A Rest from the Diet
Monday, February 26, 2007 at 14:13 The diet has been getting more and more difficult over the last week. I had to miss a meal on both Thursday and Friday and in spite of this I had to miss another meal on Saturday. When on Sunday I found that I was still one pound above my target weight I decided enough was enough.
In similar circumstances I knew exactly what advice I would give to someone else, because I had given it to my wife a few weeks ago. “Take a week off from the diet. Weigh yourself again in a week’s time and start again from that weight.” My wife did exactly that and the diet has been going fine for her since then.
So in spite of the fact that it involves putting back the date on which I am scheduled to attain my “perfect” weight, I am going to do the same. I will forget about the diet and start again next Monday. I can’t complain really - I have lost 11 lbs in total - and reaching a plateau like this is a feature of almost every diet. All I’m doing is allowing my body to consolidate the gains so far and then I will be getting going again.
When I come to write the diet up finally, I will probably amend the rules to include a resting period like this in place of the final “no eating” rule.
Full details of the diet I am following can be found here.
Reader Comments (5)
And congratulations on losing 24 lbs since January 1st. However I must pick you up on one thing you said. My diet is not a "crisis diet" aimed at losing weight quickly. I'm aiming to lose 1 lb per week, which is actually considerably slower than you have being losing weight.
The problem I have with your diet is that it sounds alarmingly similar to how I was eating before I went on my current diet - and indeed that is the way I am eating again this week, my "week off". I'm not denying the effect it has had on you, but it doesn't seem to have the same effect on me.
Mark
Thanks for the congrats. I owe it entirely to your brilliant ideas for which I'll always be truly grateful. You quite literally improved the quality of my life. In respect to the diet, I fully understand what you're telling me. I had absolutely NO IDEA that this diet would have this effect on my body. I went on this diet only becuase my pain management doctor wanted me to submit to some blood work testing and I was totally ashamed of what the result might be! I decided to eat healthy to save face with my doctor! lol! Maybe I'm having such radical results is because my previous eatin havits were totally deplorable! lol! I've always been a ravenous eater, but before I became disabled my sports kept me lean no matter what I ate. Now I'm getting close to my weight before I became disabled. I suspect that you've always eaten healthy based on your response here so my eating revelations is simply the norm for you.Maybe you should get some testing done becuase you should be able to eat normally without having to restrict yourself like that, yeah? Just a thought...Since I'm disabled my only exercise is walking so it's not likely related to that. I hope you find a good resolution to this without having to focus so much on these rules unless of course you don't mind! lol! Best of luck in your endeavors...and keep us posted on your successes. I admire your willingness to experiment and allow us to learn from you. Thank you again for all your help.
I am having some success with a similar diet and have lost 5 kg (11 lbs, like you) and counting.
I am pleasantly surprised in that it has been easier than I expected. I rarely feel hungry, for example, despite eating less than before. And an unexpected side-effect of the weight loss is that in addition to feeling lighter, I just feel generally better. I have a 25-minute walk to work, so some get exercise routinely, as well as organised sports.
Fine tuning is not possible for me here in France, as Continental scales measure in kilograms and the smallest division on the scale is 0.5 kg or about 1 lb. So I have the No S rules in place by default, with occasional relaxation: for example, yesterday I was 0.5 kg lighter than planned, so had a good dinner and a few drinks. Maybe this is easier psychologically, as it is like a reward for losing weight rather than a penalty for not losing it.
To come to the point, a couple of suggestions to counter stagnation:
1. Increased exercise. Get more aerobic exercise into your daily routine. Or add longer weekend walks or other exercise.
2. Rather than apply the rules one by one, apply a number of rules by default and relax one or more only when the desired weight loss has been exceeded.
There's no real problem with kilogram scales. Just work on 1 kg roughly equals 2 lbs, and aim to lose 1/2 kg per week. You just reduce your target weight once a week instead of twice a week.
Once one has been doing the diet for a while, it really doesn't matter whether one started with a number of rules or with none at all.
Mark