Chocolate and Beyond

What do you mean when you say you're eating 'healthily'?

When you talk about 'healthy eating' do you actually mean you're 'dieting', or at least switching to low-fat eating? It's become a bit of a bug bear of mine that people use the term 'healthy eating' as a euphemism for eating a low-fat diet, when there is so much evidence to show that eating the standard 'low fat diet' isn't healthy at all.

When I say I'm eating 'healthily', I mean that I'm being mindful about including nutritional foods in my diet again, when maybe I've been a bit slack for a while (such as the times I've been travelling and living off pizza!). My healthy foods include things like nuts, seeds and avocados - which are some of the most nutritionally dense foods you can eat, and are ones which dieters tend to avoid.

Also for me, a healthy diet tends to mean eating less white carbs, which don't make me feel great (though I did eat 2 slices of buttered white toast for breakfast this morning!), but I don't start using less fat, and I certainly don't start eating 'diet' foods. Again, there is so much evidence to show these do us more harm than good, and also make us hungrier in the long run because they contain so many substitute ingredients.

Of course, I do include a lot of vegetables and salads when I'm eating 'healthily' - but that's because they are the foundation of a good diet, not because they help me lose weight.

I know I'm no skinny minny, but I do now stay at a stable weight, pretty much whatever the occasion. And I am a lot happier than I used to be, when I was spending what seemed to be every waking moment thinking about how to keep the number on the scales down. For me, the way I now eat 'healthily' actually feels healthy.

 

The problem with frequent travelling is weight gain

Having had a recent trip to the USA (and being served HUGE portions of food!), I currently feel weightier than I have done in a long time. In fact, I could barely fasten my jeans on the plane home!

I can honestly say, the idea of going on a diet is creeping into my mind. Especially since I have a holiday coming up in a few days, which is an all-inclusive trip, and I know I will be faced with mountains more of food.

I find intuitive eating principles are not easy for me to practice while away, and I go away a lot. Especially on a press trips, where we get full breakfast, lunch and dinner, in yummy restaurants and hotels, and I want to enjoy the experience fully. What I think is that I'm only going to be there this once, so it seems such a shame to not try things - but the effect is weight gain! At least for me.

I had a similar weight gain /dieting panic a few years back after returning from Tunisia, and I have just re-read that post to remind myself how I dealt with the feelings then.

However, my thoughts about intuitive eating have changed a bit over the years. I no longer think I should just eat 'what I want', as long as I'm hungry and I only eat enough to be satisfied. While this is a tactic for the initial stages of giving up dieting (to free yourself from deprivation mentality), I find that if I eat - for example - a lot of high-carb foods, I get hungry again very quickly and I am never satisfied for very long.

I also believe that some foods do have the effect of being 'addictive', while not necessarily good for you, especially sugary, carbohydrate foods. So I may think this is what I want, but it's not really the best choice for me (I get in a habit then of eating them and wonder why I feel bad and stodgy). 

So - I'm not dieting, no. But I am going to 'cut out the crap' for while, so to speak. That doesn't mean I will omit chocolate of course (I have cupboard loads of the stuff too, since it was recently my birthday and people bought me lots!), but I am going to make a conscious decision to aim for nutrition over 'empty calories'.

Hopefully some of this 'travel weight' will be shed in the process, and I will be able to fasten my jeans comfortably again. But I still have next week's holiday to get through. Hmmm.

My 2011 personal review of intuitive eating and dieting

I was just starting to write a response to a comment by Lucy, who wrote something on my post Slimsticks - yet another 'revolutionary new weight loss aid' but I decided to do blog a post instead. Otherwise, the comment would have been too long!

Lucy - your comment kind of made me want to review where I was at, and what I now feel about intuitive eating, and I hope by doing so, I will also be addressing what you were querying.

Firstly - where am I at in 2011 in a life where I 'opted out' of dieting several years ago (I began my blog in September 2006 - wow!)?

