How do I stick to me regime

Hi NEWNANNY How are you getting on I am on a very low carb diet and need to watch my blood sugar levels too

Serkeen I am also very overweight and I am not good at denying myself chocolate and treats. In New Year I am going to take myself in hand and try the Banting diet which is effectively low carb/virtually no carb to begin with. I am sick of not being able to fit into nice clothes and I know the extra weight makes my asthma worse so I am going to do this Jan 2nd onwards. Please google banting diet and see what you think. I would love you to join me and maybe we could encourage each other to keep on track. I know my husband, sons and sisters worry about my health and I feel so ashamed I make them feel this worry. Please join me in New Year and we could set ourselves 3kg targets to lose each month.

I can tell you what works for me - it might help you. If I am upset or feel like I am going to binge eat I go out for a long brisk walk somewhere rural with no shops to buy food! Amazingly by the time I get back the craving has usually passed. I keep a pack of sugar free polos in the house and eat one of those instead of starting on the calorific stuff. In the evenings once I have eaten a decent meal I go and clean my teeth. That stops evening nibbling because I cant be bothered to do them all over again.

Don't know when you last went to WW. Their no count plan now is nothing short of miraculous - as much fruit as you like - potatoes, brown rice and pasta and potatoes. Plus all the usual protein and veg. You don't lose very quickly but you don't put on and it doesn't feel like a diet.

Did I mention brek? Egg, fried pots, bacon without the fatty bits, baked beans, mushrooms and tomatoes. Finish off with a crumpet with marmalade. If you can't be bothered with that have shredded wheat, also allowed.

Staying to meetings important.

Starbox, that sounds such a great idea, I shall try this immediately!

I cannot recommend a book enough, I recently came across. It's called 'the clever guts diet' its by TV doctor Maloney.
It's fascinating and full of quirky facts, available on amazon, I'd give it a go

Losing weight is more about what is happening in your mind than what is going into your mouth. If you overeat for emotional reasons then the first thing to do is seek help and counseling to deal with those. There is no point starting a diet if you psyche is going to spend all its time undermining you.

The other diet killer is talking about regimes and sticking to them. No one can do that. Just saying it gets your mind busy finding ways to make you step off the straight and narrow.

If you are overweight the most likely cause is that you have poor eating patterns; a badly balanced diet or eating too much. If you make the effort to lose weight by following an eating pattern whose only purpose is to get weight off you, all the time looking forward to returning to your 'normal' eating pattern then all you will do is regain the weight you lost even faster than you lost it.

You need to take the time to understand what a good well balanced diet is then work out how you can adapt your food preferences to find a good well balanced eating pattern that includes them. I have never been a Slimming World member, but I quite often buy the Slimming World magazine and that is full of recipes that take many peoples favourite foods, takeaways, sugary cakes and desserts and produces alternative recipes for them that are much better nutritionally and less full of calories.

It is the same with exercise, find an exercise you enjoy and will be happy to keep doing, whether you need to lose weight or not.

Serkeen If I was you I would take time to sort out the mental issues that undermine your weight loss and then gradually develop an eating and exercise pattern that you will be happy to continue for the rest of your life, then think how you can, perhaps, cut portion size, while you need to lose weight and up portion size when you have lost weight.

Meant to add - I now do walk a mile every morning as this keeps me on target for my steps but also boosts my moral! I also use a light box from September to February / March due to my Vit D Levels and SAD at this time of year... maybe that'd help you too? My Dr said it was worth a try and I definitely have found it useful.. I don't need extra Vit D as I get that from my Theical tabs for osteopoenia, but you might benefit from extra Vit D... worth asking for a blood test to check your levels - I had mine checked last year, costs nothing and the nurse can do it at your health centre.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BunBLMgPhyk&t=530s

Have you tried joining a supportive forum like the NHS 12 week diet... it has a great forum ... no comments about how you came to be there but lots of ideas and help and support to stay on track... I don't do the 12 week diet, though others do, I go on for all the support! At the moment I'm trying to help a group get to the moon so we count our steps walked and change to kms then post them every week... It's a fun group of people from all walks of life...

healthunlocked.com/nhsweightloss/posts/private/136917584/kicking-the-kilometres-fly-me-to-the-moon-challenge-11th-17th-december-2017-inc

healthunlocked.com/

I know it has to come from me I have to make the effort and get on with it but sometimes it is harder than you think but there should be no excuses I do know that

I have tried doing other things with my hands I crocheted a blanket for my granddaughter but when that was finished I started with the eating again I don't understand it because I have never had any kind of an addiction.

