Diets, stress, thought patterns and attitudes to life (General Weightloss & Healthy Eating Tips)

Name: GentleGenius

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Product:	General Weightloss & Healthy Eating Tips
Date:	17/08/08 (104 review reads)
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Advantages: Everything, once you reach that serene place inside

Disadvantages: It's impossible for some people to reach, because they can't let go

Weight is something that on and off, I've been at war with throughout my adult life...until now!

Having spent all of my childhood looking like a starved waif, and going through the whole of my teens with people believing I was anorexic (I wasn't!!), the weight began to pile on at an alarming rate once I got married at age 21. Much of my excessive food intake through my 20s could be put down to comfort eating, and to cut many long stories short, I found myself on the verge of entering my 30s weighing almost twice what somebody should do for my body frame and height.

At work, I had (during 1983) observed one of my colleagues healthily lose a considerable amount of weight in a short space of time, and I asked her what the secret was. She told me she was on Audrey Eyton's F-Plan diet, and that it was the easiest weight-reducing food plan she'd ever followed. On hearing what the basis of the diet was, I was amazed, as a lot of the food contained within the F-Plan diet was previously thought of as being taboo for weight loss, yet here was this once very obese, but now fit and slim colleague standing in front of me as evidence that maybe such foods weren't so sinful after all. I immediately dashed out and bought the two F-Plan diet books, devised and written by Audrey Eyton, and I resolved to begin on 1st January 1984. In the period between Xmas 1983 and New Year's Day 1984, I studied the books carefully, and bought everything I needed to follow this diet with the aim of seriously doing something about losing the seven or so stones excess of blubber that I had been dragging around with me for a few years.

I stuck rigidly to the diet, weighing all food portions carefully and following Audrey Eyton's very straightforward instructions to the letter. At first as was advised in the books, I did put on a couple of pounds, but after about ten days when my body had got used to eating healthily rather than pigging out on chocolate, ice cream, chips, Chinese & Indian takeaways and Kentucky Fried Chicken, I was delighted to step on the scales every so often and see the weight speedily melting off of me.

The weeks went by...I continued to follow the incredibly easy to stick to F-Plan diet without deviation, and was astonished to see that by April, I had lost 4st! By the end of August of the same year, I was down to my ideal weight - having, in the space of just 8 short months, lost 7st, and actually was about half a stone underweight.

The general and overall results were that I was fit, slim and lively. No more did people on trains and buses cringe and move up far more than was really necessary as I took the vacant seat next to them. No more did I have to put up with the indignity of trying to ignore "fattist" remarks flung at me when walking past building sites, or any place where males trying to be "laddish" and impress one another were gathered.

I can say with all honesty that not once did I feel at all hungry or crave "sinful" foods whilst on the F-Plan diet, and I felt physically healthier than I had done in my whole life. My eyes sparkled, my hair shone, and where I had spent years trudging around with great effort, there was suddenly a spring in my step, and I could at long last buy my clothes in all of the standard High Street shops again. I was even able to get into smaller size shoes, as my feet weren't spreading out like dinner plates, carrying all the extra weight I'd once been burdened with.

There was only one downside to the F-Plan diet, and that was when I'd lost that 7st, though I didn't want to over-eat and put it all on again, I wanted to go back to eating ordinary food....but eating normal amounts rather than pigging out as I had done during my 20s which was the cause of the initial weight gain. This downside was the severe constipation caused by a reduction in my fibre intake, but with the help of a gentle laxative, that problem was soon solved.

I remained slim from the point in 1984 where I'd reached my normal body weight right through to approximately 1999 (15 years of eating ordinarily and retaining slenderness!!), and that for me was a true feat, because prior to the F-Plan diet when I'd tried other (some rather bizarre) weight loss regimes, though I'd lost weight if I stuck to them, it just would pile it all on again - and more - when those other diets became too difficult to follow for more than a couple of weeks. It was in 1999 that various difficulties arose in life, I began to obsessively comfort-eat again - and the pounds gained gradually turned into stones. Before I knew it, I was almost back at the same weight that I'd been at the beginning of 1984, before I started the F Plan diet. I did try to get back onto an even keel and attempted the F Plan once more, but for some reason I just couldn't get into it again.

Nowadays, though I am much more overweight than I would deep down like to be, my outer image and how I appear to other people has ceased to be of major importance. I realise that we have to do things like get slim/fit, give up smoking or whatever solely for ourselves and nobody else, but I now see that too is an anathema because I recently realised that our own perception of ourselves is largely dictated by what society says is acceptable and is not.

So, what is the F-Plan diet all about? Basically, it is a high fibre, low fat, high "good carbohydrate" weight-reducing plan that is very filling, healthy and substantial. There are no "magic" food combinations, and very few rules. In the books, Audrey Eyton goes to great pains to list the calorie and fibre contents of many foods, together with some very wise and sensible tips as to becoming aware of what we put in our mouths, and help on how to deal with our "flashpoints" when we are in danger of falling off the wagon.