Well, I'm not a skinny minny, if that's what anyone is wondering (see picture)! But I am so, so much happier - and quite possibly a more natural weight? I am probably the same weight (maybe a few pounds more) as when I gave up dieting (a weight that I had been on and off for a time anyhow, even though I WAS dieting!) - so I think I have learnt to stay fairly stable (give or take holidays and Christmas).

I think the main thing that has changed for me is that I no longer have any obsession over food. I don't obsess about the calorie or fat content of foods I eat, nor do I worry about socialising with friends and going out for dinner and so on. I feel so much more liberated in that way, and I generally don't care if I am no longer a size 10-12 (instead, a steady 12-14), because I FEEL so free from what dieting is about - on the whole.

Still - I do have my moments (and at times where I wonder if it would be nice to fit back into some of my clothes from the early 2000s, hanging around my wardrobe!). And I have to confess that I have not been very mindful of my eating for a while, which is central to intuitive eating working for me. I've just doled out a 'portion' and ate it, regardless of whether I've started to feel full or not. I know if I carry on doing this, I'll just pile on the weight.

Dieting?

In her comment, Lucy mentions she has put on two stone in the last 2 years and though doesn't want to diet, feels a bit desperate to do so. I really empathise. Though I have not had such significant weight gain, I definitely had this kind of desperate experience. I remember being almost panicked by it at one point.

And while I am so much freer of diet-mentality, I am not 100% free of it. Five years on I have times where I start to consider dieting, just a little bit. However, for the times where I've even tried to diet maybe a couple of days, then I start to feel straight away deprived again. I know then that I musn't continue on that path.

What I would say to Lucy, is this:

If you've dieted before and it's worked for you for a long period and you are happy with 'being on a diet', then I think that by all means go for it. Some people are more than happy with dieting, and they can maintain it, and it does work for them.

My blog is my own personal response to breaking away dieting - after feeling like I just couldn't do it anymore, and after reading Beyond Chocolate, but I am not an expert for other people. This is what I prefer, but it may not be right for you.

However, Lucy - you say you joined Slimming World and gained a stone? Is there any reason it should be successful the next time, if you opt to diet again? 

Intuitive eating / normal eating

I have moved away from seeing what I'm doing as 'intuitive eating' to just calling it 'normal eating'. Normal eating to me encompasses everything that normal people who don't diet (and have never dieted) do. They sometimes overeat, they sometimes miss meals, they sometimes eat at funny times, they sometimes eat crap food, and they probably eat the food of their choice when they want to eat it, not just because it's breakfast or dinner.

Normal eating for me also means aiming to eat nutritious food (though I'm sure not all 'normal' eaters are like this!). I really don't feel good about myself when my diet is slack and nutritionally extinct - I like to fit in a lot of green vegetables, and not hinge meals around carbs. When I started out with IE, I got the impression with the 'eat what you what' concept that nutritious food wasn't as high on the agenda as simply eating what you want.

Though I think that it is necessary to 'eat what you want' at first to take the personality away from food (as long as it's only as much as you need!), you have to respect your body, and feed it the right things. For me, once I started moving back towards truly nutritious food then I stopped gaining the weight that seemed to appear when I stopped dieting.

Lucy - you also mentioned Beyond Chocolate's workshops and how pricey they are. I have to say, I don't really follow so much what is going on with Beyond Chocolate anymore because while reading the book was the reason I started my blog, my learning and development has been from a number of sources since. So I checked in on the website and I see a lot has changed.

I agree the workshops and membership is expensive - I would not be able to afford them myself. But I suppose the difference is that the authors are two women who are trying to earn a living from a method which has worked for them and that they wrote a book about, with a genuine intention for helping other women. They are not a multi-million pound industry which feeds off our despair, by giving us something that may work in the short-term (offering such promise) and is unlikely to work in the long-term.

