The Four Stages of Dieting

One question I get asked a lot by people is do I still worry about what I eat. Do I fear being big again and do I only now eat sawdust and salad to stay slim. The answer, I am pleased to say, is that I eat normally now like other slim people do. I have loads of different types of food, some classed as healthy and some classed as junk food. The reality is I have now found my moderation and it has become a way of life for me. I also don’t fear being big again as I enjoy being slim and I value my health too much to overeat and put the pounds on.

But to get to the stage where you just are slim and don’t have to diet or struggle with your weight is a journey, but understanding where you are on that journey is a good sign that you are going in the right direction.

So the four stages of being slim, in order, are…

1. Happy Big – This is when you just eat without care of consequence or realisation that it is even bad for you. It is when you don’t realise that you are putting your health at risk and have no thoughts about trimming back or eating less calories. It is an ignorant state where if someone mentions you are overweight you would be shocked by the statement and not care to do anything about it.

2. Sad Big – This is when you know you are big and want to do something about it, you beat yourself up, you plan to diet, plan to be slim but then don’t take action to do it. You beat yourself up that you are big and to cheer up you eat more and get into a vicious circle. You start a diet on a Monday and break it by the Wednesday and then struggle to get back on the diet wagon.

3. Sad Slim – This is when you did manage to lose weight but you “hung in there”. You maybe slim but you obsess over what you eat, you fear being big again, you are slim but somehow not actually happy. You jump on the scales all the time after a big meal and don’t recognise yourself in the mirror. You diet during the week to allow yourself to overindulge or you eat too much and then try and not eat for a while to undo the damage. You can quote the calories in most common foods.

4. Happy Slim – You are just busy doing something more interesting, you eat healthy food without having to actively think about it and are just happy being slim. You don’t notice diet books anymore or worry about your weight and just moderate your lifestyle to allow yourself to still enjoy food but not overuse it. You are actually happy with what you see in the mirror and like yourself.

Now what stage are you at? Seriously? Are you slim or still with some weight to lose? Is it all about the food still?

By reading this article you have to have moved on from the first stage as anyone who is Happy Big wouldn’t know they had a problem and hence, wouldn’t be reading this. And you won’t be Happy Slim because you wouldn’t still have an interest in weight if it wasn’t still an issue and therefore, you are either overweight and sad about it, or you are slim and struggling to stay that way.

Now that is absolutely fine!! It means you are human, that you are working your way down a road on a mission to Happy Slim.

When I first got to goal weight I was very much Sad Slim. I just was obsessed with what I could eat and used to work out the calories of everything and try and keep them low. It worked for a while but it is a very tiring way of living your life if you can’t buy a sandwich without looking at the amount of grams of fat per 100g in it and working out whether the calories are low enough. Eventually you will just give up on it.

My point therefore is for you to review where you are. It doesn’t matter where you are but it matters that you realise where you are and that you have a plan to move down that road and take the action to get there.