About Me

Llantwit Major, Wales, United Kingdom
I am mother, librarian, avid reader, sf fan, writer (unpubished), singer(amateur), animal lover, needlewoman.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Diet

I have started a diet. This is another diet as I have done many over the years, and none of them have really worked. However as I am going to be mother of the bride in November I do have a serious motive. Lots of pictures which I cannot avoid being in are a strong incentive.

I am trying the diet regime which my daughter has used which is the Cambridge diet and it works on a very low calorie meal replacement, at varying levels of calorie intake as you progress. So I began yesterday and today I am hungry. I use the packets of prepared porridge/soup/shake for 2/3 meals and get to eat food in the evening, but the food available is fairly limited. I am a bit worried that I won't keep it up because I can't say I am very thrilled by the food so far. Months of cup a soups isn't terribly enticing, however as I get used to it and figure out how to make the food taste better I suppose.

Diets are strange things in themselves really. There is nothing like being told you can't have something to make you want it, and many people with a need to diet have a bad relationship with food, so in a way by going on a diet they set up additional stresses in their relationship with food. It does seem to be a Western problem that people eat too much and get fat, or use it as a weapon in a complex personal battle of bulemia or anorexia. Why is food such complicated thing ?

It can be a sign of love, of hate, of self loathing, of greed, of pleasure, of comfort, of need, to mention just a few. Some people have little interest in food and just eat to survive. Some enjoy food but find it easy to stop after a small amount. Others have a problem finding that stopping point and overeat, sometimes to extremes.

I watched part of a programme about a disorder where people never feel full and they will just keep on eating and eating, and will eventually eat themselves to death unless they are stopped. It was dreadful for them and for their families, but there are also people who do that to themselves without having a medical disorder and you see them on tv and just think 'Why?' What makes them so screwed up that they do that to themselves? But it doesn't happen overnight and things creep up on people without them being really aware of it, so they find themselves with a problem and sometimes find it very difficult to deal with, and you can see that the sense of whatever it was that made them overeat in the first place makes them less able to deal with the consequences of it and a vicious circle is created which they often can't break.

So I better stick to the diet and lose some weight.

6 comments:

oreneta said...

Good luck!

I am sure Kate will be able to help you out with the whole thing too.....

Boo and Trev said...

It is odd the relationship with food. I suppose the first things our mothers do for us is provide nutrition both in and out of the womb. I suppose Erin could tell us all about it (actually, her degree seemed mostly neuroscience and genetics and nothing like I used to read in Cosmo in my younger days.) I am always amazed by these people who can't leave the bed because they are so fat. So how do they get food? Enablers I believe.
Talking of enabling are you going to be on cuppa soups in the Lakes with all that cream tea availability?
Good luck with it all x

Helen said...

Yes, I will be on the cuppa soups - I can eat a limited range of real food, so I'll bring it with me.

Adrian Jones said...

Go mum, you can do it! Every time you get hungry just drink some water and think of the photos. I'm just watching 'The Biggest Loser' which is a shameful daytime TV show I'm obsessed with about REALLY overweight Americans losing weight. It's incredibly motivating!

Love you and know you can do it
xxxx

Boo and Trev said...

Ooh I know what I forgot to say. One of the scientists at work (who is Irish) was talking about the fat gene. Apparently, Irish people who survived the Potato famine seem to have had a gene which meant that they stored fat better than those that died. Obviously their descendants (us) are likely to have this gene. Interesting eh?

Helen said...

I KNEW there was a reason!! Long live science.