Sunday lunch

With the weather being irresistibly sunny, we thought we would have our main meal later this evening. We're cooking BBQ brisket of beef, and it will look after itself while we soak up the sunshine.
LUNCH was simple smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and buttered toast.
We chose this lunch because we're going to tidy up the garden and we know this can be quite strenuous. We've found when we do work in the garden, we end up looking for SALTY snacks afterwards. I suppose with exercise and perspiration, the body loses salt. Have you ever found the urge to eat crisps after exercise?
We know smoked salmon is quite salty, so why not have an indulgent lunch which will help us stop snacking on crisps etc later.

Losing weight eating the food we love!

REMEMBER: We all have a calorie allowance - why not find out what yours is? We like to post our main meals to show you what CAN be eaten. You won’t find us posting every last morsel though – but we hope this gives you an idea of how far calories can go!

Read about our UNIQUE METHOD of weight loss and find out how we have lost weight eating the food we love.

Copyright © forgetdietingforever 2013, all rights reserved.

What have we learned?

So what have we learned so far about eating and weight? The last 19 months have been a learning curve for both of us and we feel confident about the future. We've ditched our larger sizes and swapped these for much smaller clothes. Our bodies have changed shape dramatically and I'm continuing to do so. Most importantly we both realise why we were overweight, why we were slowly gaining weight and finally how to put that right - without going to extremes and following silly diets.
Having the confidence to spend money on a whole new wardrobe of clothes in smaller sizes is our commitment to staying at this lower weight. We cannot see that we will ever put the weight back on, which was something that would happen after EVERY previous weight loss attempt when following a 'diet'.
Dieting never worked in the long term for us because we couldn't take control - the diet did that not us. As soon as the 'diet' was over, we had to take control of our eating once more - so returned to our normal eating habits. The diet was written in a different language to the one we associated with on a daily basis. Sometimes the diet would have a strange set of rules, which, if followed could result in weight loss. If I desperately wanted to lose weight, I would follow those rules rigidly - but the minute I returned to my normal eating habits, the weight piled back on.
To take control of our eating (and weight) we needed to understand the formula for weight loss - that's how we came up with our method - OUR IDEA. This formula / method will stay with us forever. We found success by eating all the foods we love - no diet foods were necessary. Understanding and taking control has been the key to our weight loss success. 

Dressing it all up

We are both busy buying new clothes and enjoying the process. Because we’ve lost so much weight using our own special method, we are convinced the weight will stay off. That’s not something I would ever have had the courage to say before, after following some 'diet' or other. 

So how can I be so convinced now? Partly because of the success of the method we have both followed. We've now learned how not to put on weight and have a system which gives us confidence and will help keep the weight off forever. 

My wardrobe is slowly being rebuilt, and I am buying some really nice items that will fit me today, tomorrow and next year. I no longer need 3 sizes of everything. Unlike my other half, I'm holding back on buying the really fitted items, as I want to lose just a little bit more - so I can fit comfortably into the next size down.

As I was getting bigger, I didn’t like spending money on clothes. Most of my clothes were dark – grey, black and colourless. This wasn’t just to hide what was underneath, but more an expression of how I felt.

Not any longer! I’ve just bought some of the brightest clothes ever. Suddenly I’m bursting out (not literally) in reds, yellows and orange.

So when I see the media picking on people like Claire Richards (ex Steps celeb with a weight problem)  - today she's wearing a navy polka dot dress, I am dismayed. Claire is such a pretty woman, and her size shouldn’t matter. I’ve recently watched the documentary on her weight issues, and I can identify – as I am sure a lot of people can – with her behaviour around food. I believe these problems stem from the restrictive ‘diets’ being followed. Diets restrict the food people love to eat and this can only mean a short term fix. Most people – myself included – run straight back to the food they love after losing a few pounds. 

That’s why our method of losing weight was so successful. We turned our back on diets and came up with this fabulous idea. We eat and drink everything we want but most of all we've taken CONTROL. Because WE control what we eat, we reward ourselves every day with food we enjoy and no longer CRAVE anything. Our method allows us to relax with friends at weekends socialising without worrying about some 'diet' or other. 

Our 6.5 stone weight loss is the result. I’ve still got a bit to go – but I’m getting into dress sizes that I would never have dreamed of. Ditching diets and going with our gut feeling has been the best thing we’ve ever done.  The best bit – is when all the weight has gone – we just get to eat more. 

If you would like to know more about how we achieved our fabulous weight loss see OUR IDEA

Read how we put 'our idea' to the test  -  Our Experiment

Copyright © (c)forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

Why the pounds just slip on....

