Nearly everyone I work with is currently on a diet. It is hard to sit in the canteen now without someone passing comment on how many calories have just passed your lips and suggesting that you swap your rice crispie square for a curly wurly and save eighty calories. I have this to say in response ...
DIETS DON'T WORK!
Take it from someone who firstly has been at varying degrees of obesity for almost her entire life and secondly has tried every diet out there. You name them I've probably done them. I've done the high protein one, the low carb one, the steak and banana one, the grapefruit diet, the meal replacement shakes and the green bean soup one that me and my flatmate tried and she started to halucinate. Don't get me wrong, I lost weight. More weight on some than others but ultimately I ended up right back where I started.
And the reason none of these diets work?
YOU CAN'T EAT THIS WAY FOR EVER!
So you give in to the smell of chips and all of a sudden you're off your diet and back to eating the way you used to and the result? The weight you just lost eating nothing but cottage cheese and rivita (which should only be used to deter mice from taking up residence in your home, once they see you have rivita they f**ck off somewhere else where they have proper food) piles back on plus a five percent tip.
So are there ways to eat normal food and still shift this two stone of baby weight? (Ok I lost most of the baby weight just getting her to come out but I have to use some excuse for being this size rather than being addicted to bourbon biscuits and pringles) The answer for me is both incredibly simple and yet infuriatingly complex.
I HAVE TO CHANGE THE WAY I EAT FOR LIFE!
That's for the rest of my life as in forever, until death. It will mean skipping an aisle or three in Tesco so I'm not even tempted to slip a packet of HobNobs under the mange tout without anyone noticing. It might mean putting more effort into dinner (I am a cordon bleu in opening a tin) but this is the price I have to be prepared to pay.
I have lost 20lbs so far, that's about a stone and a half and the reward for my efforts? I bought a new top for a Christening I went to the other week and had to get a size 16. I don't think I was a 16 when I was sixteen. Think you'll be seeing me on the cover of Slimmers Magazine? Only if it's the issue with a free packet of HobNobs :)
