Weightloss Revelation – the Clouds Have Finally Cleared for Me

Eight months ago, I found myself wondering just that question and voiced it at a follow up appointment for some routine tests I had been having. My consultant was not a dietician, but she did however have years of experience dealing with people who needed to lose weight for specific health reasons related to her field of specialism. 

My lifestyle at the time was hectic, which meant that I had little time to plan my meals and often skipped breakfast, lunch or sometimes both – only to eat a large meal quite late in the evening in an attempt to revive the starvation of the day!

I had absolutely no routine to eating and my metabolism had gone into panic mode. In fact, as she explained, it had been running in panic mode for years and as a result it was becoming insulin resistant. 

My metabolism was in effect shutting down as my body had absolutely no confidence in when, or indeed if I was going to feed it, so was hanging on to fat reserves in attempt to see me through starvation. She suggested that I should re-program it and get it working again so that it started to burn the extras I gave it and in addition burn the fat it had been storing. 

She then gave me what I now consider my golden rules to follow in order for my body to restart and do the job it is supposed to do before I messed it up! 

The Golden Rules 

1. Eat your breakfast by 8 am – preferably a bowl of cereal. Even if you are sleeping in late on your day off, set your alarm, drag yourself out of bed, eat your cereal and go back to bed if necessary. You must break your fast; get sugars in your system and kick start your metabolism by this time.
2. Eat a piece of fruit at 10.30 am. Any fruit is fine with the exception of a banana. I don’t know what the science is behind this – I am living proof these rules worked but I am not a scientist – just sharing with you what I DO know.
3. Have lunch as near to 1 pm as possible. A sandwich made with wholemeal bread and a sensible filling. By sensible – obviously cheese and fried bacon is not on the list and neither is a BLT with mayo. But a sensible filling with plenty of salad should do the trick.
4. Eat another piece of fruit at 4 pm.
5. Have your evening meal at 7.30 pm. Have whatever you would *normally have but HALVE the portion.
6. Drink plenty of water throughout the day to flush out the toxins from your body and help it work properly. AVOID diet drinks of any kind.

* By ‘normally’, in my case, I ate a generally healthy diet anyway – fresh vegetables, lean meat, brown rice, pasta, jacket potatoes, and no processed food. If your evening meals are not in this vane then you would need to take a deeper look at WHAT you eat. 

I have followed these rules for the past 8 months and have gone down TWO dress sizes. But the weirdest thing is I have totally changed my relationship with food. I am more disciplined about what I eat, when I eat and why I eat. But it is so easy for me as I no longer feel ‘starving’ at key times as the sugar levels in my blood have evened out. My body now trusts me to keep it fuelled at the right times and with the right things! My appetite has decreased considerably as a result of keeping my sugars level and I have loads more energy. 

People are asking me what programme I am on – but I am not following a diet programme! I don’t count calories, I don’t shop for low fat foods and I don’t go to a slimming club. 

I have recently bought a trampette and am exercising at home three times a week for around 20 minutes while I watch TV! So I don’t even have a gym membership. 

At my follow up appointment, the scales said it all – I have dropped 2 points on my BMI!

I don’t know my weight because my doctor told me to throw out the scales. She promised me that if I stuck to the rules then I would see and feel the results because she had seen it happen many times before. 

Everything finally has fallen into place for me with these rules. I cried with joy at my last appointment and flung my arms around her to say ‘Thanks!’

No diet programme I had attended or articles I have ever read told me the most obvious course of action necessary for me – I had never been told the importance of eating regularly to keep my body functioning the way it should!