The happy couple could eat at 8 o’clock, alone and uninterrupted. A microwave helps to complete the miracle!
Despite the most exotic ingredients and the most inventive cooking, a diet is still a diet. Pleasures that greyhound types take for granted are denied the potential fatty. This pleasure must be replaced by regular non-food treats. These treats should be slightly sensuous and self-indulgent. Most dieters are disgusted with their bodies and find it hard to luxuriate themselves in ways other than eating. They should try. A Friday facial is just as nice as fish and chips. Fresh freesias come a close second to sticky buns and a quiet hour alone in the garden is both cheap and therapeutic. If the dieter can train herself to grasp every potential pleasure in her life and to do so without the spoiling spectre of guilt, she will be well able to cope with the inevitable drudgery of dieting.
Exercise
Exercise is even more important than dieting. When a person reduces her energy intake, the body responds by reducing its energy requirements. When the dieter goes back to her usual eating, the weight piles on. This is why dieting makes you fat, particularly if the energy restriction is extreme. The only safe way this effect can be neutralised is by increasing exercise. As a general rule, if weight is not shifting with diet alone, do not decrease energy further; increase exercise instead. Exercise speeds up the body’s metabolism and produces a feeling of well-being and relaxation.Provided one is healthy, the only rule about exercise is that it is enjoyable. Fat people often hate exercise and have no confidence in their sporting ability. They remember the ridicule they endured as children when they first had to compulsorily expose their folds on the playing field. They often gave up completely because of the humiliation. It is important to woo them back and give them a positive experience of exercise. One trick is to combine their exercise with a pleasurable activity. Instead of walking to the watch, which can indeed be a dull affair, they should walk to their favourite radio programme. The time slips by and they quickly confuse the two pleasures. They should enhance motivation by joining a gym. If there are particular exercise regimens for fat people, so much the better.
If the exercise is varied and sociable, it will really become a pleasure. As the overweight person gets fitter and leaner, their enjoyment increases and they discover sporting skills that were dormant for years through lack of confidence. They must keep moving, keep going and keep at it. I cannot stress the importance of regular exercise in any weight reduction programme. If many overweight patients ate the same and really increased their exercise, most of them would start losing weight instead of gaining.
Support
The dieter should have full insight into the inevitable frustrations associated with long-term dieting. She should enlist as much support as possible. She should vow that she will never miss support sessions. It is not possible to never wander off the diet. It may not be realistic to maintain daily exercise, but it is within everybody’s ability to make a commitment that they will be faithful to their group, come hell or high water. Most dieters give up everything when the diet breaks down. This is precisely the time when they need to face the music, to confront the crisis and to be sent home full of renewed determination.There are several support groups available: Weight Watchers, Unislim, Overeaters Anonymous, etc. The dieter should choose the group that works best for her. No group will work if it is abandoned at the first failure.
A minority of overweight patients need to be fat for complex psychological reasons. These patients need more specialised help. They need individual assessment and may benefit greatly from individual therapy or group therapy designed to deal with their particular problems.
When a patient with weight to lose gets into the rhythm of a good diet and healthy exercise, it can be a very positive and pleasant way of life. At first, the pounds slip off slowly and quietly. Gradually the pounds turn into stones. Exercise shapes and tones at gentle speed and the bedraggled body slowly blossoms into a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
(published with permission in writing from:http://addiction.ie)