It's a bit the other way round with Beyond Chocolate. It doesn't appear to work in the short-term, but is MORE likely to work in the long-term. And if you think about the amount of money many women pump into the diet industry over their lifetime (from diet yogurts, diet aids, appetite supressents, weekly meeting fees etc) on something generally doomed to fail, then it starts to look less expensive.

However, I do feel that it's a shame that the members' forum isn't open to anyone who buys the book. Speaking to other people trying this new way of managing weight is a valuable support, and I think if you've bothered to buy the book, then the forum at least should be available to you. I haven't tried it but maybe the Through Thick and Thin forum could be an alternative?

If you decide you are going to persist with intuitive eating, then I think you have to be really honest about how closely you are following the principles to make it work. I have not been following them very closely at all lately, although I make many more intuitive choices than I used to, I know I'll gain weight unless I revisit them.

So, a very long-winded response - maybe with a few typos cos it's late and I've been ill! But hopefully this is a kind of up date on where I'm at, as well as some feedback to Lucy's comment on my Slimsticks post.

RAWR Easter eggs - quite possibly the best chocolate ever? Dairy-free too!

Oh my. If there was anything I needed to cheer me up from my spluttering sick-bed (I'm currently ill with a chest infection), it was the delivery of a box of four solid raw chocolate Easter eggs sent to me yesterday courtesy of RAWR. I can honestly say, I've never tasted anything quite like these eggs before - it is highly likely to be the best chocolate experience I've ever had.

This is the first time I've ever tried raw chocolate, and for the uninitiated, that means chocolate that is made from completely uncooked ingredients (preventing loss of nutrients, which unprocessed choc contains - there is info on RAWR's website). I have to say - WOW!

Firstly, they come delightfully packaged in a little blue recycled egg-box tied up in yellow ribbon, a treat for the eyes. Then the four eggs inside - each one a good solid 70g - are individually wrapped to signify their different flavours - 'Purity' (organic dark choc with crunchy cacao nibs), 'Zest' (organic orange choc), 'After Dinner' (organic mint choc) and '80% Intensity' (organic 80% cocoa choc).

The chocolate just kind of crumbles in your mouth - with the flavour slowly melting into your taste buds. I nibbled on a bit of every single egg at first, then decided to spend a while eating a half of 'Purity'. The chocolate was really like no other, and the flavours were intense without being overpowering. And you could actually properly taste the chocolate! It felt a million miles away from the taste of a commercial chocolate bar (in fact, eating the RAWR eggs felt positively healthy!).

Having tried all the eggs, my favourite was Zest (which I ate a full half of after my peanut butter on toast this morning). I've always been a fan of orange chocolate - though the idea of turning to a commercial brand ever again now has departed. Commerical chocolate is heated and packed with sugar, milk fat, and crap (let's be blunt), whereas this chocolate is organic, hand-made and naturally sweetened without refined sugar. It's gluten-free, and oh yes, dairy-free too. I've tried vegan chocolate before and have been disappointed, but the RAWR eggs were nothing like. Guilt-free, while delicious.

A box of four eggs costs £8.95. That's not a lot of money - and there IS a lot of chocolate in a box at 280g in total. I had to put the eggs away to keep mindful of not overeating! Plus, orders over £5 from the RAWR website have free delivery - so they really are a yummy bargain.

10% discount on RAWR orders for Chocolate and Beyond readers!

I just need to say that, after I tasted this chocolate, I specifically went to RAWR and asked if they would provide a discount for readers of my site. That's because I really was so impressed with it, I want everyone to have a taste themselves!

So, RAWR have kindly offered a very reasonable 10% discount off website orders. Just use the code BEYOND10 which you can add in My Cart on www.rawrchoc.com after making your order.

My suggestion is order a box for everyone you normally buy Easter eggs for, plus a box for yourself too - because if you order for others and not for you, you'll be annoyed when you find out how utterly delectable they are!

