“Deprivation-causes-bingeing” would you agree?

1^st September

“The big, big thing I’ve discovered, the big secret, is that it’s all about how happy you are. People forget your flaws and imperfections if they see you’re happy.” Sienna Miller

Well I felt like Rocky yesterday morning, I did my 0-5k app thing, I’m exactly at the halfway point of the 9 week programme and this week it’s, 5min walk up, 3min run, 90sec walk, 5min run, 3min walk, 3min run, 90sec walk, 5min run, then 5min cool down, only after the last run, I didn’t stop, I kept going to see how far I could go without stopping and I was over the moon I ran solid for 15 minutes.  Four and a half weeks ago I couldn't run for 30 seconds and yesterday I ran for 15 minutes none stop which was 1.35 miles or  2.18km when I worked it out on a map afterwards, in total I managed to run 26 minutes of the 45 minutes I was out and by the end of it  I WAS BUZZING!  I can’t tell you how good I felt walking home after I’d got mom’s papers, I was singing and smiling and feeling really high.  So from a lady who used to say, only dogs and horses should run, if you’re tempted give it a go – you’ll love it.  The first ten minutes is still really hard and makes me ask myself WHY I’m doing it but after that, I’m flying.

I’ve just read on a blog somewhere, “Deprivation-causes-bingeing” would you agree?  I definitely agree, as soon as I say, “right that’s it, I’m gonnna cut right back, not drink and lose xxlb in xx weeks”, I suddenly want everything in sight, especially last thing at night when I get back from my meetings, or when out with friends, or at the weekend when I’m relaxing, or just because it's there or needs eating because it’s going to go off, or when someone offers it to me and I don't want to offend them, or because a members been talking about it in the meeting, or because I just can't stop myself, or because ...

Ringing any bells?  Sound familiar?

This is why eating your favourite foods is not only enjoyable, it's absolutely essential for long term weight loss.  You might be thinking but I want too much of that stuff which will stop me losing weight long term.  I’ve personally found and can I add this didn’t happen over night and I still have setbacks, usually when I got back into ‘diet mode’, that when I eat, ‘what I fancy’ rather than ‘what’s gonna make me thin’, I have much more success. 

I’ve managed to maintain roughly the same weight give or take half a stone for over a year now, and over the last eight months the weight has slowly started to come off, I do play the off and on again game but long term it’s more off than on. 

Giving myself permission to overeat or at least to eat what I want has resulted in me not wanting to do it so much.  By eating what I want when I want for me means I had couscous and tikka chicken for breakfast yesterday, it also means I threw away a half pack of mushrooms because everytime I’ve looked at them over the last few days, I’ve thought, no I don’t fancy them.  It’s why I don’t tend to plan my meals too far in advance because I don’t know what I’m going to fancy to eat at every meal.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t given myself licence to get fat, to eat myself to death, no it’s permission to eat the foods I enjoy without harming my health and it’s working for me.  I still ProPoint whatever I eat honestly and track it all.  I’ve noticed I do tend to have eating patterns, for example Monday and Tuesday, I’m not overly fussed with food, I tend to grab a banana for breakfast and coast through the day quite nicely oblivious to eating.  By Wednesday my appetites kicked in and by tea-time (even more so since I’ve started running) I’m ravenous, so cutting back that day isn’t going to happen.  Thursday I’m hungry because it’s a long day so I tend to crave for good filling foods and then it’s the weekend of course and how I behave and eat is definitely affected by what I’m doing. 

Which brings me to the point that finding other interests and getting busy, active, occupied has taken the emphasis off food.  I suppose it makes sense, if all you do is work, eat and sleep you’re going to have a preoccupation with food as it’s where the pleasure comes from.  If however you fill your life with other stuff then food loses it’s appeal a little.