Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
Can We Talk Diets
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
I started running when I was 13st, two years later I was still 13 stone (plus 9lbs), my times hadn't improved and I had to run/walk (walking every 10 mins).
I was eating what I wanted, when I wanted, thinking that because I was running it was okay.
Eight weeks ago I joined Scottish Slimmers (SS) and have since lost 19lbs. I'm feeling so much better in myself and am feeling a lot better when I run. In fact I managed 45 minutes running non-stop (including running up hills and into the wind).
I stick to the SS plan on most days but if I go over the allocated checks on one day(slimming world call them syns, WW it's points) then I don't beat myself up about it cos I know that my running will help me.
On SS you are allocated a number of checks according to your starting weight. each check represents 25 cals. I'm on 45 checks a day. On top of that you are given every day bonuses of two pieces of fruit and a calcium bonus (275ml milk, yoghurt etc). Most vegetables have a check-free value and they encourage you to drink two litres of water a day.
What I have learned from this is that I do like vegetables and I do like salad. I also really like fruit (especially when a punnet of strawberries counts as my daily fruit bonus).
It's a diet in the sense that you are restricting the amount of calories that goes into your body but it's also teaching me how to be healthier. My body can no longer tolerate fatty foods and I feel sick from eating too much chocolate. I'm also never hungry as I fill up on the good stuff.
Good luck with whatever you try to help you shift those pounds and get faster.
Alison
The "diet" industry is self-perpetuating because it encourages people to think about food all the time, which is NOT what naturally slim people do. There's no great mystery about weight control - it IS a simple calories in/calories out equation - but the factors that influence our ability to eat as much as we need and no more are fascinatingly complex.
ALL "diets" work in the short term, in the sense of making weight come off, if you follow them. But to keep weight off, you have to see yourself as the sort of person who doesn't need to go on "diets".
However, Slimming World was only effective for me in the context of other major changes to my life. It gave me a framework for healthy eating, but the drive came from elsewhere.
One important thing that had a huge effect was cutting down drastically on the booze. I was getting through a litre bottle of gin a week plus wine, beer etc. Booze had stopped being a pleasure and become a crutch. The booze was also accompanied by lots of fatty snacky stuff.
The size I used to be did not suit me. I don't even mean appearance-wise, although that was a factor. I was permanently out of breath even using daily asthma inhalers of both types (sometimes I was so breathless, I had to go upstairs on all fours), my feet used to swell intensely, I had gastric problems all the time. Then, shortly before my 50th birthday, I had three months off work because of severe depression. Going on antidepressants made me realise that I had been depressed for most of my life, although had remained more or less functional until that point. As the antidepressants worked, I found I was able to start sorting my life. Cutting down on booze was the very first step. Then I joined a gym, mainly to use the pool at that time. After that, I discovered that I had a talent for translation which enabled me to leave the job that was causing so much stress and become a freelance. Slimming World came shortly after that, and then running. I call this my "look and feel better in my fifties than in my forties" campaign.
I still have a hell of a lot to sort out. My next battlefield will be domestic/relationships. However, my experience is that once these things start moving, they carry on moving through all facets of your life. Losing weight is one such facet, and as such can therefore also impinge on other things. Our subconscious knows this and I think this is the major reason why so many dieting attempts become sabotaged, because change can be frightening.
HOWEEVER the only reason I could do that was because I was equipped with all the nutrional knowledege necessary.
Although there are obvious pitfalls to dieters- Cakes bad, Apples good this isnt enough to know how to eat well. Having a good working knowledge of the nutrional and calorie content of food is really important. Otherwise how do you know how to 'just eat healthily'. It is important not to be fooled by marketing of supposedly healthy food. (Muesli bars fro example) and to really know what is in the food. Bananas are fantastic food but a big banana can have as many calories as a chocolate bar. If that is extra food that you just dont need even if it is in 'good' form it will still not do you any good.
It is also important to know HOW MUCH you need roughly and HOW MANY calories you burn through exercise.
Unless you get a handle on these things then the just eat healthily approach wont work.
So I recommend a few things I think you should do before you start another 'diet'.
(1) Work out how many calories you need per day to MAINTAIN your current weight.
(2) Read the nuttrional labels of all the food you currently eat
(3) Keep a food diary and try and work out you present calorie intake. Also other things like protien, fat and carbs.
(4) Keep track of how much you run and how many additonal calories you are burning through running. Dont worry about being slow. Everyone starts off slow. You will only get faster by keeping up training.
