HI all-
I started at 13 stone on May 4th (I'm 5'6")
Now 12st 2lb, hoping it'll be 1lb off tomorrow (weigh in day)
I'm not on a diet, I'm eating more mindfully. Initially I was thinking calories, then I thought 'lo/no carbs', then I thought, "Hang on, you've been eating what you eat for decades now, how on earth will cutting that foodstuff out, going cold-turkey on it- be sustainable? At least, it won't be without a complete mind overhaul seeing that it's how I feel makes me choose to eat what I do".
So I am trying a different approach, using Gillian Riley, which of course isn't a diet at all. It's hard work in that there are no imposed restrictions, you have to make choices whilst considering the consequences of those choices, all the time. There are 2 things you need to be aware of: the calorific/ health content of food (but hey, which woman who's ever struggled with her weight doesn't know that stuff?!) and the fact the book is somewhat aimed at food addicts, people who cannot eat one biscuit, they have to eat the whole packet. They are taught to analyse why they eat the whole packet.
Personally my problem is mindless eating. I reach a natural break in what I'm doing so I wander into the kitchen. There's a cake in the staff room, I eat a slice; DH serves me up a man-sized portion of dinner so I clear my plate and so forth.
The other thing you're not supposed to do is to weigh yourself as GR states that the reason our diets fail is that the motivation to lose weight is practically always how we appear to others, to gain others approval; in other words that weight loss is a self-esteem issue. We need to be wanting to eat better and look after ourselves better for ourselves, for our health and longevity, not to get into that size 'x' dress!
That's the hard bit as we're so programmed to rate ourselves against others that it's very difficult to change one's motivator. I can't forgo my scales yet, though I plan to see how I go once I hit 12 stone.
I'm sure everyone has their method that works for them, be it lo-carb, Points, SW; but having been there with all my previous attempts at permanent weight loss (there haven't been that many, to be fair), I have decided I need to change my attitude to food so I can make the 'right' choices rather than be told what's 'allowed' and what isn't. Because, as GR's psychology goes, eventually you rebel against externally imposed restriction and say Sod It- and head for the biscuit tin!
Just another POV!