Design your Diet
17. Strategies, Rules and Rations
(for the weak-willed?)
In the previous section I mentioned Strategies and Rules.
In an earlier section when we were talking about sugar, I asked a question: What is a teaspoonful? I suggested a Rule that you might apply:
Make a Rule for yourself.
Decide that: The filled teaspoon can only be level with the rim, not above it.
If you use a heaped one, you have to count that as two spoonsful.
Have you done it?
Well, why not?
Have you got a better rule that might limit the amount of sugar you are using?
If so – Good, well done.
Time to talk tough
If not, it is time to change, or to put it bluntly -
If not, then it could be that you are weak-willed?
You have to start somewhere with your Will-Power.
Shaving a tiny bit off a small spoonful of sugar is not going to kill you -
leaving it on – might – eventually?
If you’ve NOT been able to do this, it says that you don’t have enough of a wish to help yourself. Yes - it does! I can say these words, which may sound harsh, because I don’t know you or your situation. We are not face-to-face and so, I don’t have to be polite. I am telling you what you already know inside yourself. If you cannot help yourself, you cannot expect other people to do it for you. You cannot blame them. There is no excuse. Make an effort, no matter how small.
Use the teaspoon rule for ONE day.
Can you do that?
Don’t be offended by me being rude to you.
Instead, make a small change,
to benefit YOURSELF.
Let’s Learn
Looking back at what I have been learning, I knew right from the beginning what my problem was. I ate too many sweets, biscuits and large meals. I slowly started to think of strategies to deal with the problem. I had to be smart and think things out for myself. How could I cut down?
You know what your problem is.
Is this you?
Learn about - Boredom
When you are watching TV and the adverts come on, you have nothing to do once you have clicked the mute button to stop the sound. So - - - - now what do you do?
You snack?
This is when the crisps, the chocolates and the biscuits get eaten and the booze gets drunk. Why? Because you are bored. Your mind is switched off and your fingers are idle. You have to do something whilst waiting. This is a mighty challenge. It is like the cigarette to round off the meal and it is probably doing you almost as much harm.
Is this YOU?
It is a habit
It is very difficult to crack, but you MUST try to find a strategy to try to break the habit
Learn about – A Strategy
Strategy. I must NOT have a tin of chocolates next to my chair when watching TV.
This is a way of changing the circumstances. You cannot resist just having another chocy every-now-and-then, if the sweets are close to you. I used to say that the chocolates were ‘calling to me’, all the time that they were there. As time passed, they became more and more insistent, until I cracked and had one - or two - or three.
Then it was too late.
They had won and I was a miserable weak-willed-... (expletive!) …
The official ‘portion’ size for chocolates is TWO.
Do you know anybody who can manage that?
It is impossible.
Bars of chocolate are even worse; they just get eaten-in-one.
I could see that it was my fault. Just like you can see that it is your fault, with your weakness. This is what is different about this ‘non-Diet’ that we are looking at. No outside person is imposing the strategies or setting the rules for you by saying you can only eat cabbage soup, or have NO alcohol until Sunday.
It is up to you.
YOU have to be smart enough to see the problem,
YOU devise the strategy
YOU think of the rules
and then stick to them for as long as you can – and that means, until you can see a difference in yourself and can see that YOUR strategy is working.
YOU have to make achievable rules
My sweet tin had to be moved.
It went into a kitchen cupboard.
Then it was time for another Rule or two.
You can only work a strategy by having Rules.
Rule 1. The tin must not leave the cupboard.
Rule 2. No more than 3 sweets can be removed at any one time.
This made it harder to scoff the lot in one go.
Sweets go On-ration
When I started, I immediately began to make my sweets last a bit longer; bite them in half to make 6 sweets. Next, I could only go for them when the adverts came on TV. Some other rules gradually crept in. Only access the tin at hourly intervals when the programmes changed. And so on… Take this slow, but keep making a bit of progress. You CAN do it.
Learn about – What helps?
Is this too tough?
There is something that could help, rather like a nicotine patch helps the smoker and that is Grapes. Grapes are about the same size as sweets. They taste sweet. If, during the adverts break you are longing to have something to do, something to eat, then grapes are a good substitute. Keep them in the fridge and limit them to no more than 6 being removed at one time (to begin with). You have to get up and make the effort to go and get them. Eat half a grape at a time to make them last. 100grams of grapes has 69 calories, so you are taking in energy, but it should help you get off the other sugar in the chocolates which will be much more. The goal, as you’ll guess, is that after a week or so, you drop down to 5 grapes, and so on.
Rules can only be changed for the better. is a Strategy
After some time, the rules can change, as I did with the grapes, or only 2 sweets at a time. Only 3 fridge visits in an evening.
