Saturday, April 09, 2011

Eating and losing mindfully

6 weeks ago the sun began to shine and I began thinking about Summer, frocks and bare flesh.

I began to think that perhaps I should lose a few pounds. I wanted to lose weight but I didn't want to go on a diet as I love food too much. I simply couldn't bear the thought of cutting out particular food items. Moreover, I didn't want to make time to increase the amount of exercise I already do.

So I Googled around and started reading about the concept of intuitive eating. And Britain's very own Paul McKenna kept cropping up. I loathe this man for no real reason other than his presenting style, but he espouses some incredibly commonsense eating principles. And I am following them to the letter:
  1. When You Are Hungry, Eat
  2. Eat What You Want, Not What You Think You Should
  3. Eat Consciously And Enjoy Every Mouthful
  4. When You Think You Are Full, Stop Eating
So far I've lost 17lbs and am still losing. Incredible really, considering I'm eating full fat everything and have excluded nothing from my "diet", not even ice cream (which I eat most nights) and chocolate and certainly not carbs.

At the end of the day, "eating when hungry, eating slowly, and stopping when full" means I'm probably eating a third or more less than I used to. And that, it seems, makes all the difference.

4 comments:

Metropolitan Mum said...

17 lbs?? That a lot of weight, well done you!
Cutting out food groups is the one of the most idiotic idea when wanting to loose weight - the weight will only come back after you re-introduce dairy, wheat, or whatever it was people declare evil.

Planethalder said...

Yes, a lot of that would have been water of course but still am happy and surprised. I went on Atkins a long time ago and it worked well for me because I love meat and vegetables and am not a huge carb eater but obviously that sort of diet is not sustainable long term when you have an active social life and are busy. This "diet" is much more sustainable as it's a way of re-tuning the body to eat normally.

Anonymous said...

That sounds awesome, and very inspiring. I am very much in the same boat - I love food too much to consider dieting, but portion control I can manage. I did lose about 5 kgs a couple of years ago with this gameplan....
Time to do it more consciously.

Cheers,
Scarlett

Bombay Beauty said...

A timely post for me... Am trying to shed a few unwanted pounds. I think the key on this list is to stop eating when one is no longer hungry. Hunger drives my eating so rarely, usually just enjoyment of what I'm eating. I've got to try this...

xo

bb