You know, if you think about it, which I do a lot, you realise that it’s very difficult to make a fundamental change to your behaviour in one area without it affecting everything else.
If you decide to do more exercise, then it’s very difficult to maintain old lazy habits because you get the endorphin and energy rush from the exercise. You find yourself doing more.
If you decide to eat less and lose weight, then the confidence you gain as a consequence of your success permeates beyond just food and into all other aspects of your life.
Thinking Slimmer is not a diet. It is a way of changing your thinking and your behaviour around food so that you eat less. Those of us who have struggled with being overweight are used to being ruled by what we eat or shouldn’t eat.
This means that when you lift the guilt of food off our shoulders, once we stop worrying about what or how much we eat, we are actually in a position to do some of those things in our lives that we would like to do. Every waking moment is no longer filled by a battle of wills around food.
Suddenly, one day when we take the dog for a walk, we find ourselves thinking, “I wonder if I could just jog for a little instead of walking” and then next thing you know, you’re going for a run every day. Or you decide to walk to the shops instead of drive, you get home dripping wet and with a huge smile on your face because you realise you have achieved something. Eventually you don’t even consider driving to the shops any more.
And some people are finding all sort of other amazing effects when they change their thinking. The don’t want to drink fizzy diet drinks any more, they feel more relaxed in situations which used to cause them stress, when they do experience stress they don’t turn to food to resolve it anymore. People choose something healthy or nothing instead of a chocolate snack. People are surprising themselves with the other changes in their thinking that happen when they change their behaviour around food.
Then one day, you find that your jeans are falling down and need a belt. But you thought that the Slimpod you’ve been listening to for a few of weeks wasn’t working. The evil scales have barely shifted. And when you think about it, you realise that you aren’t snacking any more and that your portion sizes at meals are smaller than they used to be. You think about it and realise that you’ve done more ‘exercise’ in the last few weeks than you’ve done in your life. You realise that it is actually working and the only reason that you thought it wasn’t is because you’ve been eating naughty “non-diet” food and the evil scales haven’t shifted enough.
But your clothes are loose and your jeans need a belt.
Your friends have commented on how well you look and act. Because there has been a shift in your confidence. You feel unburdened by the “law of the diet”. You have started to look at others and feel sorry for them as they make their resolutions to eat less, eat better, go to the gym. “I don’t need to do that any more” you think. And you smile.
You start to look at your bigger clothes and realise you can take them to the charity shop because you are not on a diet. Any weight that you have lost will stay off because you’ve changed your behaviour.
One day, you will talk to other people at the start of their Thinking Slimmer journey and realise how far you have come and how well it works.
And you will smile.
I am about 8 months into my journey on Thinking Slimmer journey and all these thoughts that I’ve described apply to me.
This week I put on the size 14 Rocha Jon Rocha jeans that I bought a couple of months ago. And they nearly fit but they didn’t. I put them to one side. This week I put them on. They are tight but I can fasten them while I am standing up. So they are not that bad. And they will become looser.
I tried on the remaining clothes in my “too small” for me wardrobe, and they all fit me.
At last I feel I’m getting somewhere.
And my “I think I can go for a run” thoughts have led me to accept the offer to run in the London Marathon this year.
My “I don’t have to think about food anymore” thoughts have led me to train for a new career.
I am now 11st 10lbs – down from 15st 11lbs.
I am now a size 14 – down from a size 20/22
I am still going, on my way to a size 10/12. The weight doesn’t matter any more. I get on the scales once every couple of weeks, if that. They are evil.
So what would you do with that freedom? If you had control and were no longer ruled by food, what would you do with that space?
So if you have ever struggled with your weight, ask yourself this “What would I do if I no longer had to worry about controlling or even thinking about what I ate…” and see what comes into your head.
