Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Insight

Yesterday i wrote that i have been ping ponging with weight loss..i have been thinking about that. for pretty close to two decades i have been on a diet...basically either starving myself or working out like mad, feeling totally deprived and pretty soon giving up, telling myself, all this isnt working, i just cant do it!!
i am beginning to wonder if i dont know the reason why it is so difficult to lose weight and keep it off. the reason is got to do with my mind. its like, i start on this diet, lose some weight, maybe even a lot of weight, and then end the diet.. meaning go back to original way of life, eat a little more than what i need and work a little less than what i need to.. being busy and all, time flies and before i know it a year has gone by and i look at myself and say, "what happened? i thought i had lost weight".
its like this: as long as dieting is a "course" one is taking, once the course is complete, and one has been graded and one forgets about it, the weight will come back. its not something finite, like a course of antibiotics say- 500 mg twice daily for five days after food!! 5 days up, course complete, the symptoms are gone, the infection is taken care of no further need of antibiotics... its simply not like that.
one puts on weight when one eats more than one spends.. a little at a time, even 100 cals extra a day, and it adds upto 5 whopping kilos a year.. its the difference between being slim and comfortable, between being plump to overweight, and overweight to obese.. ask anybody who is 5 kilos over the desired levels and who is trying to drop those 5 kilos...
i have read that in many many books, magazines, on line anything you can name- and also that diet has to become a way of life..(just dont call it a diet and dont think of you being on a diet!!) the eating and working has to be a habit and has to be followed all the time, the whole life. you slip up sometime, you get right back on. its not like i can say to myself, my body, "look body, i have made the effort and dropped 5 kilos, you are at the desirable weight, now keep it that way". no it doesnt work like that, coz, its the mind that needs to know that in order for the body to stay that way, it has to control itself and the body.. i know all this is coming out all confusing and confused. but what i am trying to say is that, it is so much simpler to just follow a set pattern of eating and working out, just some simple rules that are not some physics formulae (i am a sociology major)which anyone can remember effortlessly... like the NO S diet which i have started recently. i am into the 25th day today, although i have to confess i havent done it strictly, i have been sort of doing only 2/3rds of it, no sweets, no seconds... but even that is helping me a lot. i dont need to remember the calorific content of any particular food...no food is offlimits or forbidden, no worrying about carbs. nothing. no worries. no stress. i just eat a good breakfast, my stomach is full, i have eaten real food and to my heart's (and stomach's!!) content, i am happy, not deprived, not starving... i have a mid morning tea, dont eat the 2 biscuits that go with it, thank you, no eating in between meals coz that is snacking...lunch and a good lunch, colourful, nutritious, filling and a real lunch. same mid evening tea, no snack, and a dinner fit for kings, brush teeth, no eating after dinner. and it is helping; i cant see it. yet . but i can certainly feel it. and after a long long time i am content and not obsessing about food. i am not thinking of the next meal before this is over..i know that in a few hours time i will be eating, and eating well. i know i will be full, satiated and happy. i still log my weight in calorie count, i still maintain a diary both online and manual(being extra careful!!) and do count calories, but i dont need to do it. i know that now. i walk 10000 steps and run 2 miles thrice a week... i know why this is going to help me this time, more than anything else,this time, my diet is not for 4 months only, 6 weeks only or any fixed period like that. it is going be a 21-day, life long cycle. since yesterday, i have stopped the third S also.. the snack.. i hope i can do that too...
lets see how it goes.. i dont mind failing once in a while, if that is the way to success, so be it...

The NOS Diet

hi!i have been ping-ponging in so far as weight loss is concerned. somewhile ago, maybe a month or so ago, i remembered that i had, a long time ago read about a diet called a NO S diet; since nothing seemed to be working for me, i thought i would read up a bit on this new diet and see if it would help me. i have been at it for the past four weeks, and here are the results.
in terms of weight loss as such, counting in pounds and grams, i may not have done all that great... i didnt weigh in before starting this new diet... but i do know what other benefits i have derived.
mainly, i used to constantly, constantly think of food..i think i was mostly semi starved, and so right after breakfast my dreaming of food would begin, planning the next meal, the next snack and so forth, and worrying i would overshoot my calorie allowance and consume too many fat calories and so forth... but now, once i am done with breakfast, i do not think about food... it is not something i am doing consciously.. you know what i mean? i am not persuading myself not to think about food, its just that i dont need to think about lovely delicious things anymore with guilt and longing!! the no sweets and no seconds on n days has, now officially, become a habit..while i dont miss sweets at all, i of course, do miss chocolates and ice cream, but you know what? a s-day is always only 5 days away at the most...so if my mind wanders to chocolate or icecream, i just tell myself that i would treat myself to it next s day.. and like a child really, i am satisfied. today i have started the third s also.. no snacks. the light bulb moment occured a few minutes ago.. i dont really have to give up on those things either.. i will just add it to my plate either at bf or at dinner.. i know it is going to be dinner...
well, for a few days i guess my dinner plate is going to be ghastly loaded. but never mind, once i reassure myself that even ompodi/mixture/thattai are accessible and are snacks only when eaten in-between meals, i am sure the plate will ligthen.
i am able to eat well and everything in parties.. eating out is no longer cause for heart burn...i do look a glutton when i take a plateful of food, it does look horridly loaded, but i dont go back for a second helping..my colleagues during our official lunches-out have begun to notice that...and also that i do not help myself to any quantity of the sweets or icecream served. since i am not "on diet" as usual, i dont need to give out a lot of explanations nor have my leg pulled for always being on a diet!!
at this point of time, i must be aware of the virtual plate and not allow that to become a habit!!

my obsession to lose weight is gone (i think). certainly, i have begun to believe that if i continue with this, that very thing is going to happen. and wont that make me ecstatic?!!
wish me luck, all!!