Taking Control

Following on from my last post, you'll be happy to hear that I've gained control...I don't quite know how, but the out of control bit has settled down and I've decided to rejoin Slimming World after a break of almost a year.  I thought something more structured would help especially the support group and weekly weigh in aspect as I've lost my monthly surgery support group which has stopped running due to such low attendance rates.

The SW group meets on Tuesday evenings and from Monday I've felt as though I'm back in the saddle and not the demon of food and wine.  My appetite has been rediculous lately, I'm hungry an hour and a half after eating which isn't right, I suspect it's caused by my recent overeating and I'm sure it will settle down once I get myself used to more healthy eating patterns.  I'm not going to go in for a fill because I otherwise have very good restriction and really would not want to be any tighter.

I have found in the past that when I do lots of cooking from scratch using the healthy recipes from the SW magazines I am more successful...the difficulty is the time consuming nature of all this fabulous cooking and the fact that my youngest son has a real issue with many many types of food and I usually end up cooking two meals! I'm not going to think negatively though, it won't get me anywhere.

I've already lost a couple of pounds so I'm sure I'll be rewarded next Tuesday on the scale.

I know there will be those who will be wondering if I've told the group about my band...the answer is no.  Some people I'm sure will feel this is wrong, but I don't agree and here are my reasons:

a) This is a public class, open to anyone.  Ya pays your money, you get to do the programme...nowhere does it specify you must bear your soul to a room full of total strangers.

b) Each person is on their own journey and must do there own work to lose weight.  The programme works as long as you follow it and if people don't lose weight they normally know why.  My weight loss is always slow and steady (even with the band), so I won't be losing any faster than anyone else who sticks to the rules.

c) When others lose weight in class it is motivating and inspiring, not depressing and demoralising...that's the whole point of the 'support group' to motivate one another and be encouraged by the success of others, so if I am successful it should encourage rather than discourage others.  The fact that I have extra support in the form of a medical appetite suppresant is irrelevant and doesn't negatively effect anyone else in the group.  I won't be spouting on about how I do this and that and how easy it is...so no-one will think 'Why does she find it easy when I'm finding it hard?'...as if any kind of diet is easy anyway...even with the band!  I love chocolate, crisps and wine just as much as the next obese person and all those slide on down past the band with no trouble at all...so it still requires some self-discipline and will power to lose weight, if that weren't the case the band would have a MUCH higher success rate!

I know this probably came off as some kind of lecture or rant...it's just that over the months since I've been reading posts & blogs about banding I've read a lot of comments on how going to slimming classes with the band is cheating and somehow hurting others unless you tell them all up front...you may have guessed that I don't agree with this take on things... These classes are for anyone who needs to lose weight and are not a competition.  Everyone who is overweight struggles to lose it and we need to access whatever support we feel will help us. End of Lecture...P.S. I'm always happy for people to disagree with me as long as they are respectful of my opinion, so I'm stating my case, but not trying to shove it down your throat. :0)...would you like fries with that?