Or a really tough rule –
The sweet tin has to be kept in the garage.
The length of time it takes to squeeze yourself on the rules is up to you, but try not to make it drag out too long, keep it moving if you can.
Learn about - Avoiding Temptation
It makes most sense of course, to NOT have the temptation at all. I find that if I have sweets rationed, as I have just described, I will continue to eat them according to the rules. If I first taper them down, I CAN stop them. If I don’t even have them, after (say) about a month of not having them, I am not missing them and the pressure gets easier. I have changed the habit.
Not seeing them
Not having them
is the best solution, but to do a ‘sudden quit’ is probably too big a move and they will be missed. This is like suddenly starting on an imposed 'Commercial Diet' . The change is too great - too sudden and it probably won't be sustained. Sudden change makes it harder to stick to the biggest strategic rule of all:
Don’t start anything that you cannot keep going.
This problem was a tin of sweets
it is the same for crisps and drinks.
You know what it is for you
Learn about - Biggest Temptation
The moment of greatest weakness, of greatest temptation is when shopping in the supermarket. Avoid the snack aisles. A huge triumph would be walk out without having bought the temptation in the first place. You need to work up to this, over time.
Learn about – Some Useful Tricks
Some strategies that I have found useful. They worked for me.
I had heard of this one, so I tried it.
For over-eating:
Use a smaller plate or dish
It was easiest with breakfast cereals. Find a slightly smaller dish and then applying something similar to the teaspoon rule. The cereals must not be heaped above the rim. Even when the milk is added.
Limit Alternatives
Some more about breakfast cereals. I suggested changing from sprinkled sugar to using some Honeynut cereals as a sweetener instead of the sugar. You have to have a rule about how much of these flakes you can use. A rule like – No more than two desert-spoons-full of Honeynuts, because they must be On-ration. I’ll have more to say about breakfasts later, as they are a place where changes can be made more easily.
Change appearance of food
I thought of this next strategy myself and it works quite well.
It’s for chocolate digestive biscuits.
How many Diets contain chocolate biscuits?
First, I had a Rule Limit of:
No more than 3 choccy-biccies to finish a meal.
(Here comes an important bit)
When I went to 2 biscuits, I broke them up onto a small plate, so that I had 10 – 12 pieces to go with my coffee. Even though I had broken the biscuits myself I was much less concerned about the quantity reduction, by making it look like more on the plate. I can easily recognise the 'unit' of a whole biscuit. I know its quantity. When I take biscuits from their packet I take a known quantity - two or three etc. My brain knows the quantity and it will be disappointed if it does not have the recognisable amount. By breaking that recognition-habit I found it easier to become satisfied with the new 'unrecognisable' amount.
I eat the pieces one at a time, sipping coffee in between and they last a lot longer. It doubles the eating time. This too, is a known help. I understand that it takes up to 20 minutes for food to begin to 'register' as being eaten and therefore, for the body to feel its effects. Eating slowly is a strategy. I have heard that chewing every mouthful 20 times (or 30 etc.) can be part of a Diet. It would help this 'slowing mechanism' to work, allowing time for you to feel more satisfied by the food eaten. I save the bigger bits to the end as a treat. I make sure I have enough drink left to wash away the chocolate flavour in my mouth, because that taste is the greatest reminder of wanting more.
Rules that limit quantities can be adjusted downwards
But NOT upwards
You have to work some strategies out for yourself.
You are clever enough.
The Rules will be YOUR rules, so you will know them.
They relate especially to you, so they must work.
Learn about - Expertise
This is Very Important. Just because somebody has written some rules on the internet or in a book, it does NOT mean that they are wiser about YOU than you are.
If they are trying to sell you something – sell you anything -
beware!
It does NOT give them superior status.
It does not give them intelligence; their concern could be making profit for themselves.
If you think you need assistance about any issues regarding weight, emotions or confidence, you can choose who you want to ask, or to follow. In the end, after all the advice - no matter what anybody says, it will come back to YOU deciding what to do. This blog is mainly about losing weight. To lose weight you have to be wanting to do it - enough - for yourself. I don't want to talk tough to you, but sometimes you may have to talk tough to yourself. If you've not made changes yet -
You can start by doing something about that sweetener teaspoon
Walking.
(You are walking as part of your effort to MOVE-more)
Walk to the shop. Walk children to school and back. Walk to visit friends. Keep walking. Find excuses to walk a bit further. Find a longer way to walk on these ordinary walks. Change. Vary the route. Make a different habit. Have a reason to walk (See 12. under Ingredients - top of the page)
To read more go to top of page
Eat Less. Ingredient. Fast Food