Tips for success

[Ecogirl]

I would like to start a tips for success thread. When I first started Peter and others gave me some great tips and I really appreciated that. There are heaps of great tips floating around the forum and I wanted to consolidate these and try to make it easier for new people to be successful.

Asy - can we make this a sticky?

Here is what I have learnt (and sometimes that hard way ):
- work out why you are overweight to start with - you won't be successful if you haven't dealt with the emotional issues - this took me 10years but I got there (yippee)
- redesign your life to allow you to succeed
- work out what changes you need to make in your life so you don't put yourself in the position where you want to deviate
- biggest tip - learn to put your needs first (a hard one especially for mothers due to societal conditioning)
- tell your family and friends what you are doing so they can support you
- ask them how you would like them to support you
- when you buy your meat - cut it up, weigh, bag, label and freeze it so you always have food on hand and it saves heaps of time for busy people
- eat your fruit and crackers between meals to help with the potential hunger and low blood sugar
- take your vitamins as required - just buying them and leaving them on the shelf (or my bedside table ) is not good enough - you actually have to swallow them :P
- swap meal 1 and meal 3 around if you get hungry or eat close to bedtime
- don't weigh daily if it's demotivating when you don't see a loss every day
- measure once a week and weigh on that day - that's my time for reflection and learning what works and doesn't work on the program
- keep a food and mood diary - it helps to identify cycles and "at risk" times for deviations
- when feeling low or at risk - take it one meal at a time
- if the end seems too far away and overwhelming - don't think about it and go kilo/pound by pound - that's what gets me by
- when you are needing motivation put the measuring tape around your bits and put the tape at the cms/inches you started at - you can see how far you have come - I was astonished to see that my belly used to look as big as it was and a bit excited I have skinnier thighs (sorry guys!)
- reward yourself at milestones - celebrate your success!
- learn to reward yourself without using food - a good lifelong strategy
- if you do deviate or have the demons still in your head - work out what your triggers are and try to develop strategies to avoid that situation
- be kind to yourself for deviations - we are undoing our lifelong conditioning and habits - but don't excuse them as they are not acceptable for the longterm health
- share the love and support with other people - think about how you have been supported and help them to succeed
- say thank you and show your appreciation along the way to the people that have supported you
- when you have finished - don't become like ex-smokers and try to convert all the fat people!!!!!! :P

I must have learnt something to lose 13.8kg in under 10weeks - which I still think is a miracle!!!!!

Anyone else who can add to my list - boy have I learnt a lot and it's mainly due to this forum!!! Thanks folks
Amanda

[Sassy]

Moo

That's just so fabulous. I'm so proud of you.

My biggest hurdle is holding the belief that I can be successful , that after all these years being over weight, it no longer serves me. I can do it. Once I started to believe then things started coming together.

By the way, 93.8kg yesterday, with a loss of 1.6kg this week. :P Now you know. I'm not ashamed anymore! t's who I was, not me now.

I now see myself as achieveing this and I am continuing to behave my way to success, even though I have had family visiting that don't share my need to nourish my body with clean healthy food. By the way, I never ate rubbish while they were here! Another 'mind hurdle' down. Nor did I preach to them or challenge or discuss their food choices. Oh, I did make sure to thank them when I went to my appointment sans children. They looked after the boys and were encouraging when I told them my result for the week. All good! Maybe my enthusiasm might rub off?

S

[baloo]

- Eat slowly. You start feeling full before your plate is empty.
- Chew your food more. Slows the eating process down.

[Evave]

- remember: you are becoming a better (and thinner) person for yourself and growing emotionally stronger with each passing day.

[anna]

Have little goals , ie 5 kgs at a time.

That way you can see yourself reaching the goal quite quickly asnd it gives you the motivation to keep going.

Also if the scales haven't moved measure yourself with the tape measure and you will still see a loss.

These are some that people have told me.

Anna

[emma]

- PLAN!!! Plain and simple, plan your meals even pre-prepare them if that's possible. This will prevent any last minute "BAD" food decisions.

[Krissy]

I read this quote somewhere and I have it on my fridge:

[size=10pt][size=10pt]"Be ready in your mind first: then you will do it!"[/size][/size]

I love it and I believe it 100%. You need to have your head sorted before you can fully commit to the program without excuses.

Good Luck

K

[Krissy]

I am looking for ideas to occupy me for when I am thinking of food or thinking of getting up and looking at the cupboard / fridge... and those times when you think 'blow it - I am just going to eat that biscuit (or 10)"...

* Sweep the floor
* Do 5 mins on the treadmill
* Check out the forum
* Play with my dogs
* Have a drink of water
* Ring a friend
* Read a funny email
* Look at the photos of when I was at Goal....
* Put on a cd and sing at the top of my lungs....

Does anyone have any other ideas....

K

[pandora]

Hi Krissy,

i recently started KNITTING - a little VERY easy pattern, like a long wooly jumper! Its an appeal thru the church and the little knitted tunics are for babies born in Africa in hospitals, parents dont have any money to buy clothes so hospital wrap the babies in NEWSPAPER to send them home. I find it takes my mind AND hands off eating and the little tunics only take a couple of days picking it up with any spare time. I have done 5 so far and feel its for "a good cause".

I have also started reading DEEP AND TOTALLY MEANINGLESS novels! Like jackie Collins or James Patterson (all murders and serial killers). Easy page turners that you can get lost in curled up on a chair while your body burns the fat.

