When will the dieting end?

[sammi84]

Well hello there fellow dieters!

I have been dieting for over two years now, I am sure that to many that may seem like a short period of time, yet others have already met their goal, so I guess I'm a little in the middle, but hey, we're still all on the same boat! I thought that with all the hassle it is and how hard it can be to start a blog about my current journey (and believe you me, I have been on a few!). Name a diet and I have probably tried it, short term are okay, but I finally agree that you need to be patient and quick fixes don't work :cry:. So over the many I have tried, the one I am most suited to is Slimming World. I started this (again) 4 weeks ago.

Now I would love to tell you all that it has been a breeze and I have lost every week since I started, but alas, no, I gained on my first week, lost the next two weeks and then gained last week. At last weeks WI, I was 1/2lb heavier than when I started 4 weeks ago :sigh:! But I'm still plodding along, taking advice from Nemo's Dory and "just keep swimming". Try each week, and I think this week I have been very good. You see the issue with me is that I'm usually so busy that I miss breakfast, and then lunch, and then by dinner time I am famished, and overeat (not all good food either!)
:17729:


So I have made time to eat, so I am not so hungry, I feel like I have eaten a lot, which is not comfortable for me diet wise as I have had quite a fear of what is correct for me to eat (thanks previous diets for the confusion, how we love the low carbs, no high carbs but wholegrain, no low fat, sorry I meant low calorie - aarrgghh! ), but I will get there, and hopefully you all will have a little trip on my boat, and we can take this journey together! Good luck and love to all!

WI tonight - wish me luck!

 

[MadameLaMinx]

Welcome to the forum!

I can strongly recommend not seeing this as a "diet" - and instead, replacing that thought with "eating more healthily". The journey doesn't end when you hit your target. Do try and have breakfast and lunch, even if that be a hi-fi and an apple for breakfast and something "grab-n-go" for lunch - having something to eat in the morning fires up your metabolism and gets it to work, and having lunch re-energises it again. What you are effectively doing is leaving it "asleep" all day, and then overloading it with stuff to do at the point where you are about to go sleep. You are wasting VALUABLE hours of fat burning time by not eating.

You may well find that your losses become more consistent and improve over the longer term by adopting this approach. I know it can be hard, especially when you are busy - but its VITAL for effective weight-loss.

Good luck for weigh in!!!

 

[jaylou]

In short, the dieting will never end.

The trick I guess, is not to see it as a diet, but the way you eat for life. Losing the weight bit on SW is dieting but you can't just stop following the principles when you get to target.

 

[stivesliz]

madameleminx and jaylou are right ( as ever lol ) - its a lifestyle choice x

 

[AnnaFaraday]

Agree with everyone above. We are not on a diet, we are changing the way we eat to the sort of healthy lifestyle, the princples of which everyone should follow, whether they need to lose weight or not.

 

[*Emsie*]

Eating healthily doesn't end if you don't want to regain weight the sw weight loss plan can help you lose. and it can be hard to come to terms with at times.
For me that can be when surrounded by my family who seem to be able to stuff their face and not gain weight etc but overall the pro's of losing the weight I have lost and the need to keep it off outweigh that ....which is why I am determined to relose the 5lb gain I had this week after eating far too much of the wrong things the last 2 weeks!
Good lUck on getting to your goal x

 

[debtin]

I agree its picking the right choices, lifestyle change etc but will we ever move away from remembering to have the right amount of healthy extras, not going over syns, not feeling guilty when you have extra of these? Is it a case of when you reach your goal, your properly "trained" to just know whats for the best?
Don't get me wrong, I get laughed at as folk see me as "tiny" yes am of reasonable weight so how come week on week I can feel consumed by these principles? Can't have milk in my coffee cos I had cheese at lunch and don't want to use my syns as I want to have wine on my birthday etc.
Does it never end or do we get to a point where you know what choices you need to make and can maintain by simply being more realistic?
For me I follow sw as best I can...good days and bad days. For me it keeps me in control. Like now for example all I want to do is eat chocolate but I won't as it sort of defeats the planning and effort of being so good today. I Just get fed up at times of a diet mind set and wish it would eventually just click and be my lifestyle.
Do love sw though and hope I make sense?

 

[*Emsie*]

There's a maintainers thread that might be of interest as there are lots of different people maintaining as best they can in their own way and it does seem to have its ups and downs x

 

[debtin]

There's a maintainers thread that might be of interest as there are lots of different people maintaining as best they can in their own way and it does seem to have its ups and downs x

I still have weight to lose though I do sometimes think its time to call target. Will have a look though, thanks emsie x

 

[MadameLaMinx]

I agree its picking the right choices, lifestyle change etc but will we ever move away from remembering to have the right amount of healthy extras, not going over syns, not feeling guilty when you have extra of these? Is it a case of when you reach your goal, your properly "trained" to just know whats for the best?
Don't get me wrong, I get laughed at as folk see me as "tiny" yes am of reasonable weight so how come week on week I can feel consumed by these principles? Can't have milk in my coffee cos I had cheese at lunch and don't want to use my syns as I want to have wine on my birthday etc.
Does it never end or do we get to a point where you know what choices you need to make and can maintain by simply being more realistic?
For me I follow sw as best I can...good days and bad days. For me it keeps me in control. Like now for example all I want to do is eat chocolate but I won't as it sort of defeats the planning and effort of being so good today. I Just get fed up at times of a diet mind set and wish it would eventually just click and be my lifestyle.
Do love sw though and hope I make sense?