Slimsticks - yet another 'revolutionary new weight loss aid'

How often have we heard the words revolutionary new weight loss aid'? The phrase has become deaf to my ears, not just because none of the so-called 'aids' ever actually live up to their promise, but because the term is so grossly over-used for the minimal to zero assistance in weight loss that these products offer.

I've received a press release for Slimsticks - you guessed it, another revolutionary new weight loss aid! Apparently, Slimsticks is clinically proven' to reduce food intake by up to 30%, with the claim that two to three sachets of this product a day can help an average woman (who is eating 2000 calories a day) to eat up to 600 calories less.

Anyone who has read Ben Goldacre's book Bad Science (if you haven't, it's a wonderful eye-opener) will know that such clinically proven' claims tend to be very loose indeed. Anyone selling for profit will tend to make results sit in their favour, funnily enough, and studies are usually considerably flawed.

Without testing this 'wonder aid' of course, I can't dispute that it may have some effectiveness (it apparently works as an appetite suppressant). But the fact is, that at £29.99 for a pack of 30 sachets, which individually need to be taken two or three times a day, you're likely to be paying around £30-£60 a month to use them.

And will they teach you how to tackle your emotional issues around food that cause you to overeat in the first place? Will they help you get used to eating normally and intuitively to address long-term weight management rather than a short-term goal? No.

And the chances are that after spending all that money, and having your appetite artificially suppressed (if they work), you'll put the weight back on anyhow.

Did you have your pancake and eat it?

This is the second year running that I only remembered it was Pancake Tuesday after I'd had my dinner. Damn - I love pancakes. We used to have them mainly with sugar and lemon at home, but I like to invent all kinds of varieties and a favourite was bananas and cream.

I did have wholemeal tortillas for my dinner though, does that count instead? They are pancake shaped, at least. My son had left some refried beans in the fridge after staying for the weekend. He'd been caring for the dog while I was swanning around Berlin (well, it was bloody freezing so swanning isn't exactly the right word for it!), so I decided to use them up with some salad and salsa in the tortillas.

I suppose Shrove Tuesday was never too much of an issue for me 'diet-wise' - you can make pancakes pretty low-calorie and low-fat if you try, so I just made sure I did. Now of course, when I remember to have them, I just make them delicious. No faffing around trying to make one that doesn't count too much as actual food.

Anyhow, for missing out last night I'm going to plan to have a pancake weekend instead. And that may have to include Nutella.

EDIT: I haven't missed Pancake Day - I have just been informed it's not until March! So I'll have in March and probably this weekend as well... :-)

Guest article: How To Be Free From Emotional Eating

By Casey Lorraine Thomas

Have you ever felt compelled to keep stuffing yourself to the point of discomfort? Maybe you’ve found yourself reaching for a packet of cookies when you’re home alone, tired and lonely? Perhaps it’s even healthy foods you’ve overeaten, such as a whole bag of raw nuts. If so, you are one of many who have eaten for emotional reasons.

Emotional and disordered eating can wreak havoc on your mental, emotional and physical health if left unaddressed, let alone the massive amount of time and energy it takes up, leaving you with much less time to focus on what really matters in your life – your dreams, relationships, contributing, having fun.

Yet despite what your reason and intelligence tells you to do (i.e. give up the emotional eating), you are unable to stop yourself from doing it yet again.

Emotional eating can be a very challenging habit to release as usually:

• it is a deeply ingrained behaviour
• you have been doing it for a very long time both consciously and unconsciously
• it can be frightening to consider a life where you don’t numb yourself with food even if it is a conscious choice you are making for your own good
• processed foods and junk foods are highly addictive so even without the emotional component they can be extremely hard to give up.

But it can be done.

What is needed is support, compassion, kindness and a safe space of no judgement where you can release your fears, identify your emotions, triggers and what your real needs are, and then put in place a toolbox of strategies and methods to satisfy your emotional needs in a way that doesn’t require reaching for a Snickers.