We made excuses; it was an age thing, it was in the genes - whatever it was it was something we felt we had no control over. I gave in to the 'inevitable' gain in weight, as I just didn't understand it. Just a half pound here and there, didn't really make that much difference at first. I would stand on the scales and brush aside any concerns, because the weight gain was so slow and hardly noticeable. It's not as if I stood on the scales and suddenly weighed a stone heavier. As the pounds slipped on I found myself judging my body size against others, and I would pick out people that were bigger than me to convince myself I wasn't big.
My partner steadily gained weight - but was only eating ONE meal a day! It wasn't as if I was eating huge amounts of food or scoffing in secret either, but the weight just kept on going up. I tried convincing myself it wasn't happening by stubbornly wearing clothes that were too tight and uncomfortable. I'd sit miserably in tight waistbands, maybe with the button undone, just to convince myself I had not gone up a size.
When I looked at myself, I didn't see the puffy face, the bulging midriff, the stocky matron. I saw me how I wanted to see me - just a little plump maybe, but nothing to worry about. I look back at a picture where I remember thinking I was perhaps a little overweight, and I am shocked at how fat I was.
Our journey over the last 18 months has convinced me now that there was only one reason the pounds just slipped on - and that's because I ate too much. I didn't overeat on a massive scale, it was a small amount every day - it could be just 50 calories (2 boiled sweets) over and above what my body required. Just 100 calories extra per day could mean 10 whole extra pounds in body weight per year.

Read how we changed the way we think and came up with OUR IDEA.
Read about how CALORIES DO COUNT and can seriously make a difference to weight loss.

Diets may work in the short term, but I found I never learned anything from them. I always put the weight back on, and for most of the diet, I was either starving or eating something I didn't like. Now, we eat whatever we want, enjoy our food, have lost over 6 stone and finally know how to keep the weight off forever.

Celebrations...

After a long weekend of celebrations, we return to our 4 days of lighter eating. We've had an early 'weigh in' to give us some idea of where we are. We have both been pleasantly surprised with just a tiny dent, but we know this can be smoothed out in the coming days. Once upon a time, celebrating meant that any 'diet' could quickly turn into a food frenzy. Not any more - because of the way we are losing weight. We didn't have time to stop and count calories either - we just went with the flow. It could be that by losing the weight slowly, we've taught ourselves to listen more to our body and we eat naturally?

Our philosophy is to eat whatever we want. We tell ourselves we can have whatever it is we really want to eat. By doing that we get to take control, rather than food control us. Back in the days of dieting, I would look at a buffet table and notice all the food that I wasn't allowed to eat. The 'naughty' food would end up piled onto my plate and be gone in seconds. Convinced it tasted great, because I hadn't eaten it for such a long time and returning for seconds and even thirds. Now I can look at the food on the buffet table and ask myself what I really would like to eat. Asking ourselves that question each time we eat, we get to make a conscious decision about our food. We believe this has helped reduce cravings for food.

As it's Monday, we'll be asking ourselves what we really want to eat over the next 4 days. Because we are eating slightly less, it's important that we enjoy what we are going to eat. I'm working on our menu for the next few days, and will post this up later.

Have your cake and eat it...

This morning I had a boiled egg for breakfast with rye bread and some cheese.  Thinking ahead to lunch, we may have sandwich or salad depending on what's in the fridge.  Last night I couldn't be bothered to cook, so had beans on toast.

When we go out, we try to eat something about an hour before we go, perhaps a bacon sandwich.  From experience we know it's better to eat something before going out.  As I have a cooker with a timer, I may put the oven on and cook a couple of jacket potatoes - ready for when we get back. That way we have something to eat if we want to - which generally we do.  Alternatively, we may make a sandwich for later, or have something we can put in the microwave.  All this preparation stops us taking the easy option - dialling a takeaway.  But, if we really want a takeaway, we'll have one.

Because we control our intake based upon what we want to eat, and not what someone is telling us we should be eating, we don't feel deprived.  It's all positive stuff.  I think back to the failed diets I followed and realise that negativity starts at the beginning: don't eat this, can't have that, this or that is not allowed.  Our 4/3 eating philosophy allows everything.  Our method of eating has helped sustain our weightloss, educate us about food, and more importantly, we can have our cake and eat it.

Copyright © (c)forgetdietingforever 2012, all rights reserved.

The non diet rules

I do not eat low fat diet foods
I eat full fat foods eg greek yoghurt
I am never hungry
I promise my body good nutritional food
I eat and drink plenty and I am never deprived of ANYTHING
There are no faddy foods in my eating plan
So far I have lost 20 lbs in weight - (one pound in weight per week)

The only other thing I know is that I am currently allowed to eat 2200 calories per day. So I eat whatever I want up to that limit on 3 days of the week, usually the weekend when I am socialising. For the remaining 4 days I reduce this amount, and slowly but surely, still eating my favourite foods and not giving anything up, the weight is coming off. If I want a few more calories to eat, then I go for a walk. I earn my cake.

Why follow a faddy diet? Take control of your life, and be happy eating what YOU WANT.