Included in the books is a large selection of recipes, designed to be both high in fibre, and low in calories and fat. The only rules are that you stick within your personal calorie limit and make sure you have at least 15g of fibre per day. At the front of the book, Audrey gives a table which advises of the calorie intake you will need. This will depend on your gender, the type of lifestyle you lead (active or sedentary) and the amount of weight you have to lose. If you need to shift a lot of weight, you will begin the diet on a higher calorie intake, gradually reducing to 1,000 per day as your weight loss progresses. You are required on the diet to make up 8 days' (dividing into 8 equal portions) worth of the specially devised cereal, and I personally have found this to be the "magic potion" which makes the diet work effectively. You also must have one orange and apple or pear per day, and half a pint of skimmed milk (the milk for your cereal must be taken from this half pint allowance). Half of one day's cereal portion is to be eaten with milk from your allowance for breakfast, and the remainder of the day's portion can be eaten any time you like - but, it is essential to eat a whole cereal portion each day. The rest of the diet really is about eating more or less anything you wish, but sticking within your allocated calorie limit and keeping your fibre grams at or above 15 per day.

With that philosophy, it at first is tempting to think it's OK to have say a larger piece of cheese than one should, or a little cake, but on the F Plan diet you soon learn that it in itself is actually quite a high calorie diet, and there isn't much room for leeway on it. All the same though, it is so very satisfying, that it's unlikely you will find yourself craving foods you shouldn't be eating. It is almost impossible on the diet to eat un-recommended foods, yet still stick within the calorie limit and fibre grams needed for the diet to work. That at the end of the day is a good thing, because to stick rigidly to the F-Plan diet, ensures you are taking in all the vitamins and nutrients for the human body to function correctly, and that you aren't starving yourself.

In its heyday, lots of people referred to it as the "Fart-Plan" diet, but I will say that such problems only are an inconvenience at the very beginning of the diet. Once your body has got used to a much higher fibre intake, you become much more pleasant to be with and all those internal rumblings and untoward emittances ebb away.

Aside from the basics which I have mentioned above, the F-Plan diet has a lot of meals on it involving jacket potatoes, baked beans, lentils, sprouts, cabbage, fruit (both fresh and dried), soya protein and other high fibre foods. It isn't a vegetarian or vegan diet, but it can easily be made that way if required.

For anyone wanting to know what is in the cereal, it is a mixture of:

Bran
Bran Flakes
All-Bran
Slivered almonds
Chopped dried apricots
Chopped dried prunes
Sultanas

The cereal, though chewy, has a pleasant, nutty flavour and is best kept in the fridge, as that way somehow it retains its crispness. It may take a couple of days to get used to the taste of all that bran, but it doesn't take long. As soon as you see the weight positively dropping off you, chewing through that cereal each day becomes something you look forward to rather than feel bored with, as it seems a small price to pay for such a good and healthy weight loss.

Before I move on, I will say that (and this is only personal opinion) I found Audrey Eyton's approach to fitness and weight loss to be a lot more human and understanding of how us humans relate to food, than Rosemary Conley. I'm afraid I find Rosemary's approach rather smug, and lacking in understanding of certain eating problems that a lot of people have.

Now, I move onwards a bit. Though after a few years into the 21st century of eating badly and putting on most of the weight I'd lost and managed to keep off for 15 years, I have come to realise that it's what a person is inside which matters, and determines whether or not we like them - not what they look like on the outside. I have also learned that it is totally possible to be overweight and still be healthy.

After my binge-period earlier this century that piled on the pounds, my weight has stabilised and through sensible eating, nowadays doesn't go up or down. Admittedly if I want to lose the weight, then I have to diet, but at this point in life I would rather people see me as I am and choose to either accept or reject. Regarding those who reject, if they look at the fat before they see ME, then I don't want them in my life anyway. My true friends take me as I am, warts and all, and that's the way I want it.

I am enjoying life too much to worry about what recently to me have become petty things - worrying about them just causes undue stress, and we could all do with lowering our stress levels....after all, isn't stress the no.1 killer? Stress can make some people lose weight, but it can also make some people gain it. I sadly have known more people who have died at very young ages - sometimes they've not made it to their 30th birthday - through their obsessive efforts to keep themselves "fit" as their bodies just couldn't stand the strain of all that unnatural activity.....far more people than I have known to have died very prematurely of things like obesity, smoking etc.

I personally prefer to indulge myself gently, take each day as it comes, live to please myself and not conform to anything which society expects of me because it as a whole refuses to see and acknowledge anything but the peripheries.

I am an overweight smoker, and the only thing I have wrong with me is a degree of arthritis in my knee joints. I am in my mid-50s, I rarely drink alcohol these days, and I eat very very well. Despite the calorie and cholesterol-laden recipes I have added to DooYoo, I only eat such things myself on high days and holidays. I don't eat a lot of fruit as I'm not keen on most of it, but I eat lots of vegetables, pasta, rice, cereals, and I eat three medium-sized meals per day, without snacking in between - as I don't need to. I eat little or no junk food or ready meals, as I cook everything from scratch and use fresh or frozen vegetables. I eat very little meat, no butter, and hardly any cream.

Consequently, I am rarely, if ever, ill. I can't remember when I last had a cold, and I don't think I've had a stomach upset for many many years; plus, the bouts of depression which afflicted me through my earlier life have completely vanished. Though I'm not dirty in the home, especially in the kitchen, I'm not obsessive about hygiene.....well, I'm not obsessive about anything, even though I have had my neuroses in the past. I lead a quiet life, relaxing a lot, working when necessary, and I enjoy sedate pastimes which give me a lot of pleasure.

For me, that has been the key to good health and a happy, balanced mind and sense of being human. Once I stopped listening to and worrying about what society thought of me, life suddenly became a whole lot easier.

I shall now desist from preaching, close this article and snuggle up with a good book for a couple of hours.

Peace of mind be with you all!

Summary: Float down and relax!