The importance of refeed

[ConnieK..]

Good morning everyone,

I just decided there was a need to stress some things about refeed and put them fresh into everybodies minds.

This post is not directed at anyone in particular, but rather at everyone, from the new beginners to the almost finished, whether you have deviated or whether you haven't, whether you are at goal weight, under or above.

THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT OF THIS PROGRAM IS THE REFEED!


You must follow it exactly - this means

1. for the exact amount of days
2. adding the exact amounts of foods
3. exactly as it is written

You have spent months, or even over a year in cases, getting to your goal range. The longest refeed is 21 days. Thats 3 weeks at most to get your body ready for THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. It doesn't sound so long does it? I mean it's not even a month.

Dr Cohen has spent all the time on your program getting your hormones into perfect working order for you, making the weight come off, and it has worked. Now the tricky bit, if you started eating anything and everything tomorrow you would get the same reaction as in the back on the bus post (http://newyouforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7521) and so Dr Cohen has given you a refeed plan that is tailored for YOU to reintroduce the foods as slowly or as quickly as YOUR body requires. He got you to this point, he can get you through.

I know about the temptations that hit when you do refeed, I have been there. I know you are at goal, you are thinner than you have been in years, you feel fantastic, you can see a shiny new horizon only a few days away where your social life begins again. It seems sooo close, and it is. And that's why you need to do this last peice right! If you don't your hormones will be out of whack as you enter maintenance, and trust me on this one , the heady rush of the first month of maintenance will use that imbalance to whack a few kilos straight back on that fantastic new body you just got for yourself. You have trusted the program, and it worked. But it is not over, you need to do this step as diligently as you did the program. If you were a deviator on a regular basis then you need to do refeed with ABSOLUTELY NO DEVIATIONS. I can't stress it enough.

You owe it to yourself and the body you have worked so hard for to give refeed the attention and respect it deserves in order to give you the best chance at mantaining what you have acheived.

Now I do not mean to cause offence, it is not my intention. What I do mean to do, is to make everyone realise the IMPORTANCE of refeed.

Thanks
Connie

This has been a public service announcement from the "been there done that - am passionate about Cohens as it saved my life"** club.

**membership free with maintenance.

[shell]

I agree 100% with Connie.

Excellent advice and very true.

Shell

[Hayley23]

Very good post.

I think a lot of what people may initially struggle with is the psychological aspect of refeed. It is a little daunting seeing the increasing amounts of food that we HAVE to eat. I know I certainly felt a little intimidated (and still do).

More often then not, we carry the misconception that more food = weight gain - EEEK!! I guess refeed is a time where we have to put aside our need to control what goes in our mouths, and completely trust the program that so far, has surpassed all of our expectations.

Personally, I am a bit of a control freak. I am on day 5 of 16 refeed days and am already feeling like portions are ample. I would be lying if I said refeed wasnt going to test me towards the end! However, I am also a perfectionist and want to complete this journey from start to finish as perfectly as possible. The things that initially bothered me about the idea of Cohen's were not eating out etc. Its funny because these very things have not bothered me at all since I began! Its such a short time in the scheme of things and waiting that bit longer to see refeed through correctly is nowhere near a bother for me.

All I know is, I wanted this BAD and I want my program to work to its full potential.

[ConnieK..]

Thanks Guys,

I felt it was worth repeating for the new people as well as the old.

Connie

[carrieanne_c]

Oh Geez, I am SOOOO OFFENDED! (NOT!!!!) Hee Hee, I just ordered my refeed today but I won't start for five more kilos down the road. Wonderful advice and information, Thanx Connie!

[sundaymorningstaple]

Another thing to remember is that if we stay on refeed amounts only without experimenting we will continue to lose weight. While we are eating larger quantities of food, we are, for the most part eating primarily "good" food and only limited amounts of "bad" food. Even if you double the quantities of food that were on phase one (which is what refeed is doing basically as well as the intro of bad foods in place of and in addition to) you will only be getting double the calories (from around 800 to around 16-1800 calories. Still just shy of what the body normally needs to stay at a given weight (without strenuous exercise). Therefore even though the quantity of food is there the caloric content isn't.

This is why I always urge people to "tiptoe" into maintenance and treat it as an extension of refeed, by experimenting rather than rewarding yourself with food (slipping back into a bad habit right off the mark).

[FlaMie]

Thank you Connie for putting this post up. I'm nearing the end and I find this refeed part very interesting/exciting and most importantly very CRITICAL. I know for sure that NO other programme has such a considerate phase for its users. Yet, this proramme has put this into perspective. It is really to help us get into a stage where we will not yo-yo and learn up that food in bigger quantities does not mean that we'll put on weight IF we do it right.

I must also thank sms who stressed this in our last meeting. You words are still in my head which is why I'm hanging on to the very end - to my goal weight range before beginning refeed rather than to jump to it now. I guess another month is really NO BIG DEAL juding that I've come this far. So, I'll be patient and wait. I actually don't have time to do a PERFECT refeed so I'll wait till August when things are more settled

[Hayley23]

SMS,

Another thing to remember is that if we stay on refeed amounts only without experimenting we will continue to lose weight.

Just wondering what you mean by 'without experimenting.' If you mean during refeed - since we have to eat according to our refeed program, isnt that experimenting anyway? Eg. Bread, milk, bikkies...

[sundaymorningstaple]

Originally Posted by Hayley23

SMS,

Just wondering what you mean by 'without experimenting.' If you mean during refeed - since we have to eat according to our refeed program, isnt that experimenting anyway? Eg. Bread, milk, bikkies...

Experimenting after refeed. During refeed you are experimenting with a limited number of options that Dr. C gives us. One should try their mostest to eat everything on the refeed programme. If it causes the "dreaded go back two days" so be it. If it happens a second time. That's the end of refeed and you have an idea of how much you can actually eat.

