You're on a what?

I could put it down to my age - having passed 45 - or to my tablets - or to my rather sedentary job - or to the fact that I have been allowing myself to eat whatever I wanted for the last six months... Whatever the cause, I am afraid I have started to... bulge. Like when you are blowing up a new balloon and it holds its tension until suddenly, one lump pops out, and then it all gives way and the balloon fills with air. So my waist skin, jaw skin, upper arm skin, and other bits too, managed to hold the surface tension for quite some time, until suddenly... plop... I started to, frankly, bulge.

The day that I had to rush out of work at lunchtime to buy the next size up of trousers, because my tummy was so uncomfortable in my normal ones, that was the day I realised something had to be done.

I have never worried about my weight or really thought about it, and I have always eaten pretty much whatever I felt like. So for me to embark on a diet was a bit of a shock. But luckily enough, I came across an ad on facebook for a book entitled The Gabriel Method - the revolutionary DIET-FREE way to transform your body. Excellent! It promised you can lose weight without dieting, eating whatever you want!

So I bought the book, and in a few nutshells, this is what it says:

• Weight is all in the mind - either your body reacts to stress by staying thin ( ready to flee), or by gaining weight - (storing up fat for future shortage) - so you have to persuade your mind that you need to stay thin for your own good, and that, there is no shortage to fear, so no need to store fat. 
• So, brainwash yourself by listening to Mr Gabriel's CD at bedtime each night, whilst visualising yourself as a thin person, saying to yourself "Thin is good, thin is OK, thin is safe," and such.
• If you diet as in, deny yourself any food at all, your brain will think that your body is being deprived of something it needs, so, your body will start to store fats from what you do eat. So the key is to eat what you want, so that the body feels safe. (sounds good so far...)
• Eat plenty of healthy food with all the vitamins you need, seeds, nuts, fruit and veg, etc, so that your body is in fact getting everything it needs - so that it will have a sense of well-being and not need to store up fat or urge you to eat more. This way you will slowly stop craving unhealthy foods, sugar etc to give you energy you were lacking.
• Then some stuff about your Chi which I skipped over...
• The some advice about eating flaxseed every day for Omega 3, eating brown sugar and flour instead of white, avoiding processed, prepacked food, eating "live" fresh organic food, avoiding toxins and additives...
• Then two more chapters which I skipped over...

I concluded that the book is a bit of a mixture, and that while it has some good ideas, as a whole it is not for me...

So I am trying a hotch-potch approach, and if it works, I will call it the Button Method.

We have always eaten a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables, but now I am intentionally eating some healthy things every day, like a piece of fruit, a handful of sunflower seeds, and adding milled flaxseed to almost everything I cook. I am also calorie counting... I have never calorie counted in my life. I honestly never knew how many calories were in anything. So it has been quite interesting finding out. For example, I now know that a banana has 95 calories in it, while a bowlful of apple crisp has 350!!

But sticking to the 1800 calories a day is really not at all hard. It mainly means not eating between meals, and not blowing out on crisps or loads of biscuits. One choccie biscuit or other treat in a day seems to be no problem. 

Now I need to add in some exercise, I suppose. Sadly, Billy Blanks and Tae Bo went out the window months ago. I can't imagine having the energy to jump around the sitting room right now... Maybe just walking Frodo a bit more briskly is all that's needed.

Well, here's to fitting back into those old trousers...