Pandora (i will let you know if i think of any more!)

[Jeannie]

Amanda wrote: - when you have finished - don't become like ex-smokers and try to convert all the fat people!!!!!! hehehe! I love it..

Why not? (Just kidding)......

So hard though, especially when you see them stuffing their faces with unhealthy burgers etc, you just want to tell them, "Go to Cohens and live longer your body will love you for it, mine does it lets me sleep better...."

[Jeannie]

Sorry I didn't mean to offend anyone, I tried to delete the post but I couldn't.. I just hate being fat and would love to convert everyone if I could.. especially after I have tried so many different diets with no success and lots of $$$ down the drain.... I know I have a way to go yet, so I was having a dig to myself as well....

[baloo]

I don't think you offended anyone. I know I look at obese people these days with their ceasar salads, low fat cheesecake and litre of coke thinking that are watching their weight and I wish I could tell them it's not going to work.

[Jeannie]

Yes I know Baloo, I was going through some ww recipes today and I thought "No wonder I didn't lose any weight, crikey.." Now they are selling chocolate roll sponges, they are covered in real chocolate.. Seriously who is going to stop at one? especially when they are only 2 or 3 points?.. I am definately glad I found Cohen's.. :P

[MamaK]

Some of my tips to add to the rest:

- Every time I have a hunger pang I tell myself 'That's my body switching into fat burning mode'

- If I have a craving that seems so strong it'll drive me nuts, I tell myself "wait 15 minutes and if the craving is still there, then decide what to do about it then". 100% of the time it's gone within minutes.

- If I feel hungry at home and it's not mealtime and it just won't go away, I do my nails (fingers and toes). Keeps me busy and distracted until the urge passes and even better, when you've got wet nailpolish it's hard to eat!

- I pack my lunchbox every evening, so that in the morning I can just grab it and run

- I keep a 2L bottle of water on my desk at work and another 1.25L bottle at home, so that I know exactly how much I've drunk during the day

- I usually cook 2 portions of steak or chicken (weighed carefully) at the same time, so that I can have one serve for dinner, and the second serve for lunch the next day (loving my Thai Beef salad for lunch right now!)

- I bought a lunchbox which has a little freezer block to keep everything nice and fresh and cool till lunchtime

- I use little ziplock bags for everything!!!! Crackers, salads/ veg, half tomatoes, meat/chicken/cheese/ boiled egg portions.

- If I'm going out around mealtime I'll pack a boiled egg and a cucumber (allowance) - easy to eat on the run without skipping meals

- Every time I don't succumb to the temptation of something not allowed, I put the money that it would have cost me to buy it, into a jar. I can then use that to spoil myself in other ways (massage, hair, facial, new clothes!)

- I take extra time to take care of my body, to thank it for going through these changes for me (moisturise, exfoliate, massages, etc) and so that when I do lose this weight it's in 'tip top' condition, ready to show off!

- I bought a charm bracelet and for every 5kg I lose, I buy myself a new charm. It's a great reward and also a great personal and visual reminder about my progress. It will look so pretty when it's full! And only you need to know what those charms really mean - unless of course you're so proud you want to share it with the world

[meagain]

One for the ladies, invest in at least one good, well fitted by a bra-fitting cousrertierre each time you go down a size - best boob job ever!

[bellabella]

i like that one!! will remember this as i get going

[drexyl]

Hello All,
I've only been on Cohen's for 5 days & lost 4kg's already! Yahhh!
You all have probably figured this out already, but when weighing your vegies, remove the stalks & skin off you mushrooms & you can have twice as many! Also remove the hard centre bits from your lettuce, spinach, bok choy, cabbage etc. & you can have more also!
Good luck everyone!

[ConnieK..]

Hi guys,

I am only new but when I was preparing for cohens I was making rissoles with onion, tomato and a crushed salada with garlic. I was crushing the salada in my mortar and pestle, which is effective but a bit of a pain in the bum. My husband pointed out that this was the 2nd time in 3 days I had used a crushed slada and the second time I had whinged about how much of a pain it was .... then the lightbulb went off above my head and I decided the next time would be pain free so I crushed up several crackers one at a time and poured the crumbs of each one into a snack size ziploc bag. I mixed garlic and pepper in one and Garlic and chilli in another (labelled of course) as I quite like the chilli crumbed prawns I had last week in preparation for cohens.

Last night I used the crushed and garlic baggie to make rissoles for tea ... and it was fantastic!! The garlic had flavoured all the crumbs and it was just delish!

I realise everyone already uses the zippy bags but I thought I would mention the crushing thing. I am contemplating paying my daughter $2 to crush me some more LOL

Connie

[hexi2]

Hi Connie

I usually crush my crackers as I need them. By putting 2 in a snack size zip lock bag and then just get a rolling pin, roll over and woolah ready to use, saves the whole pestle and mortar thing

[babytime]

after 3 weeks and 2 days on the program this came to me today

buy the best quality food that you can afford.

My top tips are John West Tuna Slices in Springwater (185g - $3.00-/+)
Sirena Tuna in Springwater (185g - $3.30-/+)
free range eggs
organic chicken, meat and fruit and veg, or get them from a farmers market
good fruity Extra Virgin Olive Oil spray

I figure we're not allowed heaps, so make every mouthful tasty.

babytime