Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Week 3 of the No Diet Diet begins

Inky Flower by Caroline using the Sumi-e brushes in Corel Painter

Well I'm another three pounds or so down - hard to be accurate as my scales are a bit wobbly but my weight is heading in the right direction! I won't claim its all been plain sailing this last week, it hasn't, but I'm still on course.

Week 3 on the No Diet Diet starts off with a questionnaire to help one decide what proportion of people tasks to doing tasks to go for over the next 7 days. If I was working I'm sure I'd be going for more people tasks but, as it is, my emphasis is on the doing tasks. There's also a list of 26 other things to do with the suggestion that one incorporates 2 of them into the next week as well. This is the general plan for the next seven days:
  1. Change - this is today and I've decided to change the bedroom around a bit
  2. Create something
  3. Listen (this is the only people task I've got this week)
  4. Activity - try some new activity
  5. Walk
  6. Learn something - one of the examples is to learn more about how to use some gizmo one owns. I could choose my mobile phone, camera, Corel Painter....
  7. Stand - one of their suggestions is that on getting home from work one avoids sitting down... I'll avoid sitting down after breakfast instead.
On the people side though there is someone who might be joining in with me - she ought to be getting her book today or tomorrow.

Earlier this week I read some of the reviews of the No Diet Diet on amazon.co.uk and was amazed at how many people were prepared to slam it without even trying it - saying it couldn't possibly work because it wasn't food / exercise based!

Another way it won't work is if you off-load all the responsibility for weight-loss onto it.

The whole idea is to become more aware of one's habits and in breaking some of the non-food ones to have more of a chance of exerting control through gaining awareness generally which will probably include some of the food and exercise habits.

One or two of the success stories in the book give the impression that they have no idea how they've lost weight but I've certainly gained in awareness of feeling full and felt like eating different things - so although there is no prescription for what or how much to eat I'm sure that my eating (apart from the pizza episode last Saturday!) has been much more in tune with my needs.

Here are some food habits I've spotted or was already aware of, and that I'm attempting to avoid falling back into:
  1. Difficulty noticing when I've had enough - especially if the radio is on or I'm reading...
  2. Not chewing sufficiently.
  3. When eating on my own I find myself standing up to put the plate away before I've finished chewing my last mouthful.
  4. Eating whilst standing.
  5. Preparing a hot drink tends to trigger me to also want a hot cocoa which is of course a lot more food-like than just a hot water!
  6. Tending to prepare too much of one thing when what I like is variety.
  7. Mindless eating of crunchy things like crisps or Pringles...
  8. A tendency towards all or nothing - finding it much easier to give something up completely than to simply have less. Or indeed to finish the whole tube of Pringles rather than stop and put the lid back on...
  9. Pacing myself against other people rather than being aware of what I need...
Other non-food habits (many of which I hope I've now broken or at least dented):
  1. Switching the radio on, even when I'm quite likely to turn it off again once I've heard what's on. And even stranger having turned it on in one room and turned it off again, I'll turn it on in another room - as though its Radio 4 will be more satisfying than the Radio 4 I've just rejected!
  2. Reading despite physical discomfort. I'd say this is actually one of my very worst habits. I can push myself to keep on reading when my whole body is yelling at me to stop!
  3. Waking up in the night to go to the loo.
  4. Sitting in the same seat at the dining room table.
  5. Surfing the web too much.
  6. Holding the phone to my left ear only.
  7. Sitting in strangely uncomfortable positions - ones that I'm sure if someone told me I must do I'd be very reluctant to hold!
  8. Putting off sorting out financial things.


Yesterday started and ended with lost animals.

In the morning I went out for a walk before breakfast and a man asked me if I'd seen a small brown dog. As I wandered around I heard him calling to her and caught sight of him again towards the end of my walk - still looking for her. I hope he found her.

And in the evening there was an appeal on Radio 4 about an African grey parrot that had gone missing in Bristol. They mentioned it on Radio 4 because it likes the pips on the hour! (Checking on the web it seems the parrot has now been returned.)

I grew up with lots of animals but haven't had any in recent years... getting a pet would definitely be doing something different.... what animal(s) would you recommend and why?