With consistent application of these tools plus a supportive environment where you are guided gently but purposefully to heal and empower yourself, you can move from a damaged, painful relationship with food and your body to a joyful, liberated one. When you have been living in a heavy, toxic body with unaddressed, toxic emotions, to achieve freedom and lightness in mind and body is truly priceless.

There are two steps which I recommend anyone who emotional eats should start with. You can read about those here.

Below are a few suggestions to start creating your toolbox of strategies to move you away from emotional eating.

1.Identify what’s really going on
If you eat without being truly hungry, you are emotionally eating. Yet most people don’t stop for long enough to really see what emotion they are actually feeling before they stuff it down with food. Train yourself to stop when you have the urge to eat and ask yourself “am I really hungry?” If the answer is no, ask yourself “what emotion am I really feeling?” This alone can bring so much awareness that it can start to make small shifts in your emotional eating behaviour as you recognise that there is much more going on that just an uncontrollable urge to eat and that you will not actually be meeting that emotional need with food. This is not easy to do initially but it becomes much easier with practice, dedication and support from people who have been through this process before.

2.Find a safe place or person to release to
To heal your relationship with food you need to safely express yourself and release the emotional conflict you feel. A safe place or person will allow you to do this. There can also be a lot of shame and embarrassment around binging so a safe space to release becomes even more important. Get into a journaling practice where you can write about whatever you are feeling with no talk back, criticism or judgement. Find a person, ideally a professional, who you can speak to about your behaviour and about what’s really going on for you. Create or find a space where you can go to be quiet, think, cry, laugh, journal, talk, meditate, pick your nose or whatever else you want to do. Having a space for yourself that you can always go to will give you a sense of comfort, nourishment, familiarity and a haven as you heal.

3.Created a sacred ritual
One of the best ways to nourish yourself every day is to create a sacred ritual that makes you feel centred, strong and harmonious. When you include this ritual in your routine you will find that over time you are better able to identify and deal with thoughts, feelings and stress that contribute to unhelpful habits such as emotional eating. What you include in your ritual is entirely up to you. For most people, one or a combination of the following works well:

• Meditation
• Deep breathing
• Affirmations
• Setting intentions
• Nourishing movement
• Yoga and stretching
• Journalling
• Drinking water or herbal tea
• Reading inspirational material
• Listening to music
• Speaking to a loved one
• Playing with your pets
• Having a hot bath or shower
• Resting

4.Understand and appreciate what food gives you
For many people who suffer from disordered eating patterns food is the enemy. It is the thing you stuff yourself with and make yourself feel sick with. It is the thing that traps you into eating copious quantities until you feel heavy, tired, unwell and miserable. It is what adds the kilos to your body that you despise. It is what you have to avoid at all costs to stay painfully thin because that’s what you see as beautiful or worthy or your way of maintaining a sense of control in your life. For many of the women I work with, an important step in their healing is helping them to understand what food really is - how it gives life, nourishment, beauty, joy, pleasure, energy, healing and yes, comfort. Nourishing yourself with real, high quality whole foods that are not filled with chemicals, refined sugar, salts and fats, and learning how they act in the body to produce beauty, health and energy so you can do the things you really want to can change your view of food as the enemy. Respect is built for the role food plays and in turn a respect for what it does within your body (and therefore your body itself) grows.

5.Unleash your creativity and do something you love every single day
 Everyone has so much untapped creativity and passion within them. When you don’t allow yourself to express, create, be and do as you’d like to, you end up repressing yourself. Repression leads to out of control binges on food as a temporary way to numb that undirected energy. Find a way to build in some time every day to do something you love, that gives you a creative outlet for self expression, and that allows you to be exactly who you are or takes you a step closer to where you want to go. Before you start using the no time or energy excuse, know that you only need five minutes to start doing this. If you have more, that’s even better. If you are honouring your needs and desires by actually acting on them every day, you will be far less likely to look for the answer in a chocolate cake. Self satisfaction and happiness comes with nourishing your whole being – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually  - consistently. This is your way out.

