Why can u stick to this and not a normal healthy diet?

I have to take food completely out of the equation (SP?) To loose weight have tried every diet out there. When I start to have food, I just don't know when to stop..this diet does help to re-educate you into eating sensibly when using the maintenance steps properly. It works for me!
 
Yep, agree with SteveM, it must be ketosis, I personally never ever get hungry.. ALSO that there are no choices to make. Even doing 790 (which I'm doing) I have a very small amount of foods I can choose from.. with any other diet I have far too many choices and inevitably end up eating far too much :rolleyes:
 
Apart from the obv. Ketosis, I found it worked for me cos there is no faff about what goes on your plate.
You open a sachet and thats it.
Theres no weighing or measuring, and if you stick to the sachets theres no over eating. I found with Calorie counting I still ate more than I should but its never been a problem for me on CD. I had a determination too. I HAD to lose this weight. I HAD to ensure I was having no repeat of my blood pressure problem I had briefly last year.
After a while on SS my stomach shrunk so much that even the small AAM and 790 amounts seemed too much and I felt bloated. I still feel that way now.
I think having the sachets and water/fluids and a small meal somehow becomes a way of life and I have re educated myself that I don't need huge plates of food. A little goes a long way, and its great to be a size 12!:D
 
Just to say I echo everyone else's posts - ketosis and food out of the equation = success for me.
 
This might be long:eek:

[FONT=&quot]That plays a big part. We don’t feel hungry and that certainly helps, but then when did hunger come into it? If we are honest, I don’t reckon anyone of us here ate solely because we were hungry.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I do think ketosis takes many of the cravings away, but still there is more to this. I think a fair amount has to do with the rituals we perform in our day. We get up, which means it’s breakfast time (obviously;) ) , which may need a coffee or two to go with it. Then comes mid morning. Well…don’t we all need a snack then? Meal times grow bigger, because it’s so easy to do and before you know it, they are double what we need, but then, you have to have something sweet to follow. It’s just what we do.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]It’s the whole palaver. Thinking about the food, getting the food, eating the food in a certain way. It’s all a part of the self-medicating ritual. The thought of not acting out is scary once you set the chain in motion. We assume that it is impossible to stop it. That’s what we do.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]We go to the pub and have to have a drink. If we didn’t go there, perhaps we wouldn’t need one. We have a coffee and have to have a biscuit with it, yet perhaps be quite happy not to have that biccie if we were somewhere where we couldn’t take a break.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]It’s all part of the ritual.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Now….when we start a VLCD, it’s a type of food that we haven’t had before. There are no rituals to go along with it. It doesn’t taste or feel the same somehow and we are determined to stick with it. We don’t set off that chain reaction. In fact we learn a new one. Shake, then nothing:clap:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]But! Some people start adding bits and pieces. That’s when it gets difficult, because rituals are so easy to learn and so hard to get out of.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]So, that’s why I think your first time on a VLCD is the golden time. You break those rituals when you are feeling very motivated. As long as you keep the ritual as shake then nothing, you are fine. It’s not so easy to add a little bit more shake, so we often don’t start getting into a habit of doing that. The rituals just aren’t there.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]This is one of the reasons that some people fear AAMW. They know that thinking/preparing/eating ‘normal’ foods might start that chain reaction, but it’s one of the reasons that I consider AAM to be so important. It’s a chance to learn a new ritual. Chicken and veg, followed by nothing.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Ack…wordy again.[/FONT]
 
I salute all those who can SS for months on end. I couldn't. Four weeks was my limit. Soon six consecutive days was really pushing the boat out!

I find real food in moderate amounts the most challenging option of all. After VLCD-ing the slow rate of loss - after the shock of initial water regain - tends to prove demoralising. No superfast results? No feeling of (empty tum) virtue? Bummer! Food - carbs in particular - swiftly become a bitter enemy. This kind of black or white thinking ruled my life for too many years.

Ketosis can be an amazing anti-hunger tool, but spending long periods in ketosis strike me as unnatural. We were not designed to live and eat in such a way. Some people feel like a million dollars in ketosis, full of energy and optimism and joy. I didn't! I felt washed out, no matter how much water I drank.

