Do you want to eat more healthily but don’t know where to start?
Does losing weight feel like an impossible task?
Have you tried lots of diets only to revert to your old ways?
I guarantee most of the population would answer yes to those questions. In so far as weight loss is concerned, we usually see it as something to be done as quickly as possible, a one-off period of deprivation, with no thought for how we are going to keep the weight off afterwards. We just want to get thin and then we’ll worry about staying there. But that doesn’t happen, cake won’t stop tempting you and neither will the wine bottle.
There is clearly something very wrong with this psychology and it is here we must begin if we wish to improve our relationship with food. Dieting is a global obsession and food has become a battleground and yet the answer is very simple, we need to stop the madness and apply some good old-fashioned common sense.
A healthy weight can be reached and maintained without having to possess superhuman will power but it cannot be done quickly. It requires a change of mindset and that takes time. Instead of thinking ‘how much do I want to weigh in 6 weeks’ time?’ you have to think ‘how much do I want to weigh in a year’s time and for the rest of my life?’
You will see, as we progress through the StealthHealth programme that weight loss, while undoubtedly a major motivator, is only part of the story, improving your health must be the ultimate goal and weight loss a happy by-product of that. This has become ever more apparent as I have got older, and was eloquently expressed by my mother who made the following observation,
“As an older person, it seems to me that the younger me did not really believe that the older me would ever arrive, and I didn’t care about her! All those ‘lifestyle’ diseases - heart problems, stroke, type 2 diabetes - can be delayed, or even avoided, by healthy eating when you are young. Also, you will be more mobile and more able to enjoy the activities you love for longer.”
So, with health at the forefront of our minds, and weight loss the result of a better relationship with food, let’s start!