The worst mistake that most make is finishing refeed and have lost anywhere from 1 to 2kg during that process as well. So when they hit maintenance the mind is already thinking "WOW!" "I was eating sooooo much during refeed and I still lost weight! Now I can actually eat other foods and it's not gonna hurt me, or at least not as much as I thought." So the first thing we do it go out and celebrate by eating everything on the table. And during that celebration we forget about all the rules. Now. This is okay if you do it for a single meal. But how many do that celebration on the weekend. And continue it for the full weekend. A lot! And often it results in the inner fat person escaping again. The upward spiral starts and if it's not controlled quickly enough, disaster strikes.

There are reasons for this. Often they are deep seated emotional triggers associated with something far in the past. These need to be worked out before you start "rewarding" yourself for making it through the programme. But most times it's because we whacked the insulin monster too hard and woke that sucker up!

The best thing I can recommend is to have a read of my maintenance journal. The first couple of months I treated my maintenance like a slightly more modified version of refeed with the exception of I quit weighing anything. I haven't weighed anything since I finished refeed. But my journey was one of tiptoeing into maintenance as a series of experiments until I found the edges of my limitations. Like the entire programme, this opening phase of maintenance is only a very short span of time in the entire scheme of the rest of your life. (And I have a hell of a lot less time than you all have as I've already used up almost 62 of my total years). Anything new should be introduced gradually and only a single item per time and wait a couple of days to see how it affects your body. Then try something else new. Same process.

Eventually you will see pattern and you will also find out that some of the things that you were looking forward to having again will be forever vorbotten! Sad to say but that's life. I love liver, sardines, and a number of other things but due to my 30 year battle against hereditary gout I can no longer eat them. Such is life. I like walking and running better than I like those foods.

Hope some of that made sense.....

sms

[Hayley23]

Hi SMS,

Yes makes perfect sense! I just wasnt sure if you were refering refeed or maintenance when you mentioned experimenting.

The worst mistake that most make is finishing refeed and have lost anywhere from 1 to 2kg during that process as well. So when they hit maintenance the mind is already thinking "WOW!" "I was eating sooooo much during refeed and I still lost weight! Now I can actually eat other foods and it's not gonna hurt me, or at least not as much as I thought." So the first thing we do it go out and celebrate by eating everything on the table. And during that celebration we forget about all the rules. Now. This is okay if you do it for a single meal. But how many do that celebration on the weekend. And continue it for the full weekend. A lot! And often it results in the inner fat person escaping again. The upward spiral starts and if it's not controlled quickly enough, disaster strikes.

I have already thought of this! I guess, like you say, in refeed we have the larger volumes of food, but because these foods are still, for the most part, very pure and unprocessed thats why some are still able to lose on refeed. I have always known quite a bit about health and nutrition but I have to say I have learnt SO MUCH more from Cohen's. Every single morsel of food that passes our lips creates some kind of hormonal response within the body. Its easy to nibble here and there and think that you don't have to be accountable for it but you do!

I intend to treat myself in maintenance, but only occasionally. I still plan to keep Cohen's as the nuts and bolts of my diet, so that if I happen to have an indulgent occassion/weekend, that I wont beat myself up about it. I have never experienced emotional overeating and such but for me it was a case of severely imbalanced hormones and sky-high insulin which saw everything I consumed get turned to fat.

I feel very blessed that I now have the knowledge of how to eat for my body and so glad I have found Cohen's now instead of years down the track!

[ConnieK..]

**bump**

And for anyone who doubts the importance of doing refeed right - just take a look for those who didn't ... All of whom thought at the time "one little bit won't hurt" or felt so close to being on maintenance that they thought they knew best how to manage their own bodies..... Pandora?? Mrs Jiggles ... care to comment as returning success stories now trying to fix what indescretions you had in refeed and the subsequent repercussions??

Connie

[Roxy]

Thanks Connie, this is valuable information. I am on day 10 of refeed and I feel so full and satisfied that I don't have any urge to deviate and I won't .....I have worked to hard to reach this point and don't intend to spoil it now!!!!

[findingme]

Bump

[Rio78]

Excellent advice!! thank you Connie.

[Rio78]

I am just starting RF Day 1 today, this post is very helpful, thanks Connie! =)

[ej_nz]

HI there,

Just something that I have been meaning to ask but always forget to until it happens to me, but with the introduction of some of the new foods on refeed and since my time in maintenance, I wondered if a certain food "repeats on you" (you know that gross thing that happens when sometimes you may burp and you can taste a certain food in the back of your throat...sorry if thats TMI...but I did say it was gross!) that if food is doing that to you then that food should be avoided??

I have noticed when I have a banana for example that the taste of banana keeps repeating on me for quite a while after eating...does this mean they are bad for me?

Just wonderd if anyone else had a trigger food that would cause a similar thing in them...or am I a freak?!
LOL!
xox

[sasha002]

Hi ej_nz

That's interesting...your experience. I wonder what that means too.
I'm not too sure about it but sometimes that happens to me and I'm not even on refeed yet. Just with regular plan food.
Hmmmm?

~S

[Hayley23]

Ej, I often have this problem with products containing wheat (surprise, surprise). If you think bananas are a potential problem, next time you eat one be concious of eating it very slowly. If you still have the same problem then perhaps bananas are not your friend x

[AlmostEden]

Connie, Shell...oh how I've missed you. I need to whip myself back into shape...the one I have now is anything but becoming good to see you're still here for support. Hugs

[Steph-yy]

I've been reading this to make myself feel better..

On Day 10 of refeed and I'm so full that I feel so uncomfortable. Any suggestion?