in unconscious incompetence, we don't know what we are doing and we don't know how to deal with it, gradually we go through conscious incompetence where we know we don't know what we are doing yet, but now have the tools to help and have started to sort our minds out. Then we move into conscious competence, where we know what we are doing and know how to do it, we just need to think about a lot, and it takes a bit of work and planning. We are likely to be in this phase for a while.
Then finally we will be unconsciously competent about weight holding (this can take some time maybe even years, it will be a gradual process). That is when we have it cracked.
You just need to keep an eye on yourself a little and make sure you don't pick up any new unhelpful habits.