Last summer I met Janet. She came along to a couch to 5K class I was running and I got to say…she is a bloody star! Over the last few years she has changed her eating habits and lost over 10 and a half stone (nearly 70kg!!!). She is also the major player in the private Facebook group we have to help support people change their diets and eat healthier.
A few days ago, she wrote this for everyone, and with her permission, I’ve copied it here, because I think it is so helpful and inspiring. I wish I could put things into words like she can…Take it away Janet!
Hi folks – yesterday Cerin asked me what had I changed about my diet in order to lose weight. Obviously diet changes played a huge part in it and a desire to get fitter but it is also a change in how I think about food. A mental change. This is not a perfect way of thinking, it doesn’t happen 100% of the time, as some days your mood affects your thinking massively- especially ladies and hormones.
The biggest mental change I have made is about feeling deprived. You can’t have the cake, you shouldn’t have the cake or you CHOOSE not to have the cake (substitute cake for anything not a healthier choice). Once I got my head around the fact it was choice – not depriving myself it all became clearer and easier to do. Some days the choice is I’m having it but most of the time it’s a choice I’m not because the choice won’t get me want I want in the long run.
This took about 2 months into my serious diet changes to get my head around . In very simple thinking – what I wanted i.e. the weight loss/getting fitter – was more important than the taste of the cake which would last only a few minutes. I try and apply this everyday and still go out with friends for meals and enjoy a gin or two.
When faced with a menu a vegetarian only chooses from the veggie section of a menu. They don’t feel deprived of the whole menu as the choices on the other part are not what they want to eat. I apply that thinking to healthier choices on the menu. I pick the 3 or 4 that look the healthiest and just make a choice from them. I don’t look at the things that are not the healthiest choice I focus on the things that are healthier then what I would like from them. And yes I have chips at times and occasionally a creme brulee or sticky toffee pudd but because the majority of the time I apply the “choice” not depriving rule it doesn’t make a huge difference.
If you have got to the end well done 🤪 I didn’t mean it to be so long but I hope it explains it a bit.
Basically my end goal is in my head all the time and affects the choices I make most of the time – not perfect but it’s worked so far. Hope it helps ❤
Wow Janet what an inspiration you are! Thank you for your words which are clear and helpful. I’ll be making healthier choices from now on and keeping that long term aim of becoming fItter and healthier in the forefront of my mind.
Yeah, she is a bloody star, isn’t she 🙂