Biologically speaking, as people who have a propensity to weight gain or obesity, we will, if we want to maintain our new weights, have to exert control to some extent. If you go back to eating the way you did before, it doesnt take a genius to work out that the weight you worked so hard to lose will reappear, and often more quickly than we lost it, and with a bit more besides. Losing weight does not unfortunately (and there are days where I wish it did!) turn us into people who can just eat whatever we like and not gain.

I have often said, and I will again, now and in the future no doubt, that the losing is not as hard as the maintaining. When you are losing, you have the buzz of the scales, the anticipation of target getting closer and closer, and knowing that you are improving something.

When you get to your target - you can often be hit by a sense of "Done that, what now?" and that is the dangerous time. If you haven't already planned beyond that, it is RIDICULOUSLY easy to revert to type and go backwards. You obviously have to increase your intake to a point where your weight levels off and you don't continue to lose, but many people find themselves juggling a pound on here, a pound off there, and that is far more likely to happen than you just staying the weight you wanted to be. You need to be prepared for that. Even at target, your weight will still fluctuate a bit, which is why there is a "target range" - so you can move around that area of weight without being penalised for being out of target. 6lb sounds like a lot of leeway, but it is not really. It is either 3lb on or 3lb off. It's a heavy meal, or a couple of days of constipation. It is not a huge range.

That said, what you have now, that you didnt have when you ate the way you did before - is the tools to help you. You KNOW which foods are likely to make you gain, you understand HOW to reduce any gain and have an inbuilt ability to know how to do the plan which allows you to take a day off here and there and then just get back on it and straighten things out. That is an advantage you didn't have before, and it is one that will be your greatest advantage if you hope to maintain beyond target.

 

[cat yoyo greaves]

im so hearing you ... i too have done every diet under the sun atkins, slimfast, calorie control, soup diets, weight watchers, and now sw i have to say i have lost weight ALOT of weight on ww but i did end up with a delightful eating disorder as i became obsessive with food all the pointing and weighing and counting did it so i had to stop it was getting silly and destroying my health.

i was reluctant to start sw but so glad i did its the best lifestyle choice ive ever made for me and my family (i do all the cooking ) no one is allowed in my kitchen its my sanctuary i love cooking.

as has been said above try not to look at it as a diet its more of a permanent lifestyle change and the choices you make now that you have to think about will in time become habit especially healthy extras it all gets easier over time.

and dont forget you can split hex so if you want your cheese and brews have half the milk and half the cheese

the only thing i have to think about is hex and syns and to make life easier i portion up my block of cheese as i put it into my fridge after shopping and all the rest of my hex are pretty much already pre portioned as for syns i tend to use them on the same treats all the time (boring) curly wurly 6 crisps 6 low syn home-made cakes and vodka 25ml 2.5 and so i find it quite easy to keep track in my head

i have had to come to terms with the fact that i will always be (on a diet) but then again EVERYONE is on some kind of diet whether its a healthy one or an unhealthy one. if i want to stay thin i know i cant do it off willpower alone because even with the best intentions i start slipping down that slippery slope its so easy to do. but remember sw is free once you get to goal so you may as well use it (its free) i cant wait to get free sw it will be such an achievement and save me money on clothes and sw fees

stick at it you will get there it just takes time and perseverence

 

[EatenMess]

Welcome to the forum!

I can strongly recommend not seeing this as a "diet" - and instead, replacing that thought with "eating more healthily". The journey doesn't end when you hit your target. Do try and have breakfast and lunch, even if that be a hi-fi and an apple for breakfast and something "grab-n-go" for lunch - having something to eat in the morning fires up your metabolism and gets it to work, and having lunch re-energises it again. What you are effectively doing is leaving it "asleep" all day, and then overloading it with stuff to do at the point where you are about to go sleep. You are wasting VALUABLE hours of fat burning time by not eating.

You may well find that your losses become more consistent and improve over the longer term by adopting this approach. I know it can be hard, especially when you are busy - but its VITAL for effective weight-loss.

Good luck for weigh in!!!

I really cannot add to the above!

SW is a new way of life, not a diet - you just have to embrace it, you'll learn along your journey and our bodies get used to what we do day in day out, so variety is the key to good weightloss and maintaining a healthy weight for life! x GOOD LUCK! xx

 

[kerryathome]

IMO the dieting ends NOW! the looking afer yourself and healthy eating STARTS now!

the reason SW works is because it doable in the long term not the short term quick fix of many 'diets', relax into it, it'll soon become second nature and just the way you eat, good luck xx