FatBlogger

How many get it done - NWCR Facts

The National Weight Control Registry collects and collates data from those that have had success losing weight, and kept it off for at least a year. I have posted something like this before, but it is worth repeating the interesting findings.

NWCR FACTS *      

You may find it interesting to know about the people who have enrolled in the registry thus far.      

 

• 80% of persons in the registry are women and 20% are men.             

• The "average" woman is 45 years of age and currently weights 145 lbs, while the "average" man is 49 years of age and currently weights 190 lbs.      

• Registry members have lost an average of 66 lbs and kept it off for 5.5 years.      

• These averages, however, hide a lot of diversity:      

• Weight losses have ranged from 30 to 300 lbs.
• Duration of successful weight loss has ranged from 1 year to 66 years!
• Some have lost the weight rapidly, while others have lost weight very slowly--over as many as 14 years.

 

• We have also started to learn about how the weight loss was accomplished: 45% of registry participants lost the weight on their own and the other 55% lost weight with the help of some type of program.      

• 98% of Registry participants report that they modified their food intake in some way to lose weight.      

• 94% increased their physical activity, with the most frequently reported form of activity being walking.      

• There is variety in how NWCR members keep the weight off. Most report continuing to maintain a low calorie, low fat diet and doing high levels of activity.      

 

• 78%  eat breakfast every day.
• 75% weigh them self at least once a week.
• 62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.
• 90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day.

* from nwcr.ws/research

try, try again....

I am going to try again, harder this time. Not tomorrow, right now...today. It didn't take me long to realize what the consequences of not getting it right are. I am going to chalk up the last 6 months as a training period. I know, I know...I have had a lot of training.

So, one more time into the breach. If serious, positive progress is not made over the next three months, I will be forced to go down a different path. This is not a new beginning. I am not re-calculating or re-engineering the plan, it is a good and reasonable one. I think I came pretty close last time, I just need to focus and get more serious about it. Given my last doctor visit I do need to consider a few other things though. I also need to make a change or two to some problem areas that came up during the last try.

Things that worked....

• Cutting my calories by just 20%, and eating more frequent meals through out the day, was not that hard to do. I was rarely hungry.

• Using SuperFoods as a guide for what to eat made me feel great, and filled me up too.

• Exercising daily made me feel good about myself, going to the gym did also.
  

Things that failed...

• I gave up too easily on the food and activity journal. Daily accounting is a good thing, and it can help me to keep track of my sodium levels. Use FitDay, every day.

• My “day off” turned to three, four, a week or more. It made it too hard to get back on track and then the whole “tomorrow” thing kicked in. Change this to one meal off a week, as suggested in the ABS Diet?  If I still have trouble getting back on track, then I have no choice, no meals off for the remainder of the three months.
  

• I did not use rewards and incentives for staying on track. It is important. I can even use the “one meal” above as a reward for a good week of work. I will think of some others too.

Things to consider...

• The Doc said to use the DASH diet as a guide, look into this.

• Watch sodium levels, try to keep it at 1500 or below as suggested for my BP.

• Keep the book “Changing for Good” nearby. Commitment, relapse, planning, its all in there, read it again. Read it often.

So, that’s it then.  You have taken these attempts with me as well, let me know if I am forgetting something. Do you think I am full of crap again? Do you think I can get it right this time? I am open to suggestions, criticisms, support, ideas, examples, company...whatever it takes. 

The ABS Diet

A year ago I was discussing my diet plan with my neighbors, which were also on a diet. I told them about my plan to eat 5 or more times a day, try to eat SuperFoods and take a day "off" from the plan each week. They said, "That's what we are doing, we are on the ABS diet too!" I thought they were nuts! I had been working on this plan for a year, what the hell is the ABS Diet? Well, a few months ago my SIL's (sister-in-law's) trainer told her to get the book and get on it, and I asked her if I could borrow it. Yeah...it's my plan..sort of, and I actually liked the book.

The ABS Diet, by David Zinczenco, is probably one of the better diet books out there, and has been since it came out in 2004. If you can get past all the "abs are better for sex" crap and the fact that it seems at times to just be for guys, it is full of commons sense stuff and a reasonable and do-able plan..for anyone. 

The basic premise of the book is three fold;

1. Divide your meals from three large ones to 6 smaller ones. This keeps you feeling full longer, and avoids the metabolic dips that send most dieters off the deep end of a Lay's ocean.

