I thought that I had pretty much seen and heard it all when it came to crazy weight loss solutions, but there is more it seems. ‘Diet Slimming Perfume’ – what a catchy product name! – is now apparently the answer we are all looking for. According to the founder of the website that sells it, “Diet Slimming Perfume is a fantastic new product for dieters and those keen to lose a few pounds before baring all on the beach or at a summer wedding. It is completely natural and the benefits it offers are incredible, from improving circulation and boosting the immune system, to providing a natural antioxidant which detoxes the body.”
Ahem, excuse me whilst I grab a shovel to shift the pile of bullshit I have just come into contact with! I could pick holes in those comments…completely natural…so is marijuana but that can cause psychosis! Are us ‘losers’ as bad as the people who make this stuff though? I mean, there must be a market for it or else they wouldn’t bother. The sooner we realise that there are no quick fixes, the better. In my humble opinion there are three key areas to address when losing weight – your head/emotions, food, and exercise. Yes, this is obviously simplistic…but it works…and they all need to be addressed. You can’t out-train a bad diet, it is hard to lose weight and maintain that loss without exercise, and if your head isn’t in the right place then you are buggered quite frankly.
What doesn’t work on a long-term basis is all of this faddy rubbish. I would have said stuff like pills and meal replacement shakes…it now seems that I have to add bloody perfume to the list too – shocking! I actually find it quite offensive really. People who want to shift a few lbs to look good in a bikini are not likely to resort to a perfume to help them; they could probably cut down on their food and exercise more. Despite the comments from the people who sell this perfume, consumers are likely to fall into two categories – ‘desperate’ or ‘very desperate’! This just seems like a money-spinner designed to target vulnerable people.
Desperation is something that I have felt, and that I know many of you feel too. We so desperately want to look ‘normal’, to conform to the size that we feel we should be – and we are willing to try all sorts of crazy things to reach that level of normal. I know people who have eaten tissue to fill their stomachs up, I have personally tried every fad diet going – Cabbage Soup, Slim Fast, Boiled Egg Plan, Milk Diet…various diets which eliminate food groups, dropping to 1200kcals when I was over 43st which is incredibly dangerous to do unsupervised. I even contemplated Lighter Life, where I was told that losing my hair was “a small price to pay for losing weight, don’t you think?”…no I bloody don’t…my hair was the only thing I liked about myself at that time.
I see some desperate people across the social media sites I frequent too. Skipping from plan to plan, switching from Slimming World, to Slim Fast, to Weight Watchers, to calorie counting, to meal replacement drinks, back to Slimming World, then to Weight Watchers again…and the cycle continues. We are so desperate to find something that works for us. We want a plan to fit our lives…yet we seem unprepared to change our lives in order to reach our goal.
Any healthy eating plan which gives you the ability to eat from all of the major food groups, with the ability to snack when hungry – true hunger, not emotional hunger – will work. Combine this with exercise and you are getting there. Combine both of those elements with some sort of therapy or counselling and you will be on a roll. That final element is crucial and you must all get bored of me mentioning it now. The reason I harp on about it so much is that I feel that this is what has made a real difference to me…on my ‘lost-count-of-how-many-times-I-have-tried’ journey! This therapy or counselling can be self-driven…there are so many good books out there that offer practical cognitive behavioural therapy…I am reading one now, and have read many before; they help keep me on track and I feel no shame at all in admitting that I need that kind of help.
There are so many external factors that make it difficult for us to eat healthily, and we may have had traumatic experiences and very valid reasons for reaching the sizes we do. Or, you could be like me and have just found yourself relying more and more upon food to cope with the stresses and strains of normal life. Ultimately though, we can take responsibility and be the person that fights back and makes a change. Whilst I am a strong believer that an eating plan has to be enjoyable – how are you expected to follow it for life…which is what you will need to do in order to maintain your weight loss – I also think that we have to be prepared to meet halfway.
The foods I used to eat were awful, yet form part of many people’s diets. I chose to find healthier alternatives and can now safely say that I really enjoy them. I know that they are healthier so I get a bit of a boost from feeling saintly, and I know that they are helping to get me where I want to go, and I feel no guilt in enjoying them. A sarcastic comment was made the other night about one of my meals…larger than this person could have managed apparently…really, remind me how you got fat again eating small portions?! To be honest, I couldn’t give a damn what people think of portion sizes as my meals are so much healthier than they used to be, and at the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding.
I would never have found an eating plan that allowed me to eat what I did, in the quantities that I did, that would help me lose weight. I guess some things in life worth having require a little discomfort. Discomfort in the sense of me throwing a temper tantrum when I couldn’t have what I wanted…but these wore off! I can still enjoy big meals, that fill me with nutrients and are balanced, and can lose weight doing so. Tweaking will be required along the way. Such things as increasing the balance of lower calories foods to those with more calories (more veggies, less pasta etc!) and making my portion sizes smaller. Whilst I am losing weight though, I am happy to keep going as I am.
