Saturday, 13 September 2008

How Z lost weight 19 years ago Part 3

It was quicker than the 9 months it took me to lose 18 lbs, but it indicates why I had quite moderate expectations this time round.

It took 12 weeks to lose a further 12lbs, having initially lost 5 lbs in 5 days. And this was, as I've described, on a really quite strict diet of mainly bread and vegetables. Very little fat, not much alcohol, small amounts of meat, no cheese. It was, at least, steady - pretty well at 1 lb per week. At the end of it, I was 8 stone 2 pounds, which gave room for a bit of leeway as I was quite happy with 8.4 - 8.7 in the long term.

But it'll explain to you why I keep saying that it can be unrealistic and demoralising to expect a great weight loss all the time, especially if you have relatively little weight to lose. And if you do have habits you want to break, then a diet of (as it feels like) great deprivation may not be one that you can realistically keep up.

During those three months, I was never hungry - the reason behind the mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks. I never cheated, I never ate chocolate, cheese, pastry, biscuits (apart from the afternoon Rich Teas) or cake. If I had to transgress, I took the two baddies - fat and sugar - and never ate them both together. Thus, a cheese straw could make it a 'no loss' day, though an accompanying glass of wine would make it a 'weight gain' day, but a piece of cake was not on.

Looking back, it's hard to see why it took so long. I guess it was because I wasn't actually very fat. At the start, I weighed less than I do now. Damn. I blame my mother, of course.

Well, you have to blame someone, and that's what mothers are for (and it's true, but she didn't mean to).

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