Hello, hello. I'm still here. How is it suddenly March? When has 2011 gone? I really apologise for going off radar; the intention was there to blog, to get back in the groove but juggling work and all the other things... well, something had to give.
The weight loss is going in the right direction but it is slow. Slower than before. BMI is still...shhh, in the obese camp.
I've gone back to LighterLife just get my head back in the right place. I cannot do abstinence all over again (although I should be) but because a friend lost a lot of weight with Celebrity Slim, I wanted to cut back where I could. And packs are really easy but it won't be a long-term solution. Ironically, while it is absolutely amazing for weight loss, I'm not sure it taught me the basics for maintenance. But then I didn't really follow the last part of the programme. The one thing I do know is that I practised all or nothing thinking throughout the weight gain. I can not eat food, I can eat for England. I can think about it a lot; I can choose to not think about it at all - that would be denial. And I am great at denial about food.
In one of my LighterLife meetings we had chats about slim people and one of the strongest things to come out of the discussion was how everyone was much more miserable when they were slimmer. I'm in a group of returners (to LighterLife). Isn't that interesting (about the slimmers)? I am longing, longing, longing to be slimmer - just for how it felt. Or how I remember it felt. But what I also know was that it required constant vigilance. And a lot of saying...no!
Several people whose blogs I read have acknowledged the importance of the head work. It's something I've believed all along; weight loss can't be sustained without understanding why the pounds went on in the first place. Yes, eating too much is the reason (calories in, energy out) but why is some food never enough? Of course, there isn't one answer. It's never that simple. But there's definitely a real mixture of boxes to tick for most people. Exercise, volume (cannot bear the words...portion control, portion size, blah blah blah - but the p word matters!), the eating when not hungry, the trigger foods, the slimming saboteurs (people, places) and the fact that food is available anytime, anywhere.
Being slim was fantastic - albeit for the short time I was; what I never learnt was how to hold onto it. And that's what I really want, once I've accepted that being slim is not surreal but very, very real instead. In the meantime, I've got to somehow make my way to an overweight BMI and get out of the obese camp fast.
hey good to see you comrade. could not agree more with first sentence of the last para. don't be a stranger, we miss you!
Posted by: shauna | March 07, 2011 at 11:56 AM
hello mrs L - good to see you again I'm trying to fight my way back to merely overweight too and also back on the packs - but you're right about the need to maintain back in the real world of f**d - it's a bugger but like you I'm so much happier slimmer (even though I've never been slim) I'm reading Dr Beck for the head work - fingers crossed something clicks - I'm truly sick of the yo yo x
Posted by: janine aka slimmer bridezilla as once was | March 07, 2011 at 03:25 PM