My sister and I are experts at gaining weight. We are both good cooks and love to eat what we cook. Every diet we've ever been on - separately or together - has been so restrictive, or expensive or boring that we've always found ourselves "falling off the wagon" and slipping back to our old eating habits very quickly.
During a coffee break, we discussed the things we had tried previously. We made a list of the aspects we liked (and didn't like) about each of the programs we had tried.
What didn't we like?
1. Anything artificial. That included diet pills. slimming milkshakes and candy filler-uppers.
2. We couldn't afford most of the never-ending payments at an expensive weight-loss clinic.
3. We didn't like preparing one meal for the rest of our family and another for ourselves, specially at a time when we were hungry and had low resistance.
4. Salads were lovely as long as we weren't condemned to eat them forever. We hated it that so many delicious foods - basic to our ethnic background and family favourites - were banned forever.
5. We didn't mind feeling hungry but constant starvation wasn't so great.
6. We were okay about some exercising but - hey ... enough is enough!
What did we like? ...
1. A proper weight scale that showed even small losses.
2. Taking responsibility for our own successes or failure rather than needing an expert to tell us.
3. The support of others who were going through the same experiences as we were.
Looking at the two lists we made up our mind to change the negatives. We made a pact to try something new, inexpensive and time freeing.
For want of a better term, we call our idea the "Measured Meals Plan" rather than a diet plan because we don't like to think about being on a diet.
We eat all the things we like - we have only taken the guess work out of our portions. It makes perfect sense to look at the calories we consumed, seeing as we felt our regular eating habits were nutritional, if overdone!
The results were fantastic! Our whole family got involved and learned a lot about calorie counts. And, the best thing of all, we began to lose weight!
During a coffee break, we discussed the things we had tried previously. We made a list of the aspects we liked (and didn't like) about each of the programs we had tried.
What didn't we like?
1. Anything artificial. That included diet pills. slimming milkshakes and candy filler-uppers.
2. We couldn't afford most of the never-ending payments at an expensive weight-loss clinic.
3. We didn't like preparing one meal for the rest of our family and another for ourselves, specially at a time when we were hungry and had low resistance.
4. Salads were lovely as long as we weren't condemned to eat them forever. We hated it that so many delicious foods - basic to our ethnic background and family favourites - were banned forever.
5. We didn't mind feeling hungry but constant starvation wasn't so great.
6. We were okay about some exercising but - hey ... enough is enough!
What did we like? ...
1. A proper weight scale that showed even small losses.
2. Taking responsibility for our own successes or failure rather than needing an expert to tell us.
3. The support of others who were going through the same experiences as we were.
Looking at the two lists we made up our mind to change the negatives. We made a pact to try something new, inexpensive and time freeing.
For want of a better term, we call our idea the "Measured Meals Plan" rather than a diet plan because we don't like to think about being on a diet.
We eat all the things we like - we have only taken the guess work out of our portions. It makes perfect sense to look at the calories we consumed, seeing as we felt our regular eating habits were nutritional, if overdone!
The results were fantastic! Our whole family got involved and learned a lot about calorie counts. And, the best thing of all, we began to lose weight!
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