2. Eat better foods. David Zinczenco does not call them SuperFoods, he calls them Power Foods, and he gives you the nutritional reasons behind eating them.

3. Exercise your core more, your torso. He gives compelling evidence as to why concentrating on your middle is better than concentrating on your arms and legs, and why he thinks lifting weights is better than jogging or cardiovascular work.

Now... what don't I like about it;

I don't like that fact that the author says it really isn't a diet. Those claims are really rather tiresome to be honest. It is. I calculated all the foods and recipes in his one week plan, and it amounts to around 1700 calories a day...it's a diet. I also don't like the near blatant rip off of SuperFoods. For example, walnuts are a SuperFood, almonds are an ABS Power Food.  Go down the line and they are slightly different but in the same general category. In his defense, I suppose the nutritional studies and benefits of certain foods can't be copyrighted.

For the record, you don't have to use his recipes or his diet plan, it is just an example, but you do have to eat the foods suggested.  I think the calorie count of his recipes is fine for a guy, but a woman may want to shave it down to 1500, depending on how much you have to lose. Having a meal "off" to eat whatever you want, or have been craving, once a week is a great idea and can help many avoid the craving binge that throws so many of us off track.

Overall, I would rate this book as one of the better diet books out there, past or present, and that is saying a lot if you knew the size of my diet book library. The exercises can be done at home, the food can be prepared easily and is good for you, the advice and science it sound and it is easy to read. If you are looking for a long term solution to your weight-loss problem, this could be it, and with a few modifications, it could see you all the way to your goals and beyond.

This book has the FatBlogger's blessing.

You on a Diet!

I was excited to get this book. I had seen the two doctors who wrote it (Dr. Michael Roizen & Dr. Mehmet Oz) on the Discovery Channel in a 1 hour special, and what they said and did intrigued me enough that I felt like I should read it.

It has taken me a long time to get through it, much longer than most diet or health books I pick up. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand the two doctors offer some compelling new information about weight loss, if you can believe that there is anything new, or compelling, about it! On the other hand, the book is written in such an obnoxious manner that it is often hard to cut through the gibberish to glean what that new information is. The book is written in the manner of a "Dummies" or "Idiots" type book, only it's more like a "Dummies" book on steroids, or an "Idiots" book on amphetamines. It comes at your hard and fast and there is just as many glib jibes as there is fact.

On top of that, the two doctors repeatedly tell you diets are no good, they don't work, you should not go on them...then they put you on a diet! The main premise of the "You on a Diet" diet is to "reprogram" you body to eating good and healthy and thereby help it to feel fuller faster, or more normally. Their 14 day "reprogramming" plan will leave you with a waist 2 inches smaller, they say. On day one you are to dump any and all items from your fridge and pantry that contain sugar, saturated fat, trans fat or enriched flours as their first five ingredients. You are then to replace it with (they give you a shopping list and meal plan) more whole foods, whole wheats, high fiber and low fat protein sources. Their meal plan and specific recipes do contain limits and measurements and they admit it amounts to around 1700 calories a day. Sounds like a diet to me.

OK, it IS on the New York Times bestseller list, (but then so is every Ann Coulter book that comes out) so what is so good about it? Two words...waist management. The good doctors reveal that the fatty sack under your abdomen, your omentum, is really the death threat that faces the over weight. They clue us in to two chemicals in our stomach that raise and lower hunger, and how to do with with certain foods. They describe what happens to that extra fat in your body, blood stream and liver, and what it means to you and your health. They tell you to stop worrying about your weight, and start worrying about your waist. Here are some the key things I DID like about the book

• Waist management instead of weight management
• Inflammation and how it attacks our immune system
• The chemicals that control hunger and satiety, ghrelin and leptin
• The importance of the liver in obesity, health and weight-loss
• The detailed activity plan that ANYONE can do.

To sum up my thoughts about the book...annoying to read, but full of new and useful information that may educate and motivate. It lacks the grace and  peacefulness of say "SuperFoods Health Style", it's more like a kids plastic hammer tapping you on the head with every page trying to drive home a point. As long as you don't look to it as anything revolutionary (exercise and eating better are hardly that), and look more of it as a science guide into the fat effects on your body, you will be satisfied and find it well worth the money.

Of course this is just one FatBlogger's opinion, buy it and judge for yourself...and let me know what YOU think.

