How I lost weight with pleasure: personal experience
'11.10.2018'
Source: Mail.ru
October 11 - World Obesity Day. In honor of this holiday, the publication Mail.ru told the successful history of the struggle with obesity Polina Sveshnikova on behalf of the heroine herself.
Having dumped the 17 kg, I placed an ad for the sale of my favorite coat and honestly wrote: “I sell because I have lost weight, I cannot wear this beautiful thing.” I was bombarded with messages: “I don’t need a coat, I was also going to lose weight, please share your experience.” I share.
To dwell on losing weight is wrong
Now I’m 39 years old, 165 height cm, weight 67 kg, I haven’t become thin, but I look and feel harmonious. I have always been plump - the weight was at least 80 kg. After 30, I regularly recovered before 85, and at least I tried to throw off these five at times.
Photos from the personal archive of the heroine
Yes, they left - in about a month of diets, shaping-Pilates and other exercises. At the same time I felt disgusting.
The result was not pleasing, because the brain, as it was started, scrolled “the commandments of losing weight”: do not eat at night, take a container with an apple, carrot and celery for a snack, do not put sugar in tea, and so on. I could not concentrate on the really interesting for me.
The main was pleasure
A meeting with a colleague that she hadn’t seen for a year, and who had built a lot during this time, helped. To the question “how !?” she replied that she was fascinated with flamenco and ceramics. With flamenco is clear, but where does the ceramics?
“You want to lose weight because you expect pleasure from the result. It infuriates you that this pleasure will be in the long run. And food is pleasure here and now. Find yourself other pleasures "here and now". Promise you will try! - to do for yourself something that has long wanted to be done within a year. It will calm you down, give you satisfaction, and help you accept yourself. Do not believe? The process will go by itself. Why don't you eat this sandwich? Give me! Yes, I eat sandwiches and everything is fine, ”said a friend.
How it worked
I found an interesting lesson that takes time and effort, is not related to food, and is certainly a pleasure. For me, they became English courses, which I had to study for a long time, but I felt sorry for myself: after work, tired ... Since September 1, I signed up for classes and paid for them to start on 4 a month in advance. The lessons were three times a week in the evenings, from 19: 00 to 22: 00. Before going out - at about six in the evening - had dinner (working remotely). Returned around 23: 00 - and more often I just wanted to sleep. But before she had eaten for the night almost always, otherwise the evening was empty.
It was hard, but incredibly interesting: success, new people, new me. No, this is not the same thing as buying a card in a fitness center, going twice and quitting. After all, this is a lesson of pleasure.
I found another pleasant experience - swimming. This is the only sport that suits me. Trying other types of fitness, I tried to make an effort, and swimming for me is a joy. Now there are plenty of free trial exercises - from yoga and trampoline jumping to strip plastics: you can find something for everyone. Adding this second lesson is worth it, I think, when you learn to live in the right rhythm with the first. The result - twice as much fun and movement (after all, before the courses, and to the pool still have to walk). And less time for food.
Winter came, I took out warm clothes and found that they were too big for me. It took about 3 a month, as I went to the courses, and a month, as I began to swim. I weighed - and was stunned: minus the very 5 kg. By the summer, that is, in about 9 months, I lost another 10 kilograms. Not quickly, but effectively and without effort, aimed precisely at losing weight.
Photos from the personal archive of the heroine
I chose "my" healthy and satisfying foods and dishes.
Next, I consciously adjusted the diet: I chose those that I liked, and that was important, “full of” foods that give me a feeling of satiety. For example, soups and salads based on lentils, beans and vegetables, buckwheat in combination with Gurian cabbage. There was no meat among “my” products, although sometimes I eat it. The diet has also changed, but somehow by itself: when you lie down without eating, you get up and have breakfast, because you feel like eating in the morning. Before, I almost never normally had breakfast.
Experience the Power of Effective Results
For another six months - minus 7 kg, then the weight "froze" and lasts more than a year. Healthy eating has become a system, the habit of physical activity has remained, although I fell out of the shock mode a little. I have no strict restrictions on food: I eat bread and sweets, sometimes I can have dinner late - once a week, for example, when I have guests.
“I’m tired, I don’t have time, children, I can’t bring myself to…” - to all this I can answer this way: you can find time for pleasure - you find time to eat 8 times a day. If you have to force yourself, it means that you have not yet found something that will please you.
What do experts think
Psychologist, cognitive behavioral therapist Natalia Mikhailova draws attention to the fact that Polina lost weight for 15 months on 17 kg. It turns out that the average rate was 1,3 kg per month. The lower the pace, the more likely it is that the changes will persist for long. If you want to lose weight, then you should focus on one, maximum 2 kg per month. Higher rates are likely to doom the reverse weight gain.
“The described approach is a more effective way than diet: listen to your body, love it, do pleasant things, have fun here and now, move and do not replace the emptiness in life and in the soul with food,” says the psychologist.
“A wonderful experience of customizing dialogue with your body! First, with the help of a hint, and then intuitively, the same working option was found that helped to lose weight. I agree: it's not diets (they don't work on their own), but lifestyle. It makes no sense to torment yourself on buckwheat, feeling disgusting at the same time: with the slightest weakening of control, there is an immediate breakdown - and the lost kilograms will return. The reason is not weak will, poor diet, or something wrong with you. The reason is that when you restrict nutrition, the body enters the “economy” mode, and at the first opportunity it will return its own, ”Mikhailova noted.
“Each of us has an internal compass, which determines the energy needs and costs,” says nutritionist Elena Motova.
The natural hunger-saturation mechanism (with corresponding centers in the brain) works much more accurately than external limiters - weighing, controlling portions, counting calories, the expert explains. In practice, this means that you only need to eat when the body needs it, that is, when a person is hungry, and to finish eating - when he ate. Diet also violates the normal relationship with the feeling of hunger and causes food breakdowns.
“The heroine brilliantly adjusted her eating behavior. In clinical studies, it has been proven that 95% of those who lose weight through diets then return to their original weight or gain additional weight. To maintain a stable weight after a diet in conditions of reduced energy metabolism, you will have to count every calorie, lead a half-starved existence, exclude vital food groups, be panicky to eat something forbidden and torture yourself with sports. Such a relationship with food and with your own body cannot be considered healthy, ”Motova explained.
If a person, independently or with the help of a specialist, was able to change his food scenario, there is no forbidden and permitted food in his life, but there is a place for friendly meals, homemade cakes, and favorite dishes. He can enjoy food and maintain a stable weight.