Silly fad diets and crazes, such as weight loss perfume, are not the answer. I think there were even pens that you could sniff at one point, which you can still buy in America…we really will try anything to shift a few lbs…sitting on the sofa sniffing a pen is NOT going to help. Taking steps to make small changes that you can build into your life for good is the answer. You don’t have to become an angel overnight…goodness knows how long it took me to make even the smallest of changes, and I am constantly working on them. I accepted that I didn’t get that big overnight, and that I had to accept that this is a long term project.
I am going to stop now, as I think I am about to cross the line of rambling and preaching – a dangerous combination! My last words are just a little confirmation of my thoughts on ‘Diet Slimming Perfume’…the only thing I wish to sniff is the Macaroni Cheese I am about to start preparing for dinner!
Onto today’s usuals then…
The alarm clock felt like my enemy this morning; I was not at all happy to hear it! I think that the heat last night, and having the bedroom window wide-open, meant that my sleep was disturbed. I seemed to hear every passing car, every bit of bird song and every rustle of the leaves. My other half nudged me though and so I got up and got on the treadmill! I then worked for a few hours, finished my workout, and then we headed out. The trip to the horses today was fun. After the snake yesterday I decided to pull into the driveway with the windows and roof closed, rev the engine and beep the horn to send any snakes a warning that we were there…so much for the peaceful countryside eh?! We then tucked our trousers into our socks and there was a bit of a mad dash…our visit today was a little quicker than usual! The horses were fine though and I think I will get the strimmer out to get rid of some of the snake hiding have a up there…at least so that we can see them in advance. We then popped to Asda for today’s supplies and headed home. I got to catch up with my niece and nephew today too; I was babysitting for parents evening, so that was a pleasant couple of hours, but dragged on longer than I thought so dinner wasn’t ready until 8.45pm and I was hungry! I am reading a good self-help book at the moment, based on cognitive behavioural therapy, which I will review for you all once I have finished…so I will probably end up reading some more of that tonight.
Breakfast: Banana and two Alpen light bars (1 x HEB).
Lunch: Jacket sweet potato with mixed beans and ratatouille veggies (1.5 syns).
Dinner: Macaroni cheese packed with veggies (1 x HEB and 2 x HEA).
Snacks: Packet of Snack a Jacks (4.5 syns) and two packets of Walkers baked crisps (10 syns).
My food today was lovely. Brekkie was the usual and lunch was designed to use up the lonely sweet potato in the fridge. I cooked it in the Actifry so it was nicely done, and then mixed my ratatouille veggies with some mixed beans; it was rather nice but it has made me trump a few times today…just scared the dog actually with one! Dinner was pure comfort food at it’s best…three lots of cheese to use up my healthy extras, along with more cheese in cottage form – yummy! I used a packet of cheese and broccoli Pasta’n’Sauce (cooked it first) and added red onion, tomatoes, broccoli, mushroom, courgette, pepper, spinach, garlic, herbs, a bit of tomato purée and then mixed garlic and herb Philadelphia light with cottage cheese and poured that on top. I baked it in the oven and just before it came out I added my extra cheese to get it all bubbly and lovely. This is really filling but crammed with superfree too…and so delicious that it is hard not to make it every night!
Exercise: 3 x 10 minute and 2 x 15 minute treadmill sessions, with 15 minutes of BodyPump.
My back and arm pain have gone now – I just have the usuals niggles that I have – and so I decided to brave the tricep section of my BodyPump DVD. This meant lying down…not a problem in itself, it is the getting up part that I find hard, and this is the bit that caused the back pain in the first place I think! So it was a good morning, despite my initial lack of enthusiasm.
I hope that you are all having a great week…one reader is off kayaking after work…how exciting?!
Weight Loss Bitch xxx
WeightLossBitch
On a health and fitness driven journey to lose over 32st / 448lbs / 203kgs – yes, it is a considerable amount – I am committed to losing my excess weight without the aid of weight loss surgery, diet pills, or quick fixes…as there aren’t any! Changing my eating habits and building up my fitness levels, along with addressing the ‘head issues’ will be crucial in order for me to achieve my goal. Living in England as a 31 year old super morbidly obese woman can be challenging to say the least. I have been shouted at in the street and verbally abused far too many times to mention; hence the name ‘Weight Loss Bitch’…the day I am just called a ‘bitch’ instead of a ‘fat bitch’ will be the day that I know I have cracked my weight loss! With many reasons to lose this weight I am documenting my journey for a number of reasons. Firstly, I would like to keep a record of the ups and downs, the highs and lows, and the challenges I face with such an enormous task to tackle. Secondly, I would also like to inspire and encourage other people who are in a similar situation and to show them that significant amounts of weight can be lost naturally…with a bit of motivation, hard work, dedication and will power. Thirdly, all of the blogging, Facebook-ing, Tweet-ing, Pinterest-ing and YouTube-ing keeps me occupied and keeps my fingers out of the fridge!
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