The Minimum Plan

I call my plan to lose weight in '07 The Minimal Plan. It helps to remind me this is the least of what I have to do to get healthy and shed these extra pounds. I just figured, why keep trying to lose "x" amount for "x" event, it is always too much in too short a time. Plus, I never have a back-up plan for when I slip...and everybody slips. On top of that I never have any kind of maintenance plan to KEEP the weight I have lost off. I think I have all that now...and it really is quite simple. Basically I just sat down and said "What is the minimum amount of effort you have to do to slowly, but steadily, lose fat on a regular basis".

Stick with the minimum I tell myself...you can always shoot for more if you feel the urge. I am just tired of letting myself down with high expectations never realized. At the same time, I am not the kind of person who can lose 1 pound a month either, I would get frustrated and give up...and giving up means eating more. I need to feel good about my efforts, see progress and know that I am on the right path.

5 pounds a month would do that for me.

Of course it will take a year or more regain a healthy weight, but I can live with that. I have been blogging about it for longer right? I have been trying for even longer...two decades! 1 year is a piece of cake.

So, to figure the minimum of what I had to do, I figured what I want to be...weight wise. I picked a weight that I have been in the past that was comfortable to maintain and seemed right. It is still 10 or 20 pounds over the recommended level for a person my size, but so what...I know I am healthy and happy at that weight. Besides, I can always adjust that as the plan unfolds.

Just a realistic and do-able weight goal.

Once I had the goal I was already thinking about the maintenance. I think this is the key to successful weight loss, think ahead. What does a person, who weighs this much eat? How much do they eat? To determine that I went to the WebMd website and used their metabolism calculator. I plugged in the numbers for where I want to be, to see what I have to do to keep it off. Once I did that I had a ceiling, a limit of calories to eat daily..and that is what I have to re-learn.

I just need to eat what I want to be.

So now I can say to myself, "Look, you are not on a diet, you are eating what you should eat to be the weight you want to be...if you can't live with that, that stop trying and move onto something else." Re-learning portion control, hell just re-learning what a portion is, is key.

Of course exercise and activity is a big part of all of it, probably the biggest part actually. But this time I did not want to use exercise to lose weight, I wanted to enjoy exercise and know that I was building a better body, one that can burn more calories and fight more disease. I think a sure way to kill your desire to exercise, at least in my case anyway, is to think "I have to do this to lose "x" amount of weight". So my exercise plan fits into that mentality...slow and steady...again thinking of where I want to be in a year...or ten...from now. I thought about the activities I want to enjoy into old age, and decided to build a body suited for that.

More or less I am really trying to exercise for a healthy future.

Now, everyone falls. Usually when I fall off a diet I feel frustrated, guilty, useless. I give up and eat more than I did before. There is much binging before the next attempt at a diet. This is how many of us keep getting fatter. So I built into the plan days allowed to fall from grace, in hopes of reducing that feeling of guilt, and the tendency to spiral out of control after.

3 days a month, I can be "off" the plan, and take a "vacation".

That should be plenty. It can cover Holidays, it can cover a few special events, or evenings out or just mistakes involving my dear friends,  Ben and Jerry! What if I take more days off than that? I just take them from somewhere else, like the next month. I don't think I will need to though, plus I can always increase my exercise or just forget about it if I am still on track to lose 5 pounds in that month. There are options.

So basically there are only three simple parts to my plan...

1. Eat portions and calories of the weight I want to be.
2. Increase my activity gently, but progressively, each month
3. Allow a three day grace period... if I need it.

What do you think? Am I missing something or being unrealistic?

A New Month, A New Beginning

Let's see what September brings me! Here is what I am attempting to do...

Some of you may remember that I tried to concentrate on four dimensions of health, and increase those...water, rest, activity and fruits and vegetables. I kept at it while I was on "vacation" from FatBlogger, not always successful, but I kept trying. While I might have developed a good starting point for more healthy habits, I lost zero pounds. This month I am adding a 5th dimension...limits.

I figured what my metabolism would be to maintain a healthy weight, here at this website by WebMd. This is what I should be eating. I will be trying to eat that, or less, 4 weeks (28 days) out of every month. I am going to take a "holiday" from the counting and monitoring with the remainder of days in each month, probably 2-3.

So, it is simple. Just don't take more than my share 90% of the time. There is a morality play in there somewhere, but I am not ready to go there just yet!

For good measure I am giving myself a month to get it right, concentrating a bit harder on one of the 5 dimensions I have laid out each week, for example this week I am concentrating on getting my 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Man, am I concentrating on that!

