5 Top Tips

Diets are great aren’t they?  Every diet we start holds the promise of a new and exciting you:  a slimmer you, a happier you, a more confident you, a healthier you, a sexier you.

So why is it that when we are desperate to lose weight and know how to do it, the world isn’t full of happy, healthy people within the ‘normal’ weight range?

Diets often have the side effect of making us gain weight – why?

Well, we start a strict diet, lose a few pounds but often it is too restrictive and almost impossible to stay on.  Feeling like a failure we break the diet and then ‘treat’ ourselves to all the food we denied ourselves, regaining the weight we lost plus a couple of extra pounds.  And so it goes on.

Being ‘on’ or ‘off’ a diet, good and bad foods, gaining and losing weight – it all seems to take such a lot of time, money and effort.  Surely there is a better way?

Well what about ‘Naturally Thin’ people?  The people we watch enviously as they eat whatever they like without ever gaining a pound?  What can we learn from them?

If we watch a ‘Naturally Thin’ person closely we see that they eat whatever they fancy at the time whether it’s a burger or an apple  But as soon as their appetite is satisfied, they stop eating, leaving whatever they don’t want.  If we can forget diets and listen to our bodies we will naturally become in tune with our needs again and escape the misery of compulsive eating and yo yo dieting.

Janes Top 5 tips to become in tune with our bodies

5 tips for Ditching the Diet

1. Eat when you are hungry:  Sounds obvious, but we eat for many reasons – to be sociable, for comfort, because it’s a meal time.  Listen to your body and wait until you are hungry before you eat
2. Eat whatever you want:  Listen to your body, close your eyes and imagine what it is you really want – sweet, salty, crisp, spicy – then have it.
3. Enjoy your food:  Eating food is a pleasure to be enjoyed, so enjoy whatever you have chosen to eat.  Savour every mouthful.
4. Stop when you are full:  Again, sounds obvious but as children we are often praised for clearing our plates – or bullied, or punished if we don’t.  Stop eating for a moment, ask yourself if you are still hungry.  If you are, then carry on enjoying your food.  If you have eaten sufficient at this time, stop.
5. Be kind you yourself:  You are only human, you don’t have to be perfect.  Expecting perfection from  yourself is a sure fire way of failing.  Take small, manageable steps and reward yourself for every success, no matter how small.

Ditch the Diet….an introduction

As a counsellor I absolutely love my job.   But the thing that  am most passionate about is Ditch the Diet.

I used to be a consultant with Slimming World which I enjoyed, but I got more and more interested in the psychological side of weight loss and it’s complexities.  When we are desperate to lose weight, and know how to do it then what is it that stops us from achieving our goals?  We can list many many reasons why we want to lose weight, but what if there is something about being slimmer that worries us?  What if that unconscious fear stops us succeeding?

The desperation to lose weight along with the subconscious fear of losing weight causes an inner conflict which creates a ‘yo-yo’ dieter – always either ‘on’ a diet and not allowing anything except what the latest diet says is allowed to pass their lips, or ‘off’ a diet, bingeing and feeling out of control.  And a compulsive eater knows only too well the misery of feeling out of control.

I devised Ditch the Diet to help people to understand their chaotic eating, to explore hidden fears they may have while looking at practical steps to get back in tune with their body and natural appetite.  No forbidden food.  No starvation. No guilt.  No critisism.  Just understanding, empathy and acceptance.

I am passionate about Ditch the Diet as I know the misery experienced by people trapped by compusive eating or yo-yo dieting, and I want to help.  So I shall share on here some thoughts and ideas which you may find helpful