If you would like to be guided and nourished through the process of freeing yourself from emotional and disordered eating, you might like to check out my Freedom From Emotional Eating Program, which is a 10 week program beginning on the 10th of February designed to show you how to love your food, love your body and satisfy your emotions so that you are happier, healthier and more fulfilled. Without the drain of emotional eating, think about how much time will be freed up to focus on what you really want out of your life!

The program gives you the guidance, education, support, compassion and real life strategies to truly heal. Learn more here.

The journey to conquer emotional eating can be long and challenging, but it can be done and the liberation you will feel is truly worth the effort.

Casey Lorraine Thomas, Detox and Wellness Coach, publishes "Bloom Time" - a free weekly e-newsletter to help you live the life you want in a body you love.  If you're ready to ditch the frumpy feeling and start looking and feeling fantastic in 7 steps, get your FREE report, tips and guidance now at http://www.CaseyLorraine.com

One reader's misery and experience of compulsive eating and the diet trap

Just after Christmas, I received a lengthy and emotional email from a reader of my blog, a lady - let's call her 'Susan' - who feels extremely desperate about her weight and over-eating. I was deeply touched by the fact that Susan had contacted me as a result of what she has read on Chocolate and Beyond, but also my heart went out for her because of the very terrible place she feels she is in right now.

Susan told me that she was in "month three of an eating binge that feels like a runaway train" and says "I am scared that I will be on this perpetual cycle forever." She said she feels disgusted at her body, and that "I look so awful anyway I might as well just carry on eating."

Susan mentioned that she was wondering whether to buy yet another diet book, but instead has chosen to start re-reading Beyond Chocolate. However, she is currently feeling like to be an 'intuitive eater' (or a 'normal eater', as I think I'd now prefer to say), is an impossible dream. She has written to me that "To have a normal, healthy relationship with food whereby it doesn't consume the majority of my waking hours would be amazing and joyous but also seems like a fantasy."

I'm no expert, and I only have my own experience to go off, but I wrote a lengthy email back to Susan with some of the suggestions of things that had worked for me to stop being so obsessed with dieting and food. For example, when I first started this process over four years ago, to get away from seeing some foods as 'forbidden' I had to stock my fridge with those very foods, and I literally ate them as my meals until they became ordinary.

There was a particular time that I did this with egg custards, and taramasalta (amongst others), and while it may seem excessive, it was exactly what I needed to do to reach the point that I'm now at. Some friends say things like "Oh, I can never have chocolate in because I'll just eat it all at once" and that's excatly the mentality I wanted to get away from.

My cupboards are still full of many uneaten Christmas chocolates - I eat them when I like, but never feel compelled to eat them all at once 'because the diet starts tomorrow'. It's simple, if you don't plan to diet, you don't need to consume food as if you'll never get a chance to eat it again (which you invariably do, but then you feel out of control, guilty and are probably bingeing). And like Susan, that disgust you then have with yourself sets about this horrible perpetual cycle.

I think that to be on a perpetual diet - for most people - is an impossible dream. Yes, there are a few people who seem to manage it (usually celebrities like Liz Hurley whose multi-million pound incomes rely on staying skinny) but these people are still totally obsessed with food. Even the very yawnsome Liz talks about food in the media constantly, and admits she goes to bed hungry.

Happiness REALLY does not come in a size 8 package, or at a particular number on the scales. Even if you're very overweight, you still have to change that way of thinking before you can start to eat in a normal way - without dieting - that will bring you to a NORMAL weight. And I stress the *normal* because stick-thin, unless naturally achieved without dieting, excessive exercise or food obsession, isn't normal.

Susan, I hope my email back to you was of some help. You must start to love yourself as you are, first and foremost, and think about all the good things you have (like your husband who loves you, whatever your weight). And then work on the principles to help you become a normal eater without dieting.