I am really hoping to eat less than that limit, Monday through Thursday, when it is easier to be eating less, and at the limit Friday through Sunday, to help me learn "how" to eat properly again. The two days off will be a nice respite and may help me to avoid crashing the entire thing. It won't be easy, but it won't be that hard either.

All in all, I am shooting for a modest 1 pound loss per week, with exercise added into the mix, a modest 5 pound loss of fat each month, but more on that, and my goals, later.

Of course, anyone who wants to join in the fun, come on in, the water is fine! I can help figure your number for you too if you need it.

WISH ME LUCK!

The Plan

I took into account my successes and failures at losing weight over the last 20 odd years, my weaknesses and strengths. I combined that with my real needs not my imaginary ones. I mixed it with a bit of common sense, a smidgen of science and a dash of current health reports. What I got is a plan I can actually do for a very, very long time. A plan that, if I need to, I can use to maintain my weight well after I lose the extra fat. It's flexible, versatile. I like it. But enough hype, here is my plan to lose 50+ pounds...and keep it off!

The Food Part:

I am "on" the plan 5 days a week. 1600 calories - 4 meals of 400 calories . I am "off the plan 2 days a week (48 hours).

The Exercise Part:

Gradually building up exercise time, intensity and frequency. Starting with simply walking the dog and finishing with marathon training.

Incredibly simple right? Your thinking too simple? Maybe some background will put it into context...

To diet or not to diet, that was the question. Just the word diet can cause me to actually eat more, binge, get fat. Yet in my many years of attempts, and success, I did know these two facts to be true.

• Diets do not work
• Diets do work

Huh? Yes,  a complexity that has befuddled millions of us! I know they are bad, I know they do not last, I also know that when you stick to one...you lose weight. In fact, you simply can not lose weight unless you cut back on how much you eat, burn more calories than you eat, or some combination of the two. There has to be a deficit to overcome the surplus. Its just physics folks. So, I was faced with a dilemma, how to get around these two facts, how to be successful in-spite of them. The only thing I could think of was to split the difference.

My diets always failed right around Friday night. There was always someplace to go, something to do, some social event, some game, whatever. I wanted to relax, I did not want to be "on" a diet. I wanted to be FREE of the confines of a traditional diet. I would stray, I would snack. I would feel guilty, so I would binge, and binge. Then I would start all over again with another plan, another book. It would take me weeks, maybe months to get back on track, and once I did, the same cycle again. Then it finally occurred to me, If I can't beat it... join it! If taking the weekends off are built into the plan, then I won't feel guilty. It won't take me months of planning and pre-diet binging to get back on track, it will only take me until Sunday night.

Now this idea is probably not unique, for all I know there is probably already a diet book out there about it, but if there is I never read it. I came to this by my own trial and error. I have thought about doing this before, and others have commented about it before, but It never registered, I never wanted to do it because it seemed like cheating and it was going to take me a very long time to lose the weight. After blogging about being fat for a year, I figured it was time. If I would have started it last year, I would have been maintaining a healthy weight for five months now.

"On the plan" I eat 1600 calories a day. 4 meals of 400 calories. I arrived at this specific total, and the amount of meals and calories of each meal, by all the experimenting I did. I found that 300 calories or less per meal did not satisfy at all, and left me looking for more. When this happened I often would stray off the reservation, snacking here and there until I ate too much. 600 calories it turned out was too much for one meal, I was actually too full. So 400 was the magic number for each meal. At 400 I have more options, can use more "extras" like mayonnaise on a sandwich. There are many meals I can eat at 400 calories, that fit my habits. For example, A vegetarian patty with cheese on whole wheat bread, with a small bag of chips, a diet soda and a piece of fruit, all for 400 calories, is quite filling and takes a long time to eat.

I have my three squares a day, plus an extra meal for the evening munchies that drive me mad. I have experimented with 400 calorie late night snacks too, like a Sam Adams and a handful of nuts, frozen yogurt or even ice cream, oranges and chocolate. There are many choices. The important thing is knowing that I have an outlet after dinner if I need it.

When Friday night rolls around, I can go "off" the plan. Lets call it a "weekend pass" for good behavior! Even if I eat at the same level I have been, around 2500 calories, I will still lose fat. I have even calculated the occasional binge, but I am thinking that psychologically I will not feel the need to do that anymore. I know I have the weekend, and I know I have the weekend after that, so the pull to go off the deep-end, and into a huge bag of Lays, loses its appeal. Just eat what I want, be mindful, make good choices.