(5) WATCH other people (both slim and overweight) and their eating habits. Do they leave food on the plate? Do they have seconds? Did they finish their pudding? How big were their portions? Try and allign yourself with someone you think has a healthy realtionship with food and try copying what they do.
As mentioned before there is no instant easy solution. Changing the way you eat and view food forever is difficult but I believe it is the only way to stop yourself regaining the weight at a later date.
good luck and be patient.
And, after all, someone who needs to lose several stone, already doesn't have an entirely healthy relationship with food.
I understand what you're saying, but I have equal misgivings about the "just eat what your body tells you it feels like and never mind the labels" school.
When people write up their daily food intakes on other dieting threads on this forum, I am truly shocked at how little some active women eat - either they are bluffing, or they really are creating problems for themselves. I want to scream when I see "Dinner: 4oz vegge burger and salad (no dressing). Water." written by someone who is running 70mpw. I think I would be happier if they smoked!
"can anyone who keeps a training log and measures the routes they run have a healthy relationship with running?"
I think keeping track of (or finding out) what you're really doing can be useful.
Although, as LizzyB said, if it leads to under-eating, that's a problem.
Velo- I put my hands up to not having the healthiest relationship with food in the past. I am now most at peace with food which is relief. I think understanding my nutritional needs a bit better has been a big help.
I think everyone should spend a bit of time reading food labels. To not want to know what is in the food you are eating seems bizarre.
Mechanically recovered meat anyone?
Can you say some more about that, VRap?
I suggested a food diary BEFORE she dieted so she could start to understand WHY she was 3 stone overweight. Not so that she could run 70mpw and undereat.
3 stone does not appear through undereating but soemtimes it is hard to pinpoint where the extra eating comes from.
It is not a permanent solution but it may help inject a bit of honesty about her present eating habits BEFORE messing them up further with yet another diet.
If I kept a food diary I wouldnt be appalled by how much I ate because I eat as much as I need. Which is way more than a 7 stone inactive woman and way less than a 16stone male rugby player.
Eating lots of food is not in itself a bad thing if that is what you need. The idea that females should eat like birds is rubbish perpetuated by trashy mags. It is not unladylike to eat well.
I couldn't keep a food diary, but then I can't keep ANY sort of diary apart from, occasionally, a very simple training log when I'm preparing for a specific event.
I grew up in a household where "dieting" was part of the culture (my mother ran a slimming class and I used to help out) and I knew the calorie content of virtually everything and was never happy with my weight - and the gap between me being "awfu' fat and I'm worried about you" and "awfu' thin and I'm worried about you" was probably less than a stone. I married a man who consistently told me he loved me in spite of the way I looked. I've had to leave that "don't be happy with your body" script message behind me, and running has helped enormously.
I've forgotten the calorie count of everything now
..................
Huge bowl of oats, pumpkin seeds, raisins, sunflower seeds with soya milk and honey.
Round of cheese and sundried tomoato sandwiches
Handful of grapes
Apple
Four boiled sweets
(all this was free and all I had time for - usually I'd eat a lot more but it was our university's open day so I was running around everywhere!)
Three slices of peanut butter on toast
Shared one of those big bags of Walkers Sensations with hubby
Huge bowl of pasta tossed in olive oil and parmesan with home-made ratatouie (sp.)
Two and a bit glasses of wine
Plus black coffee and herb tea and water.
...................................
Given that this was a 'light' day for me, I think you can see why I don't keep a food diary!!
For a while when my sister became a teenager she had a 'weight' problem according to my mum. I was 7 years younger than her so was not aware but I remembered this recenly and I asked her how much she weighed when she was 'fat'.
9.5 stone. At 5 foot 4 she was never fat but how much damage did that do the 14 year old?
I dont think that food diary is so shocking and the important thing is that you are happy with the balance between food/body and activity.
reread "Fat is a feministt issue" at once!
So from memory I ate yesterday:
Porridge with FULL FAT MILK (love the stuff)
Half a jumbo cookie
Baked potato / salad /beans/ cottage cheese
Baked Rainbow trout
Mashed potatoes
tomato and basil salad.
Pink doughnut thing and some 'sweetshop' sweets marketed for kids.... !
Small whisky.
2 apples, a peach and apricot
About 6 cups of tea thoughout day.
Normally I dont eat the crap but I was in need of a sugar/E-number rush as I was feeling very tired all day due to early moring solstice trip to Stonehenge. - See photo.
I hope that was said in tones of the deepest irony