The words echoed by millions of women, and men – let’s not discriminate, up and down the land on what is probably a daily basis. I want to be clear though, when I say a diet, I don’t mean the latest fad, whatever that might be and I’m certainly not including those with serious eating conditions and mental health conditions but healthier eating. It would seem I had slipped in to that oh-so-easy pattern of “I’ll just have a treat” which actually becomes an almost daily ‘treat’. I knew I had put on a bit of weight but when I bravely stepped on the scales on Monday morning, I had somewhat of a shock! I’m not going to reveal what the scales said, the usual jokes of “ooh one at time please?” and “I’m only for people, not elephants” certainly apply! I don’t weigh myself regularly or a set times and this goes back to my teenage years. Probably hard to believe looking at me but I had a lot of problem with food, I hated it and didn’t want to eat it. We had a dog (Holly) and due to me being a slow eater, I was often last person at the table. She stayed with me and for good reason, she helped me to finish off my dinner on more than one night a week. The flip side was that I would also binge on food and then subsequently feel guilty and never want to eat again, ever. I also had an issue with the scales. Like many families across the UK, we had a set of bathroom scales for the whole family to use and as such they were accessible, either in the bathroom itself (what a revolutionary idea!!) or tucked away on the landing. Probably sound quite harmless right? Well no, I got obsessed with weighing myself and I don’t mean I would weigh myself every week or every day but practically every hour I could, I even took them into my room for as long as I thought I would get away with it.
So now I am strict with myself because I have to be, I know how easy I could slip back into those bad habits and whilst I am better with food now, I can still have a wobble, so to speak. I no longer weigh myself at set times such as once a week, nor even when the jeans start to feel a bit tight. I simply stick to ‘every now and again’ and if I can’t remember when the last time it was when I weighed myself, then I know it’s okay to do.
So healthier eating it is and monitoring what goes in my cake hole and unlike many people who utter those immortal words of “I’m going on a diet” with “but I’m not going to stop eating chocolate/ cake/ biscuits (etc…)”, I am. Now I realise that is a bold statement to make and I know I won’t be perfect and nor will I berate myself but the fact is, people like me, that is those who are hardly mobile and medication that makes it almost impossible to lose weight and also makes one crave sugar (not carbs but pure, unadulterated sugar) means the best way to limit chocolate and sweets etc… is to simply not have them in the first place!
It’s funny really how bad diet habits slowly sneak in to our every day diet but no more! Yes it means making more of an effort, thinking ahead and planning, for example once I finish writing this I have to go downstairs and make my lunch for tomorrow.
I know it is doable though, just got to remain focused and determined, even to the point of telling myself that actually I don’t like those things any more. I gave up sweets before using that technique so I am confident I can do it again!