I have tried and it work skipping breakfast, well not skipping it but delaying it but it is not a good idea to cut the eating too much because it is important to eat just need to eat well.

All the post are real and ever so helpful gives me hope and a good mental attitude must do something before things get worse

Thank you Friends x x

Give yourself rewards when you achieve something, a new hair cut, new pair of shoes, a makeup session etc. Believe me I normally have the will power of a gnat. I bought a week's food at a time from M&S, including desserts and treats. The nice thing about them is they are calorie counted already, they are healthy and don't contain rubbish. The desserts are really low calorie so you can afford to eat them if you're having a rough day. By having ready meals (ping meals) you also stay out of the kitchen. Drink lots of water. I lost over 6 stone in 6 months. My motivation was having a child stay with me forever and not wanting him teased in the playground so I went from 20stone size 26/28 to 13and a half. I now float around 14stone size 18/20 so I'm still a big girl but can shop normal stores now. I've stayed down here for 10 years just watching what I eat and especially what I drink. (That's the killer! The hidden calories in alcohol) My reward was looking forward to wearing an M&S dress at Christmas. The cancer I have means I'm not looking to loose any more weight though. Good luck xx

If you really don’t want to go down the hypnotherapy route Serkeen develop your own mantra, like in yoga, a good one would be ‘Food is not the answer!’ Say it several times, either out loud or in your head whenever you are going to get a snack ( unless you are actually hungry of course.)

I think that part of my problem is my insomnia, real insomnia that has been with me for many years. Go to bed at 11pm, read for an hour or two. Still wide awake so get up. Still up and 4am/5am. Possibly find sleep at around 4/6 or 7am and sleep until about 10am. No sleeping aid has ever helped with sleep.

The night is very long. It's amazing how many bowls of crunchy nut cornflakes, rich tea biscuits with butter etc you can consume in that time. Noone makes me eat, I am the the only person responsible for being overweight. (that and 2 years of steroid medication) but I cannot always blame the steroids.

I eat too much - end of story.

I'm another of the Jane10 'devotees' in that she introduced me to the 8:16 practice. Finding it much easier now and I've even added going to bed slightly earlier and rising later which shortens the 16 a little. Anyway, it's certainly helping me so thanks to all contributors of tips of any sort.

I got a free 12 introduction to Slimming World from my GPs surgery and it took me 12 weeks to believe in it, but here I am 9 months later 3.5lb UNDER my target weight having lost just over 3 stone. I have no idea why a diet that bans white bread but allows you to eat unlimited white pasta works - but it has for me and I can only say that it must be worth a try especially as it might be free for a trial in your area. Good luck

If I want a quick fix to be able to get into a dress for an occasion or to kick start me into being less dependent on fattening stuff then I buy some juices (Jason Vale scheme) from a local lady who makes them for a business. It's very expensive though- £110 for a 4 day supply which I make last 5/6 days. The fact that they are so expensive certainly focuses my mind to stick rigidly to it and I can lose up to half a stone in just over a week or as it encourages me to eat more sensibly for a while afterwards.
I then decided to make the juices myself and I only spent £23 on a weekly shop but I'm afraid I didn't treat the cleanse so seriously and was just using them as drinks so, definitely, cost plays a big part in my motivation.

PS I use olive oil or rapeseed oil as well and ignore calories in that too!