New advert for Lighter Life appalling says blogger Abs

I recently had an email from a fellow blogger and reader of Chocolate & Beyond, Abs, who writes a blog called 43things and has begun her own journey into intuitive eating. I wrote about Lighter Life sometime ago, and my posts caused a great deal of debate. Abs wanted to let me know about Lighter Life's new advert that really made her blood boil. She picked it apart in a very interesting post on her blog, and I am copying her post below.

This is what Abs says about the Lighter Life, and the new advert:

"The Very Low Calorie Diet that's so insane even professional marketers can't make it sound like a good idea.

Oh. My. God. Yesterday, leafing through the latest edition of Psychologies magazine, I came across an advert so bad that I laughed and laughed and laughed. It’s for a well-known VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) – a particularly hardcore one. No “and a proper dinner” here – nope, every single meal, for a period of 14 weeks (8 if you have a penis, cos men can’t hack it), is replaced by a branded ultra-low calorie shake, soup or bar. You consume around 600 calories as day. Well, doesn’t that sound fun, varied and interesting? Not to mention safe. And oh yes, the programme will apparently help you to resolve your issues with food because you get to go to weekly group therapy run by a “counsellor”... with a BTEC qualification – forgive me if I’m wrong but isn’t that the qualification that the kids at school did if they weren’t smart enough to do GCSEs?

Anyway. Let’s have a look at the ad, shall we? An ad so full of contradictions it doesn’t know if it’s coming or going. The ad is in italics, my comments are not. And, reading this back after type-ranting for the best part of an hour, I may have gone slightly over the top. Please bear with me.

---

Have you ever tried to diet by just eating carefully? EVERY DAY you have to find THREE different meals that make you lose weight AND aren’t boring. It’s impossible.

OMG, three whole meals a day that aren’t boring? How do people do that?! It’s impossible! With all the variety of all the foods on the planet, how on earth is one expected to keep oneself interested in what one is eating? It’s… such… a… grind!

Actually, they’re right in saying it’s impossible to find foods that “make you lose weight”. No foods make you lose weight, because food isn’t there to “make you” lose weight (with the possible exception of celery which uses more calories to eat it than it actually contains, but you would have to eat a fuckton of it for the most negligible effect), it’s there to support your body and be enjoyed. I’ve a strong suspicion that they’ve shoehorned this erroneous and clumsy phrase in there as a mechanism to encourage the reader to place all the responsibility for weight loss on the external method they choose, which of course will chime rather well for the kind of people who use these VLCD-type programmes. Double reinforcement of “We are the experts”. None of that “be your own guru” nonsense here.

Also, it goes without saying that you need to eat three meals a day. That’s just what people do, right? That’s normal. Three. It’s the magic number. Yes, it is. It’s the magic number.

With temptation everywhere, how the fudge cake is anyone supposed to stick to a diet?

Yes, how, how?! Tell us how! You couldn’t be righter, there is so much delicious food in the world, I can’t possibly restrict myself to just eating a few choices, even though we’ve just established above that it’s impossible to find interesting food to eat. Wait, what? Which is it? Is there loads of interesting food, or is finding interesting food a thanklessly impossible task? I’m confused.

Oh, but I like your “common people” touch. You nearly swore! It’s hilarious! You’re just like me!

[Unnamed VLCD] sorts this. Very low calorie soups, shakes and bars. So every day you know what you’re going to eat.

Oh, thank God. Thank you so much for taking that choice away from me. I just didn’t know how I was going to stick to a diet, what with all the temptation of all the delicious food in the world (that it’s also impossible to make interesting). But now that I only get to eat powdered soups and shakes and weird chemically bars all that desire to eat different foods has just disappeared! It’s amazing!

Which makes everything super simple. And super do-able.