Taking the weekends off really bothered me at first, there was this feeling that I would just go ballistic and chow like a maniac. Deep down I did not trust myself. But that is something I have to work on along with fat loss. I have to build up trust in myself, to stop, to exert self control. It will come back to me if I allow it to, and then maintaining my weight loss will be within reach. Knowing what was ultimately at stake, I opted to not count calories on the "off" times, and decided instead to learn to trust myself again. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

As I lose weight and fat, the total amount of calories needed to maintain that frame goes down as well. This is why so many of us have hit plateaus and find it harder to lose after a while. To counter that, and maintain a 1,000 calorie loss each day I am "on" the plan, I am going to gradually increase my exercise and activity.

I have established a rather regular active routine. Building up the routine took me about three months, but now I think nothing of walking the dog each evening. In fact I have been feeling the urge to do more, and today went for a bike ride on my Life Cycle, I even lifted a few weights. I found that if I force myself to exercise, or schedule it, it becomes a chore. If I leave it up to my sense of self competition, I actually look forward to doing more and more! On the weekends I do a lot of projects, cleaning, yard work and that can help to off-set any extra calories I might eat too.

So, I am going to gradually increase the exercise as I lose fat and to that end I can see three parts or steps in my activity. The first part is what I would call a "warm-up", continue walking the dog, get in the occasional bike or treadmill exercise. Nothing to stressful, emphasis is on getting the hang of the new diet. The second part is what I would call "conditioning", where I add another 20-30 minute work-out 6 days a week, aerobics, weights. The third part I would call "training", I would like to start running again, in fact I would like to train for the marathon again. After all that I will set new goals to keep me interested, active and able to maintain my new healthy weight.

I think that about sums it all up! In the coming days I will share some of the foods and recipes that I will be using, and other ideas I have for incentives and rewards for smaller goals. I will weigh myself and give you regular up-dates about every two weeks or so. Beginning today and staying with it, I am confident that I will lose 1-1/2 pounds a week and lose the 50 pounds of fat by Thanksgiving! I can do this!

Some possible names for "The Plan" -

Reductionist Theory Revisited

The 70/30 Plan

Plan D

WTF (Whip That Fat!)

Well, I am still working on a name! Lets call it what it is for now...a chance. A damn good chance at lasting success.

The N.W.C.R.

or the  National Weight Control Registry , is the largest on going study of subjects who have lost weight and kept it off. To date they have kept records, preferences, activities and eating habits of over 6,000 people. To get into the program you must have lost 30 pounds or more and kept it off for at least 1 year.

They take the data from these individuals, postulate questions, and try to answer them based on what the averages are for these successful people. According to the April edition of Runner's World magazine, there are 5 things that the majority of these people have in common;

1)     They eat Carbs. In fact carbs amounted to at least 50% of their diet, 30% was fat and 20% protein. If you consume more than 34 grams of fiber with these carbs, you can lose an additional 10 pounds over the course of a year as the body burns more to process the fiber.

2)    They keep a food journal. While many dieters like myself usually stop taking notes on food and calories consumed after two weeks, the majority of these successful losers kept a journal going for years.

3)     They eat Breakfast. Around 80 percent of the subjects ate a balanced meal in the morning, like a cereal with fiber.

4)     They weigh themselves regularly. But never more than once a week, and always on the same day.

5)    They stay active. Not sure why this one is last, it should be first actually. The average person in the registry burned 2,800 calories a week in activity. If you do the math it amounts to about 400 extra a day.

I did a little reading of some of their findings and found out that the average woman in the registry eats around 1,300 calories, the average man around 1,600. They were also able to determine that there really was no difference between what kind of weight loss program you were on, as compared to those who were doing it themselves, as long as the 5 things above were getting done.

I suppose nothing surprising here really. It is good to see the hard facts and numbers of a long term study, as opposed to all the mumbo jumbo that is out there. Know where your at, move more, eat filling foods, eat in the morning, write it down. Common sense stuff that many of us lose track of in the melee to lose weight and the reckless, or feckless, way in which we pursue it.

Take the Blue Pill?

There was a AP report out this morning about GlaxcoSmithKline trying to convince the FDA to allow the over-the-counter sale of a drug they call Alli (also known as Xenical). Supposedly the pill will absorb about 25% of your fat intake and then pass it in various ways. This does not come with out some drawbacks as, in their words, "there may be some leakage". Not sure where the leakage occurs, but I have a fairly good idea.