Many people seem to come a cropper when food is reintroduced. I used to read wonderful, inspirational stories on the old DH Board, particularly from wildly enthusiastic LL-ers. They'd do their hundred days, drop stones and dress sizes; then they'd go on holiday or on a special night out, eat... and start to regain. They'd struggle to 'get back on the wagon'. Argue with themselves. Even hate themselves for being so 'weak', and 'wasting' so much money by cheating. All too often they would then vanish. The guilt experienced after even a relatively minor blip can undo months of hard work and dedication. I fear that VLCDs reinforce guilt and make even the healthiest carbs - i.e. fruit and vegetables - seem sinful.

For this reason I have decided NOT to run back to CD or any very low carb regime. I find low calorie 'normal eating' difficult, but that is only natural after a lifetime of bingeing and starving.

Good luck to those of you who can stick with it. If you don't cheat you get great results. But most of us cheat - don't we? If we are being truly honest? A bit of extra protein, here and there? A too-generous helping of vodka (with Zero mixer, of course!)? I just couldn't stick to it 100%. Again I say to those who can - very well done.
 
Because a lot of people who are big have an all or nothing mentality and hence they can do all before the diet and then on Cambridge they can do nothing.

The art is of course when you finish trying to find a middle ground in terms of your food intake.

Mike
 
thanks for that karen,that is so truexx

Thanks. I've spent way too much time working this out :D

Ketosis can be an amazing anti-hunger tool, but spending long periods in ketosis strike me as unnatural. We were not designed to live and eat in such a way.

Who knows eh. The paleolithic diet which is based around what the cave men ate, is ketogenic I think. Also, that programme where they took overweight people out to live with a tribe were in ketosis very quick. Maybe it is the way were 'designed' to eat?

I fear that VLCDs reinforce guilt and make even the healthiest carbs - i.e. fruit and vegetables - seem sinful.

It can cause problems if you're not careful, but then I think all diets do this to a certain extent. I'm not anti-diet (obviously), but it has it's risks and I think forewarned is forearmed and all that.
But most of us cheat - don't we?

:eek: Lots do. I wonder if it is 'most'. Possibly :(
Damn hard when you start cheating though.
 
This might sound silly but for me it's not so much about the portion control etc as i have to portion control on 1200 but i think it's the though of wasting my money each week if i don't stick to it and feeling like i'm pouring money down the pan, i know this probably isnt the best reason to stick to a diet but it's the ONLY time in my life i've ever been able to stick to one and well i do feel really guilty about letting people other than myself down like my CDC for example....i'm her first client on the 1200 plan and she's interested to see how much weight i can lose i mean don't get me wrong i desperately want to lose the weight but i just can't do it alone i NEED set limitations, i NEED someone to tell me what i can and can't eat and this diet fits all that criteria :)
 
Good luck to those of you who can stick with it. If you don't cheat you get great results. But most of us cheat - don't we? If we are being truly honest? A bit of extra protein, here and there? A too-generous helping of vodka (with Zero mixer, of course!)? I just couldn't stick to it 100%. Again I say to those who can - very well done.[/quote]


As someone who has been on CD for 6 weeks and can honestly say hand on heart that I have not cheated once and have stuck to it religiously, I believe that the main real benefit of a diet like this is that it gives you the space to think about your relationship with food. I have used the time to discover what it is that makes me eat the way I do, to plan ahead to when I will begin reintroducing food and to consider what I will have to change both in terms of my relationship with food but also how I approach it, for example, planning head, knowing what I am going to cook/eat etc.

Georgie
x
 
The fast results provide a motivation and positive reinforcement you'd see in no other type of diet I know of. Ultimately, in it's latter stages, Cambs is about learning a "normal healthy diet" and getting used to it step by step. No one said that we have to live on shakes for good; it is a step, a tool, part of a process.
Coo! I've gorn all evangelical! I didn't know I felt so strongly.
k_o
 
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