3 months ago I was diagnosed with high cholesterol. As a result I analysed my diet in terms of saturated fat content. Didn't think about calories atall. I started using be good to yourself cheeses for cooking; flora light for cooking and now on toast etc. Stopped eating a couple of high Sat. fat regular items like coconut yoghurt! Check anything I buy for saturated fat content and look for alternatives where available! Apart from that I haven't changed anything. Eat the same amounts etc (tho vaguely follow a 10:14 version for eating). Don't worry about calories (I do use stevia instead of sugar and have done for years!)" As a result I have lost a stone in 3 months - and this includes my tendency to comfort eating !!!! I took a week to research all my regular items that I eat, on line and find alternatives. It was really worth it from a weight point of view. Find out on Thursday whether my cholesterol is down but I expect it to be! Do think about this. It has really worked for me

Dear Serkeen - I have eaten for comfort on and off most of my adult life. Like most of the diets I've tried it doesn't work. Do ask for some help, as others say, with the issues behind the need to comfort eat. In the short term rethink how you feel about hypnotherapy and give the Paul McKenna system a try. At least you can go and lie on the bed for 40 mins and drift off to his mellow tones. If you are open to it his advice will get through gradually and help you. Have a read of his book too. You might be able to borrow both CD and book from the library. I have found hypnotherapy very helpful in the past. Now I'm doing the 16:8 system and that is working too. You eat healthily in an 8 hour window to suit yourself and rest your digestive system for the remaining 16 hours - a chunk of which you are asleep for, You need to keep yourself hydrated all through. It's as simple as that. I have also found the Gransnet support thread helpful too. Good luck and success to you in dealing with the issues behind your need to binge eat.

Try not to buy fattening food, especially treats.

Try not to buy fattening food, especially treats.

Diets don’t work. 99% of people who lose weight on them, regain that weight and more besides. It sounds as though you are struggling with feelings of self loathing. You mention shame, which is a horrible feeling. You really need to focus on accepting yourself as you are. You are far more likely to want to nurture yourself with good, nutritious food, rather than push feeling down with comfort food, if you like yourself. You are worth as much as anyone else whatever size you are, and whatever you eat. I recommend you read ‘Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls’ by Jess Baker. In addition to putting life into perspective on the fat/food front, it is also very funny in parts. Life is for living, loving and laughing. On your death bed, I’d bet my house that you won’t be thinking ‘I’d wish lost a few stone’, more likely thoughts will be about the things you wanted to do, but didn’t. In many people’s cases, that is because they were full of self loathing and shame, not because their body was too fat to physically do it!

I think bananas release serotonin and a banana before bedtime can help you to sleep.

The only way I do not succumb to temptation Serkeen is not to buy any of the things which I know I like and would 'comfort eat'. However, I don't binge, two or three biscuits would be enough or a piece of cake or a few squares of chocolate - which I don't need.

If the DGC come they know there will rarely be biscuits/cakes in this house except for special occasions.

I do keep nuts and dried fruit in the cupboard which satisfy 'the munchies' and an urge for something sweet. I don't like crisps anyway except for the vegetable crisps.

If it's not in the house you can't eat it is my motto.

Have you had your Thyroid, B12 and Folate checked ? I do understand emotional eating makes it difficult to stick to a healthy eating program. I hold my hand up to that. However, a low count of any/all of the above can make it harder to stabilise emotions and the B12 is sometimes called the 'stress' vitamin. May be worth you doing some research on these.

Also finding a counsellor and some really good support as others have suggested would be really Self Valuing. You are worth all the effort you will be putting into caring for yourself, you really are.

I was sad when I read that you were "ashamed". Other people -whatever their relationship to you - "Do Not" have the right to Shame you.

Please, please, please don't "Shame" yourself because you are having a tough time and that tough time is making it hard for you to reach your goal at this time.

I would ask that you find ways to be kind to yourself and listen out for when you or others are putting you down and put a stop to it.

I hope you have found some support and useful suggestions here and that you find the help you need.

Take Care and congratulate yourself on reaching out. Oh and like most of us on here Well Done for getting this far in life. It isn't always easy and I'm sure you've had your fair share of hard times, so good on you for all the achievements you have had. Good Luck for the future.