It brings to mind this ongoing debate I have with myself from time to time. It goes something like this...

Hardway FB: Taking a pill to get thin is just lazy.

Easyway FB: Yeah, but if it works who gives a damn right?

Hardway: OK, so maybe it works. For as long as you take the pill. Then what, a life time of popping the fat pill because you can't control your eating habits?

Easyway: I take vitamins and supplements that are supposed to be good for me, this is not different.

Hardway:  You are fat because you ate too much, and now, for many reasons, you battle that. Giving up the battle and choosing the easy path means you learn nothing from that struggle over the last 20 years. No lesson learned.

Easyway: You mean the last 20 years of painful struggle? Are you some kind of masochist? If swallowing something can ease that pain, what is wrong with that?

Hardway: Because to me it means I have struggled in vain, for nothing. No triumph, no victory. No personal goal met and conquered. Besides, just swallowing something to ease the pain is how you got fat in the first place.

Easyway:  Ouch. But that struggle has not gone so good for you has it? There is a point where you must declare defeat, or consider yourself a madman, insane, incapable of rational thought.

Hardway: OK, that one knocks me back a bit. You have a point. Questioning my sanity is something I do quite often, usually after talking to myself.

Easyway: Yeah, I thought so. I knew I would get you with that one.

Hardway: But only for a moment, you lazy, good for nothing jackass. You ate yourself into oblivion, and now you want to continue that unhealthy trend by popping a pill. You do not learn how to stop, you do not learn how to make better choices, you just consume and consume and when the mood strikes you, pass it wastefully behind you, literally.

Easyway: Makes living a lot more fun doesn't it?

Hardway: Such a pill would not clean out your arteries, lower your blood pressure or curb diabetes, you'll need other pills for that. And now look what we say to our kids, don't try to change your bad habits, just swallow one more thing. Pathetic.

Easyway:  What, are you a doctor now? Your a perfectionist, and a mean jerk.

Hardway: Now your just name calling. Make your final point.

Easyway: I have no final point to make, take the pill, it will make your life easier.

Hardway: Easier is not always better. Losing fat that way only makes you a loser in more ways than one, like losing your character. Have some courage in yourself to conquer personal challenges. Many people have overcome much more, and been better for it.

OK!!! Stop shouting! I have heard enough!  If given the choice, at this point in my life, I would have to say, I am taking the Red Pill. But five years from now, if things don't change...who knows. I am weak... and it is only the fact that I don't want to be that drives me on.

Phantom Pains

An appetite suppressant hormone was found, which may be good news to some. My problems is not that I get hungry too much, my problem is that I often eat when I am not hungry, so I don't know how this would help me. I suspect that there are many overweight people like me out there, eating when they are not hungry, or over eating if they even feel a bit of a hunger twinge.

I have made a few good choices since I "began" again, but also many not so good. The not so good ones don't bother me except for the fact that I tend to overeat the chips and chocolate, and skimp on the fruits and vegetables. I am still learning and working on the "listen to my body" part. After so many years of being deaf to it, or yelling "la la la, I want chips and you want carrots, la la la", it can be difficult. I am convinced this is the key to lasting weight loss though, I need to work harder at it.

I have started putting little codes in next to some of my food items in the journal, like (TF), which means "too full"! I was thinking that I might find this info useful at some point when looking at habits, how many calories it takes to make me full, how long it takes me to get full, if I am even hungry. It is a lot, but if I can do it for some length of time, maybe it might be helpful.

The hardest thing to get over is realizing that I am not on a diet anymore. It is like a phantom pain from an amputated leg. I have to actually think it first or the urge is constantly there to choose crappy foods in mass quantities to beat the "diet deadline". I am amazed at how strong the habit is, and I am now understanding how easy it was for me to gain weight simply because of a knee jerk reaction to a "diet" and the notion that certain foods were going to be "taboo". I have decided I need to make better choices, mostly because of my 250+ cholesterol level, so I guess I am still thinking the same way, "you can't eat that", which is not rally any better than a diet. I am trying hard to tell myself that no food is bad, and nothing is off limits as far as what I can eat, just try to choose something better more often. But for the moment, it is still feeling like a "diet". Is there any difference? Yes, but it does not feel that way. Damn phantom pains.