The Next Step - Be Happy
Going on a diet for whatever reason is hard. Staying on it is harder.
I think you have to be fairly focussed on yourself to make it work. It needs to be something you do for yourself. Your needs have to be explored and ways devised to fulfill them. The pleas of others who want to go out for dessert must be met stony-faced. ‘Try just one’ is inadmissible. ‘You don’t need to lose another ounce’ is: 1) flattery or 2) meant to make you fail—presuming that you are being sensible about your goal. Your weight and your body is your business, and until you find yourself sailing past your goal and thinking “just another five pounds and I will be perfect,” don’t listen to anyone.
You will not be perfect. Ever. If perfection were attainable, you wouldn’t reach it via a diet. Better, or healthier, or fitter, or at standard for blood pressure are all reasonable goals. Set one reasonable goal, keep your eye on it and make a contract with yourself to stop dieting and start toward a permanently healthier life the day you reach that goal.
You should make other changes in your life while dieting, but what they might be varies. Everybody is different. I have promised myself a fire in the fireplace every night and fresh flowers every Thursday. Both of those things will make me feel cosseted, but I already have the wood and the fireplace and flowers cost only €5 for a huge bunch, so they are both easy to do. There are side benefits. Getting in the wood, cleaning out the ashes, taking off the doors, putting them back on—these are physical activity that will do me some good. Hardening the flowers, choosing containers, cutting and arranging them, disposing of the cuttings in the compost bin—those are also busywork I like and don’t currently do.
Line up some projects. There couldn’t be a better time to have projects. The stronger sun will reveal things often hidden in winter gloom. After the house has been closed up for a long time, almost everything in it could do with some fresh air or some sunshine. If you sew you might choose this time to look for patterns and fabrics that you’ll be pleased to wear when you are fitter. Look at the designer runway shows and see what influences you might incorporate in your wardrobe. Most of us can’t put those clothes on right off the runway, but they usually include some genius ideas that work with real people’s clothing. I wouldn’t recommend cutting something out before you are fairly close to your goal. Every time you shape up the end result is a bit different, you know. Aging, level of physical activity, lots of things can change a healthy hourglass figure to a healthy androgynous figure or vice versa.
See your doctor if you plan to aggressively alter your weight. It will be helpful to have beginning and finishing medical data. Remember, this is a reduced carbohydrate diet I propose, not a low carbohydrate diet, nor yet a high protein diet.
If you are over fifty, check your height. If you are a little shorter than you were, ask your doctor to book a bone density test. Attacked early, osteoporosis can be treated with great success. Remember, weight bearing exercise is just as important as calcium consumption.
I have also promised myself to dress attractively the whole time. That’s mostly to overcome the shock of seeing my dieter’s face when I pass a mirror. Things tend to get ugly before they get better! I have never understood why someone with a thin face loses weight there first. I am going to go out more often, but not for meals. It’s hard here, because meals are included in every plan! Want to see the sea? Where shall we eat? Maybe movies, although they are all dubbed into Italian. It’s so weird to hear Helen Mirren or Keanu Reeves jabber away in Italian.
It won’t take long for the real work to start, though. After my poor face, internal fat—that defined as most dangerous to your health—will start to disappear. A shrinking waistline proves it. It seems that’s the time when your appetite starts to diminish quite a lot. Maybe your appetite takes most of its clues from fat that is a close neighbor? Anyway, in just a few weeks your stomach won’t hold more than a little food at a time, which is probably how the body was designed to work.
Over time the lumps and handles and jigglies will go away as well. The last thing seems to be the feet, but you can lose weight in your feet, too. I don’t buy clothes as things change. I just hike up what I have and add more belts.
Over the next weeks I will be showing you things that help me stay content and healthy. Most you can buy in Italy, some not. I know I used to be able to find everything in the USA. The diet I will follow is designed for people with cholesterol problems, and that is why it contains some things you might not be familiar with. You can easily find and follow a different regime, I just don’t recommend the Atkin’s diet because it is so unbalanced.
Step One
Get rid of refined and sugary foods entirely.
Step Two
Plan on how to keep yourself happy and satisfied.
Step Three
Buy whole foods.
Step Four
Come by to get support, to get recipes and to share yours with us. Keep a record for yourself of how you are doing, and if you feel like it, share it. If not, it is none of our business!
13 comments February 13th, 2007