12 comments:

Caroline said...

Okay best laid plans and all that... no chance to do anything to the bedroom today...

soulbrush said...

i can definitely relate to your non food habits, again very well worth reading. i would definitely recommend a shih tsu dog (female). they are marvellous little dogs, loving, sweet tempered, don't moult at all, and easy maintainance. see some of my posts about snuffles, she's a real darling.

Caroline said...

SB - that not moulting sounds like an ideal feature! I'll checkout your snuffles. I'm finding going out for an early morning walk really helps my day and also makes it far more likely I'll be out again for an evening walk so I can believe I might one day be fit to keep a dog.

And thanks for commenting - everyone who used to comment here seems to have gone very quiet - maybe they are not blogging for a change.

soulbrush said...

you don't need to be ultra fit to have a little shih tsu, they need only short walks daily, and if you have a garden (even a small one) they are happy.if you liove alone they are marvellous company too. so glad we are blogging buddies. do you work? snuffs stays at home all day while we teach, ever so good.
see snuffles:
http://soulbrush.blogspot.com/2008/08/bathtime.html

Caroline said...

SB - I grew up with a Labrador, a couple of West Highland Terriers and later a Bearded Collie. Even as a teenager I got up early to take them for walks (though I must say the Lab was a lazy old thing and would often go home well before the walk was over!)

We do have a garden - but its not very easy to keep an animal from getting out of it and into other people's - that's put me off a bit... I could block off some of the gaps but how high can a shih tsu jump?

As I don't work I'm at home most of the time and this year Jim is too but that might change.

I'll have to do some research on the shih tsu as its not a breed I know - I think I've only, knowingly, ever met one - though she was a real sweetie staying with her little fluffy white-haired old lady companion at a hotel in the Lake District - a real case of like dog, like owner - so long as I don't have to go that far...

Anonymous said...

What wonderful results you're having with this No Diet-Diet, Caro - congrats!
I see several items on your non-food habits list that sound awfully familiar to me...
:)
Glad the parrot was found - African greys are supposed to be extremely intelligent - perhaps it heard the program! Hope that gentleman found his dog...

(If there weren't an ocean and a continent between us, I'd offer you a cat! :)

Anonymous said...

Came back, when I realized I'd forgot to mention your Inky Flower - love that!

Also, sorry I've been absent so much - hope to be more on track now. Though on the other hand, it did seem a treat to have so much of your writing to read all at once!

soulbrush said...

Hiya Caro
Shi tsus can't jump high (she can get on our sofa as it is a low one, but she can't jump on our bed, we have to pick her up)....snuffs is a miniature, she is 4.8 kgs and curly (not a long haired one, they look silly) and so very easy to keep; block the gaps, but she can't jump. Do research them, but I feel that a shih tsu is the one for you.
Thanks so much about your comment on my 'decision' post, and I agree with you 100%. I'm the first person in my family to reach 60 (great achievement).I AM definitely thinking along the same line as you are.
What do you do with your days?
How about joining me on Friday skywatch and oneword?

Caroline said...

Tinker - I'm really pleased - I feel like I'm getting myself back somehow - as though I hadn't noticed how I'd got lost amongst a whole heap of habits!

SB - Sounds like I could keep such a dog safe! Jim needs convincing yet... he's only ever kept a tortoise!

I have quite a lot going on here - apart from all this habit breaking I'm doing - so I'm not sure I'll manage more blogging than I already do - I'll think about it though - thanks very much for the suggestion!

soulbrush said...

whatever blogging you manage to do is fine with us, and thanks for commenting on mine so regularly! hugs.
ps. we've had an almighty big thunder storm in london this morning...scared my little snuffs, she doesn't like these.

Connie said...

Hiya! I really like your simple flower and I'll have to go investigate those brushes, having just acquired Corel. We'll be in Bristol next week and I'll get in touch!

Caroline said...

SB - sorry I didn't answer this one before - and also sorry I didn't manage to keep up the blog visiting - I was too busy last week.

Poor snuffs I hope she recovers quickly once the thunder is over.

Connie - oh goodie - we'll see each other soon!