I don’t feel the need to feed!

3^rd February 2012

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. Helen Keller

Before I start droning on, I just wanted to mention Race for Life, this week we've been talking about getting active so yesterday I signed up to do the Race For Life on June 10th at Walsall Arboretum. I’ve signed up as a group so that you can join us if you fancy it.  Let’s get as many Weight Watchers there on the day.  If you’d like to take part and join our team, click on the link and register, it’s £14.99 to enter and even if you don’t raise any money, cancer research will make a little off your entry fee.  It’s 5k (3.1m) you can run or you can walk, as long as you’re moving remember, that’s what counts!

https://raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org/rfl/confirm_join_group.jsf?group_join=yes&groupNumber=BL3202   Together we can make a difference. Xx

I do enjoy reading other peoples opinions on things online, you can’t beat a good debate!  And I read one yesterday that was saying “DIET’S DON’T WORK” and this one can be argued over till the cows come home, my personal opinion is it’s not the diet that doesn’t work - it’s the diet mentality!

Let’s look at the word ‘DIET’ from a dictionary point of view, it has more than one meaning;

1. food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health: Milk is a wholesome article of diet.

2. a particular selection of food, especially as designed or prescribed to improve a person's physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease: a diet low in sugar.

3. such a selection or a limitation on the amount a person eats for reducing weight: No pie for me, I'm on a diet.

4. the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group: The native diet consists of fish and fruit.

5. food or feed habitually eaten or provided: The rabbits were fed a diet of carrots and lettuce.

But if you were to ask most people about the word diet and they won’t be smiling when they answer you, the word ‘diet’ conjures up an image in my head of not eating food I like, having to say no all the time to foods I want to eat, obsessing about the foods I think I want to eat because I can’t eat and generally feeling miserable.  That’s because when I used to lose weight years ago I would “GO ON A DIET”, restrict my intake, cut out drinking, go to the gym, stay home, get miserable, lose the weight I wanted to, go buy new clothes, go out on the town, get drunk, party, start eating again, forget everything I’d learnt and put the weight back on!

Then I realised something slowly but surely, it didn’t have to be that way, I didn’t have to have this on/off mentality, I didn’t have to view weight loss as a punishment and time in diet prison until I got realised.  No I finally got parole so to speak and decided I was staying out of jail forever!

In 2004, after gaining 3 stone the previous 12 months, I decided to rejoin Weight Watchers which is a weight loss & weight maintenance programme (not a short term fad diet).  I realised it wasn’t just about losing weight, it was about listening to what the leader was telling me, being educated about food and eating. I read the books and learnt about nutrition, they also had a booklet at the time about habits which I found really interesting and investigated more.

I suppose what I did was I changed, I realised I didn’t have to restrict all the good stuff, I didn’t have to eat diet meals, I didn’t have to stay home to resist temptation, and I didn’t have to wait till I was slim to buy nice clothes and go out and party with my friends.  It was fabulous!

I lost the weight and I’ve kept the majority of it off, I fluctuate a little but I’m okay with that, it’s called life. 

Am I on a diet, depends how you chose to view it, the word diet doesn’t sit well with most people, to me it’s just a word and I actually believe the definition to be as number 4 above “the foods eaten, as by a particular person” so yeah in that case I am, it just happens to be what I chose to eat! Some people would say it's a way of life, or a lifestyle change - I'm just living and eating less.

I now don’t eat pastry very often, not only because of the high ProPoints in it, but because it gives me incredible heartburn and indigestion.

I eat filling & healthy foods, and plenty of vegetables because I like the taste and they fill me up, stop me having hunger pains and are good for me nutritionally.

I drink wine because I like the taste and it chills me out, I drink lager because I like the taste and me and my mates have a giggle when it’s involved – we also have a giggle when it isn’t!  I used to drink wine by the bottle daily because I hated my job and was stresssed out constantly.  Now I love my job, another change that helped my weight loss!

I eat and drink pretty much what I want these days and thanks to Weight Watchers helping to re-educate me and also thanks to all the members that have supported me when I have the odd wobble or blip, there’s a lot less eating and drinking than I used to.  Do I eat/drink less than before for weight loss?  NO I genuinely don’t want to constantly overeat anymore; I don’t feel the need to.  I enjoy life, I love being me, and I don’t feel the need to feed! I enjoy food, I love to indulge too - the difference is I do it in an enjoyable controlled manner - not because I NEED to which was how I used to eat, it was like a soothing addiction.

I lost the weight thanks to Weight Watchers, learnt the art of moderation and maintenance thanks to Weight Watchers and I also made some damn good friends thanks to Weight Watchers.  I was also lucky enough to get a job thanks to them too, but I'd still be saying all this regardless of my role.

As for exercise, in the past I used to kill it at the gym 5 times a week to burn calories because that was part of that short term solution.  Since 2004 I got active because I wanted to and it makes me feel good, not because it burns calories, don’t get me wrong the fact it does that is a bonus but it’s not the main reason.  I walk Alfie because we both enjoy the fresh air and the quiet time.  I run because it makes me feel capable and energised.

I’ve lost the diet mentality - so can you, all you need to do is realise you weren’t happy with what you did in the past and make changes that will last you a lifetime; there really is more to life than food.