Reflections on the 12 week programme - Weight Loss Support

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Reflections on the 12 week programme

teresina08 profile image
10 Replies

I've been reading many posts about people struggling to keep on track if invited to parties and celebrations. Everyone was scared they would eat more than the daily recommemded allowance.

My answer is always the same. The 12 week programme isn't simply a diet but the beginning of a new lifestyle made of healthy choices. "Getting started" is written on the top of every single sheet, to underline that the programme is the beginning of something which we have to keep following for the rest of our life.

Everyone will be dealing with celebrations, weddings, graduations, open buffet parties for the rest of their life. Temptation will be always round the corner, and, in my opinion, the 12 week programme gave instruction to us on how to manage food evils.

Wish a nice and sunny weekend to everyone

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teresina08 profile image
teresina08
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10 Replies
Anaverageman profile image
Anaverageman

so agree..... lets not be so hard on ourselves?

teresina08 profile image
teresina08 in reply to Anaverageman

If there's a celebration, let's celebrate then! Everyone is on a diet, but don't forget we have to live our life. diet doesn't mean frustration!

IndigoBlue61 profile image
IndigoBlue61

Very true, we need to deal with these situations and develop a strategy 😊 Mine is only eat things I really enjoy, and if it's very calorific, have half a 'normal' portion 😊 Ps I've just been out for morning coffee and had half a maple pecan Danish 😊❤️😊 Very nice and no guilt. Like you say teresina08 thats the beauty of a calorie counted plan 😊

teresina08 profile image
teresina08 in reply to IndigoBlue61

It's the same for me, if someone offers food, I bear in mind that the healthy choice is to halve the portion. This is my strategy!!!

Zest profile image
ZestHealthy BMI in reply to teresina08

That is a great strategy Teresina, and I am so glad to see your profile picture is back! :-)

Lowcal :-)

Venusflytrap profile image
Venusflytrap

I'm beginning to think that some of us were twins separated at birth! All points I totally agree with. It was a revelation to me that I could leave food on the plate and avoid all that imprinting from my youth. But still not good at it. Being brought up by those who endured WW2 rationing in their formative years brainwashed many of us into being automatic plate cleaners. Still not free from this. I have to resist the urge every night to scrub down Mr Flytrap's dinner plate leavings with a nice slice of crusty bread. I see left overs, the neon sign in my head flashes FOOD WASTE ALERT and I am automatically there with my emergency spoon doing the Hoover imitation. I was so well trained to finish food I saw, I not only had a problem with my left overs (none but the pattern on the plate), I wanted to demolish everyone else's too. "My waitressing hell" - the memoirs of a greedy girl in the early 70s. I am getting better, by learning to eat slowly and savouring every mouthful. Also the lovely men in my life mostly allow me to pinch 1 chip, have a tsp of that cake, a sip of that drink. I can then decide after my taste whether I want a whole portion myself. And mostly it is "No." But I don't fret if the answer is "Yes." Just savour.

Happy managing all this weekend's BBQs and treats.

teresina08 profile image
teresina08 in reply to Venusflytrap

I understand how hard is to get rid of those principles we have been taught as children. However, remenber that we eat to live, not live for eating.

Keep up the good work and it's fine to cheat every now and then!

Venusflytrap profile image
Venusflytrap

Interesting thought teresina08 but if I ate to live, I wouldn't need a healthy eating plan, I would be slim. I am a lifelong foodie from an enthusiastic foodie family. I do live to eat. For example, our standard souvenir from every holiday is a cookbook so we can explore the local cuisine! My mother and grandmother made their livings by cooking. I am afraid I am stuck with that heritage and I embrace it. I just want to be elegant too! Hence the urge to manage my weight.

Venus

teresina08 profile image
teresina08 in reply to Venusflytrap

I'm Italian (born in Italy, lived there for 25 years and moved to England last Sep) and I do know that cooking is a ritual. Every important events, wedding, sacraments, graduations are celebrated with a 10 main huge dinner. I love cooking and I spend cooking at least 1h every day, and I bake every Sunday. But I also understand that there's no advantage in pigging out on food every day, in getting high change to develop diabete, heart diseases, strokes and so on. Also, I went for shopping yesterday and for the first time in my life I bought all the pieces of choting I've been dreaming to wear for my entire life. I agree that eating is a pleasure but it is also a pleasure when you fit into a 10 size jeans and people stop you on the street to say you're very attractive!

Have a nice Sunday

Venusflytrap profile image
Venusflytrap

My philosophies exactly. So nice to find an amica on the site. Sad to know that the Italian ladies face the same issues we do. We have always been told that you are effortlessly slim and chic and eat what you like. With the Mediterranean Diet being the answer to our problems too. Another illusion gone! This is bad as finding out that French women diet all the time too, they just don't name it. Only got the South East Asians left and I know I am on dodgy ground with some of them.

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