I have been awol, but I've just caught up with this great conversation. I do love the quotes about focussing on self esteem and health and not on weight. That is so true. Our weight is sort of out of our control, but what we eat, how much we move, they are things we can influence and make us feel better. If we are limiting calories and exercising and we're not losing weight, it can make us feel bad if that is our sole motivation. I haven't lost weight for a long time and I've stopped weighing myself because it doesn't matter how much you weigh a pig, the pig will always weigh the same. I'm not saying I am a pig; it's a saying we use about incessant testing children in schools. It's just a number. It's not the whole story.
I have thought a lot about your question @Sassy1, about the Don't Go Hungry Diet. I loved it because it was so sensible. I didn't have to eliminate certain foods, I didn't have to starve myself, I got to tune into how my body was feeling, it included really sensible, science based ideas about whole foods vs processed foods, healthy variety, it emphasised the importance of exercise, it gave me the concept of 'fun foods, having a party in my mouth'. - it didn't prohibit them, it just made me aware that when I am eating cake or chocolate, it is something to do now and again not every day. It got rid of the deprivation of diets which always lead me to over eat at the next opportunity. I thought the theory of famine reactions and fat brakes was really interesting and sound. I completely committed myself to this way of life and kept a success journal for 3 months. Amanda identified that I didn't eat enough fruit and vegetables. I was pretty good at following my hunger signals and I got better at it by writing it down. In the end, i just got bored by having to do that every day. It was unrelenting and I had to focus on my weight and what I was eating all the time. I did put on some, but not all, the weight I lost and then I found 5:2. Doing 5:2 suits me better because I only have to be really focussed on 'being good' two days a week and the other days I can relax. I'm sure I use a lot of what I learned from Amanda Sainsbury Salis. I don't eat until I am uncomfortably full any more and am able to leave food on my plate and even throw it away - which I couldn't do before. I can even do it in a restaurant when I have paid money! She taught me that my body is not a garbage bin. I do eat quite a lot of vegetables but perhaps not the range which she suggests -5 different vegetables per day. That is partly because I like to eat the vegetables we grow, and we don't always have such a big range. Today I have had plums with my breakfast, plus some dried fruit in the muesli and I just had cauliflower soup which had onion and parsley in it. So I guess I will have potato and pumpkin, carrot and rocket for dinner - so that's 5. But yesterday, a fast day, I only had cauliflower, onion and parsley, and I don't know if you can count the onion and the parsley as it was only a small component of the soup. Worrying about that while I was on the Don't Go Hungry Diet, got boring. 5:2 is a lot more simple.
As for not following through on our resolves, using the books, the devices, etc. that is such a big philosophical question! Sassy is right. You buy the book because you think it will change your life but that's the easy bit.
Love you all. I have missed everyone while I was away.
I have thought a lot about your question @Sassy1, about the Don't Go Hungry Diet. I loved it because it was so sensible. I didn't have to eliminate certain foods, I didn't have to starve myself, I got to tune into how my body was feeling, it included really sensible, science based ideas about whole foods vs processed foods, healthy variety, it emphasised the importance of exercise, it gave me the concept of 'fun foods, having a party in my mouth'. - it didn't prohibit them, it just made me aware that when I am eating cake or chocolate, it is something to do now and again not every day. It got rid of the deprivation of diets which always lead me to over eat at the next opportunity. I thought the theory of famine reactions and fat brakes was really interesting and sound. I completely committed myself to this way of life and kept a success journal for 3 months. Amanda identified that I didn't eat enough fruit and vegetables. I was pretty good at following my hunger signals and I got better at it by writing it down. In the end, i just got bored by having to do that every day. It was unrelenting and I had to focus on my weight and what I was eating all the time. I did put on some, but not all, the weight I lost and then I found 5:2. Doing 5:2 suits me better because I only have to be really focussed on 'being good' two days a week and the other days I can relax. I'm sure I use a lot of what I learned from Amanda Sainsbury Salis. I don't eat until I am uncomfortably full any more and am able to leave food on my plate and even throw it away - which I couldn't do before. I can even do it in a restaurant when I have paid money! She taught me that my body is not a garbage bin. I do eat quite a lot of vegetables but perhaps not the range which she suggests -5 different vegetables per day. That is partly because I like to eat the vegetables we grow, and we don't always have such a big range. Today I have had plums with my breakfast, plus some dried fruit in the muesli and I just had cauliflower soup which had onion and parsley in it. So I guess I will have potato and pumpkin, carrot and rocket for dinner - so that's 5. But yesterday, a fast day, I only had cauliflower, onion and parsley, and I don't know if you can count the onion and the parsley as it was only a small component of the soup. Worrying about that while I was on the Don't Go Hungry Diet, got boring. 5:2 is a lot more simple.
As for not following through on our resolves, using the books, the devices, etc. that is such a big philosophical question! Sassy is right. You buy the book because you think it will change your life but that's the easy bit.
Love you all. I have missed everyone while I was away.
xx
this is just yet another blip and my horse is just temporarily refusing to co operate...
