SLIMMING WORLD: When people think about losing weight, they think about starvation, deprivation, boredom.
How many times have you heard someone say they’re not going on a diet for a few weeks because they’ve too much on at the minute? If the weight loss plan you’re following doesn’t allow you to live your life it’s NEVER going to work!
Unfortunately when it comes to losing weight what we eat is only a small part of the equation, how we feel about ourselves can have a massive impact on our success.
It’s important that we accept that whatever has happened is in the past, we may be able to learn from it but we can’t change it so we need to move on.
We also need to accept that our weight loss journey will have its highs and lows, it’s unrealistic to expect that we’ll lose weight every week, that we’ll never experience a moment of weakness, we are only human after all!
In short we need to learn to forgive ourselves, without forgiveness the same patterns that have led unerringly to each slimming disaster will simply repeat themselves time and again, no matter how determined we are or how generous or easy our eating plan is. Before we know where we are we’ve entered a vicious circle.
We go on a “diet”, where we simply eat less because that’s the most common advice. For days, weeks or even months our lives become a miserable existence. We’re hungry! Permanently hungry.
We do, however, feel martyred and good about our iron will for as long as we can survive the torture. If you didn’t have issues around food before this, you’ll certainly get them now. The hunger, the deprivation, the torment!
And then we stop and go “off” the diet. Bliss! What very often happens at this stage is we end up putting on more weight than we lost and then pure fear and desperation drives us to start the vicious circle all over again.
At Slimming World we’re often accused of encouraging people to overeat when we use terms like “Eat yourself slim”. It’s not quite that simple.
What we actually do is encourage people to satisfy their appetite by filling up on Free Foods, these are foods that are low in energy density- in other words you can eat greater amounts for less calories.
There are several pros to this – you won’t be hungry, so you’re not going to be as tempted by high calorie foods. Our list of Free Foods include staples such as meat, fish, potatoes, rice , pasta, eggs, vegetables and fruit, this means you’ll be able to cook all your family favourites (with a few modifications), but more importantly you can get on with living your life, opting for Free Food wherever you are or whatever you’re doing.
Following a plan that is so generous and effective can often make people feel they’ve found a miracle! That can be enough for some of us. But others whose negative messages about themselves are stronger can still self –sabotage.
No one can sustain this misery indefinitely. Instead of criticising yourself, congratulate yourself on being normal and healthy. Stop blaming yourself for past failures. Tomorrow is a new day. Let it be the start of your new life without this shame and pain.
And whatever eating plan you decide to follow, make sure it’s one where you never feel hungry, you never feel deprived and most important of all you never feel like you have to put your life on hold, Donna x
Here’s the link to our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/slimmingworldindonegal/
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