Chocolate and Beyond

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!

The Weigh Forward

I thought readers of Chocolate & Beyond might be interested in my latest feature for Spirit & Destiny magazine, which appears in the September issue as 'The Diet from Beyond' - but please let me emphasise, the title wasn't mine! (Unfortunately I had no control over that bit!).

To write this feature, I attended a Weigh Forward workshop in London, run and developed by Sky TV psychic Jules Williams. Jules is very 'anti-diet' (therefore neither would be interested in such a title as was given to the feature!) and has been working with women with weight issues for around 15 years.

What I believe about diets and a LighterLife comments response

There have been a number of comments left on the posts regarding the LighterLife debate, which I was going to make a full response to. However, while I want to thank everyone who offered reasoned and non-aggressive involvement for their input, I have decided to leave things where they rather than give further address to some of the more personal and attacking remarks. I have therefore also closed the option for any other comments to be left.

I wanted to clarify again that the main aim of this site, throughout its existence since 1st September 2006, has been to record my personal journey to a diet-free existence. I know that I'm now a happier, healthier person as a result of this, as well as being able to stay with my goals to 'ditch the diet'.

Writing for diet magazines in my dieting past

Throughout my blog (if you have read it for the past 19 months!), I have made references to the fact that I used to write for diet magazines - hell, I used to DIET! And is only 19 months ago that I decided, after reading Beyond Chocolate, that I knew diets were not the way forward for me anymore (although I did read Diet Breaking: Having It All Without Having To Diet by Mary Evans Young in my mid-twenties).

My past work in the diet media contributes to my ability to write from experience and, being inside the industry to even that extent, it allows me an even better ability to know what I'm talking about.

The LighterLife debate continued

I wanted to reply to the people who had left further comments on the previous post LighterLife 'misled' its clients says the BBC, which seems to have stirred a few emotions and debates. I also received an email from a woman called Caroline, who seemed to be particularly upset that I hadn't emphasised the plus points of the LighterLife regime...ahem, I mean programme (sorry)!

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to comment. It is very much appreciated. Secondly, the defense of LighterLife has surprised me somewhat, especially considering that Chocolate and Beyond is, after all, in support of a diet-free existence (and therefore won't support diets, especially not those with reported negative health effects!).

A Lighter Life but for how long?

It's quite apt that the Lighter Life founder is called Bar (Hewlett) seeing as bars are about the most you can eat while on this diet, don't you think? Lighter Life is the 'unique programme' that (wait for it) promises to be the answer to your weight loss dreams after having tired everything else, providing you're at least 3 stone overweight (how very health-aware to not encourage thinner people to try such extremes).

"Just have four of our nutritionally complete soups, shakes and bars every day and you’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ll reach a healthy weight!" they say - oh yum. But before you get too excited, it must be added that you need to pay somewhere in the region of £68 per week for 14 weeks for such a privilege.

The 10 Beyond Chocolate Principles

This morning I made a decision I was going to renew my efforts to be mindful about my eating, and I checked out again the ten principles that feature in the Beyond Chocolate book, which you can also find on their website here.

The principles are:

1. Tune in
2. Eat when you're hungry
3. Eat whatever you want
4. Put it on a plate, sit down and focus
5. Enjoy
6. Stop when your satisfied
7. Own your body
8. Move
9. Support yourself
10. Be your own Guru

Don't diet but do clothes that fit

Do you have a rail of clothes in your wardrobe that used to fit and you're hoping it won't be long before you're back into them? Send them to a charity shop right now! Whilst you may believe that seeing these clothes will serve as a reminder of the size you 'could be', they will actually just limit your ability to feel happy about yourself right now, as you are.

If any lasting change is going to happen that brings about weight loss, it won't be through reminding yourself constantly how unhappy you are with your current weight, by seeing clothes that don't fit hanging in your wardrobe all the time. Self-acceptance and loving yourself whatever shape or size you are is key to any changes that might happen regarding your improved relationship with food.

Meet Beyond Chocolate authors at One Life Live (plus free tickets!)

FREE TICKETS FOR 'ONE LIFE 'AT OLYMPIA

Meet Sophie and Audrey Boss, authors of Beyond Chocolate, at The One Life Live show at Olympia in London from 29th February to 2nd March.

It's an event for anyone who dreams of breaking free from the daily grind to pursue a new personal or professional goal. There are 10 inspirational zones and the Boss sisters will be at stand M62 in the Life Change Zone, spreading the word about how Beyond Chocolate is doing just that - changing lives.

Tickets cost £12 if booked online, but Beyond Chocolate have 10 pairs to give away to the first of you to email them with your name and address at [email protected]!

For more information, visit One Life

Chocolate, apples or a glass of red wine?

I've just received the latest Beyond Chocolate newsletter which is great for motivating yourself when the dreaded 'diet' word is finding its way back in your thoughts again. This feature is focusing on enjoyment, and I thought I'd publish it here for you to read.

PRINCIPLE NO. 6: ENJOY (Remind me what this principle is about)

"Chocolate lovers can rejoice. It's claimed that two squares of a certain brand of chocolate that recently hit the supermarket shelves contain more antioxidants than 5lbs of apples. The newspapers went wild for it. So, should you abandon your Granny Smiths for Choxi+? Are chocolate bars the new blueberries? Hmmm. Possibly not.