It's all very well reading a book and deciding that your life is going to change, but putting it into practice is another matter. When I devoured (oh the pun of it) Beyond Chocolate, it inspired me incredibly, but I knew making changes would not be an easy ride.
First and foremost, I thought I'd turn into a big bloater if I let go of some of those old ways - if I'm not keeping an eye on fat content, who will?
And wouldn't my fridge get over-excited and collapse with the sheer weight of calories when I started replacing skimmed milk with full-fat (now tell me, do you really enjoy skimmed on your cereal or do you put up with it for fear of fat?), or binned the no-taste chemically-supported and goodness-stripped yogurts to have the rich, creamy Greek stuff instead?
I definitely need some extra support through this (though I do keep re-reading bits of the book) - so I've signed up for the multimedia 'e-course' to help me along the way. As I'm in Manchester and the workshops are in London (I would like to go on one eventually), it seems like a do-able option for the time being.
My week one email has come through with some worksheets and a questionnaire (oh the heartache of filling that in and pressing send, but there's no point if I'm not being honest) and I'm looking forward to my package with a CD - and then, of course, there is a little gift sent to me once a week as well! But mainly, continued email support from the authors for the 12-week duration of the course is the bonus point, and something I shall surely be using.
Now I just need the time to start on the worksheets. I'll keep you posted.
I'm Andrea, and am obsessed with creating fabulous food. After I managed to ditch dieting, the reason Chocolate and Beyond was born, it seemed natural to evolve my site into a foodie blog. More so since I also ditched animal produce to be vegan. Now, I love showing how inventive cruelty-free cooking can be. And sometimes I like to rant, too. I wouldn't be myself otherwise :) x 
I'm still reading it - I'm trying to pace myself instead of doing my usual trick of flying through the book, vowing to change and then going back to old ways.
What I'm struggling with is I seem to be able to convince myself I'm hungry as soon as I want something to eat. I think 'no, I'm not eating that, I'm not hungry' and then seconds later my stomach rumbles!
Posted by: Keris | November 08, 2006 at 06:12 PM
Keris, that's exactly something I've struggled with as well! I wonder if my brain is playing tricks on me to allow me to eat more food that I don't really need. I do think that now, a couple of months on, I am more 'in tune' though, so it's worth keeping it up.
Posted by: Andrea Wren | November 10, 2006 at 08:53 AM