@Fat13
So I think what people are maybe missing is I did lose a huge amount of weight when I wasn’t working. I honestly don’t mean this rudely - it’s a shame people keep taking it that way - but when you get a lot of diet advice it can be a bit stressful and overwhelming just because what suits one person doesn’t necessarily get on with another.
Of course I realise exercise isn’t the most important thing with weight loss but activity does matter and there is a subtle difference.
People still keep saying don’t buy it then - like I say if it was that simple literally no one would smoke.
Not really. It's more like having a fully charged vape available instead of running out to the shop to get 20 Marlboro Touch because you have nothing.
It's planning ahead for when you are most vulnerable - by not buying them in the first place, but putting other, more nutritious things in their place that still fulfil the craving for sweet or salty/savoury, it means that you're more likely to be able to deal with the late afternoon/early evening dip in energy and mood in a way that doesn't sabotage all your efforts during the day. And it provides some protein and fat, which means that it's more satisfying -
Whilst a packet of Tesco Triple Chocolate Cookies can easily be eaten in one or two goes in an hour or so, that's 100kcal each cookie and about 1000kcal in a pack. And you still need dinner for the savoury and salty and some actual nutrition.
If you have planned for that dip when you're tired and got the sort of things I suggested in advance, you can go to the fridge and take out two mini Camembert at 70kcal each, four Ryvita chia seed crispbreads at 38kcal each, a handful of grapes at about 33kcal and you've had
Fat
Protein
Carb
Savoury
Salty
Sweet
Crunchy
Creamy
Soft
all for around half the number of calories that those cookies would represent, you wouldn't feel slightly sick and you've made a choice that is not going to result in you castigating yourself and getting into the self hatred narrative again.
The other advantage of doing that is that you might feel less bleurgh without the crash in blood sugar and therefore have a little more energy which could make it possible for you to do some sort of exercise that makes you feel good.
If those triggery foods aren't there when you feel that dip and craving, you have to seriously think about whether you really, really need them as it requires effort to go back out and buy them.
From experience, it's a lot easier to change old habits by planning than it is to tell myself 'I just won't do it' whilst deliberately putting those habits in front of me exactly when I'm feeling more vulnerable.