About losing the weight

As I announced yesterday (although it started as a half-joke) that I was determined to use my willpower to lose weight, the usual incredibly well-meaning flood of advice followed. You might notice it happens in real life too: try it, go anywhere, surround yourself with any type of person, with any relationship to you, announce you intend to lose weight and there will always be a flood of advice and ideas. By the end, whatever you had in mind to do to lose weight was of course completely and utterly wrong. It may well be premature to even write about this: all my good intentions may well crumble by the afternoon, particularly as I'm sat with a hurt ankle on the couch all day and there are Lindors in the fridge. But as lately it seems I am feeling a tad more confident in following my own ideas about doing stuff, it may just work. The principle: losing weight is as personal a process as those pesky personal issues most British people prefer not to talk about: who you vote for, who you're seeing, how much you earn. I believe all is and should be open for discussion. How will you ever understand why someone would vote BNP if you don't discuss it with a friend or acquaintance who votes it? How will you ever be objective about your relationship if you don't get a outsider's view? How do you defend yourself in the workplace if you don't know who is earning what and why? When it comes to losing weight, however, people tend to become absolutely adamant. Every time in real life someone tells me quite forcefully that one must absolutely do this to lose weight, and never never do that, I think: so-and-so told me something completely different just the other day, why are you better than so-and-so? Of course the only real true sensible approach is eat a varied diet, keep small portions, do exercise. That is true for all and yet how very very different all our lives are, and how incredibly difficult it is for all of us to do the same, but more importantly how incredibly different are all our our minds? I believe most diets/dietary advice (except perhaps for medical dieticians, who are the only ones that will give you a truly personalised diet, at least nutritionally personalised) ignore the personality side. So if I were to advise you on how you can lose weight, I would say: this is how I am doing it for MYSELF. I can go into detail and show you my attention to stuff you wouldn't normally consider when trying to lose weight. Then you can come up with your very own personal version. So, this is my diet: I developed it by random words used in a comment to a Facebook status update:

"Forza di volontà! Ambizione: niente più latte se non in caffè, cereali, pane, formaggio, dolci di ogni tipo, pasta."

translates as: 

"Willpower! Ambition: no more milk if not in coffee, breakfast cereals, bread, cheese, sweets of any kind, pasta." 

That's it. That is the definition of it. Add to that the other tenet of Jill's diet: nothing is set in stone. If I am out with friends or choose to I am quite happy to make the exception. The science behind it? Quite simply, I have observed what patterns and what foods make me bloat up and gain weight in no time, and so I avoid those. I indulge in everything else as I please. So, yesterday for example, I felt very peckish after eating salad and mackerel. Even though that should have been an enough lunch, instead of denying myself pecking satisfaction I went and ate some leftover rice with leftover sweetcorn and a chilli con carne sauce. It was deeeelicious so I ate a little more even though I wasn't hungry anymore. The principle here? The principle is I decide what sacrifice to make, but I do need to feel I am indulging in an alternative if I want to. However, knowing that I can, means I really try not to make ANY exception. How can this diet be personalised? Simple, once you maintain the basic tenets (a diet solely consisting of donuts is never going to make you lose weight, and exercise is good) you can then adapt it to your very own self. The idea is that you sacrifice SOMETHING that generally causes fat, and you REALLY sacrifice it. You indulge in everything else and miraculously you will see your diet becoming more varied. For example, last night after eating, during the day, and DESPITE hurting my ankle very much and therefore feeling like perhaps I deserved some exception to the newly set rule, only Jilldiet approved stuffs (salad, mackerel in Italian dressing, the above rice, more salad and an omelette) I felt like I wanted something sweet. Instead of making a perfectly justifiable exception ad eating the yummy Lindors in the fridge, I opted for Matzo cracker, butter and honey! It was superdelicious. So yeah, this is how I intend to lose weight, and I believe that the same principle, but not the same diet, ever the same diet, can apply to a lot of other people. I will let you know if it works!