Super simple – I’ll say so. Ah, the comfort of sheer boredom. Also, I must say that removing all real actual food from my life is really helping me to sort out my issues with over-eating. I barely think about real, actual food at all. Like sandwiches and salads and peas and pasta and yogurt and beans and spices and cheese and lentils and green beans and apples and avocados and eggs and… Sorry, I drifted off. Must be lack of concentration from the very low calorie count. They didn’t warn me about that. Or the hair loss. And if on the offchance I do start craving Maltesers and Black Forest gateau, well, I can just hop onto one of the many websites that have sprung up with recipes showing me how to convert those powdery substances into approximations of the foods I used to binge on back in the day when I had an eating disorder! This one has methods for making chocolate fudge, chicken stuffing and popadoms, all from those weird chemical powders! So now I get to eat just the way I did in the olden days, just without actually eating any real food or enjoying it at all. Although technically I’m meant to be abstaining from food entirely, so I’m not completely sure where the recipes stand in the grand scheme of the programme, but hey, the point is massive quick weight loss from tiny calorie consumption rather than slowly, carefully unpicking and changing my attitudes towards myself, food, weight, other people, life and so on. Quick weight loss is what we all actually want, isn’t it? Perhaps I can just live on food packs for the rest of my life – if I’m slim everything in my life will be fixed and I won’t feel that drive to eat any more. Although, of course, there is the “therapy”, and the way my “counsellor” tips her head to one side and says “Mm-hmm” is really helping, too. The four months of training they sold her serves her well.

So you don’t have to be Super Woman.

No, that’s right! And the pressure to be Super Woman has in no way driven me to put myself under such tremendous stress by undertaking this massively risky diet. After all, when I’m slim, everything will be OK. I’ll be Super Woman. Slim fixes everything. If I can just gritted-teeth white knuckle it for 14 weeks without food then gradually reintroduce real foods. Like sandwiches and salads and peas and pasta and yogurt and beans and spices and cheese and lentils and green beans and apples and avocados and eggs and… droooool… Where am I? Oh yeah. Assuming that living on less than 600 calories a day hasn’t totally wrecked my metabolism… having said that, every time I’ve been on a diet before I’ve wound up finding weight goes back on easier and easier, so eating less than I need must do something nasty to my metabolism. Well, if I put weight on I can always go back on the VLCD for a bit again. I mean, I’m losing weight so fast, it must work."

Abs

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Happy New Year - and still not dieting!

It's been a while, I know, but life has been busy and nowadays I have pretty much settled into an existence without diets (hence I feel less need to post). If you have only just stumbled upon this site (and I know it gets a lot of readers still), then I will let you know that in September 2006, I stopped dieting, and never looked back.

Okay - it hasn't been an easy ride - but it was a decision that liberated me more than I could ever imagine. And it's definitely taken this long to conquer the demons that have tried to tempt me back on the diet treadmill. But now I feel that my eating is more 'normal' than ever - and when people talk about 'cravings' and a lack of control around food (thereby avoiding it, rather than 'risking' being around it), I struggle to remember what that was like.

Don't get me wrong - I still have to work at things - but those occasions are fewer and generally, I find myself eating all the things I used to avoid like the plague, and I'm still the same weight as I was before I gave up diets. It's not my ideal weight, I will admit (on the larger side of size 12), but I'd rather be this weight than struggle on a daily basis to be one size smaller, miserable while eating lettuce and low-fat cottage cheese.

To be honest, I don't even remember what that crap tasted like! I have had butter in my fridge for the past 2 years, and while I went back to semi-skimmed over full fat milk only because I prefer the taste, I no longer know what it is like to choose 'low-fat' or diet versions of food over the real stuff. My dieting friends must panic when they come to my house and all I have is butter to spread on their toast - for them a rare treat, for me a daily occurrence.

So, I'm just popping in again to let you know that I'm still here, fighting fit, and a living a diet-free life is better than ever! No New Year diet resolution just after Christmas, even though like most normal human beings, of course I put on weight - but I no longer feel the need to panic it away. I'll just get back to normal and everything will be fine!