AAAAArrrrrrrggghhhhh, why am I sooo bad at sticking to a plan?  It seems like all my life I have struggled to follow through my plans as I get distracted so easily; I start 10 jobs together and end up finishing none.

On top of this, I have the worst combo for weight loss; I’m an emotional eater and a total stress head so weight has been an issue since my late teens!

I started trying weight loss plans in my early 20’s, but I never really stuck to any of them.  I gained a lot of weight during my toxic previous relationship and once I ended that, I began another program, which worked really well for me.  It was a simple calorie counting plan, where I would eat up to 1500 calories a day.  I lost weight well and during this time I met my now husband.

Following the pregnancy and initial post natal period of my first child, I gained weight again and with each child (I had 3 children in 3.5 years) I gained more.  After having my third and last child, I started a new weight loss program and again, I did really well, I lost almost all the weight I needed to and I managed to keep it off for 3 years as I consistently attended the program, even after the weight loss.

University was the massive fly in my ointment with weight.  Not only did I gain all the weight I’d lost previously, but I gained a whole lot more too.  Emotional, stress eating, shift work, chocolates from patients, pizzas on a night shift, I did the whole flipping lot!!!

I truly believe that this weight gain, definitely was a factor in my developing Fibromyalgia and there is now some evidence to confirm this; http://www.arthritis.org/about-arthritis/types/fibromyalgia/articles/obesity-fibromyalgia.php

So, I tried different things;  the gym was ok, but again, I didn’t see it through; the weight loss program I had previously tried, but it wasn’t the same and I didn’t stick to it, I tried the fasting diet (5:2), but I didn’t read the instructions properly, so I fasted well on the 2 days, but then I ate as if I were competing in a competition on the other days as I thought this was allowed.  Needless to say I ended up gaining weight!!

A couple of months after leaving work, one of my midwife colleagues came to visit and she introduced me to the Paleo lifestyle.  I was fascinated by it and it certainly seemed to make a lot of sense that our bodies haven’t developed our digestion capability at the same rate as our brains have developed and implemented farming, agricultural and synthetic food capability, which in essence has led to a lot of today’s chronic illnesses.

I tried going ‘paleo’ for 3 weeks and I definitely noticed a difference, however, I wasn’t pure with it as I couldn’t afford grass fed meat and organic fruit and veg. This led me to research food and I read a lot of varying ideas and studies, some extremely interesting and some throwing out what we currently think of as healthy food.

By researching, I stumbled upon ‘clean eating’.  It is extremely close to paleo, but allows wholewheat grains, greek yoghurt and legumes.  It still works on the principle of :

‘if it is made by a plant, eat it, if it is made in a plant, stay faarr away from it’

Processed foods, additives, dairy, saturated and trans fats and sugar are all a NO NO as these are the foods which are more likely to lead to allergies and chronic illnesses. It really seems to make sense to me that we eat natural foods and it is so easy to create beautiful meals from scratch with natural ingredients.

It has taken a long time to finally get to the stage where I am ready to start living by this plan, although, I’m a total sucker for ice cream and chocolate.  85% cocoa solids chocolate is allowed, however, I find this chocolate is extremely tart and will take some getting used to.  I can allow myself to change ice cream to frozen greek yoghurt or sorbets made with maple syrup or stevia instead of sugar.

I tried a while ago, but lost track again and left it.  However, this week I’ve thought about it again and then some of my friends at musical theatre stated that they had started a weight loss support page and invited me to it, which I have accepted.

So, these are the reasons why I have decided to start mainly clean eating (I will not punish myself if I eat something that is not ‘clean’ as long as it is only once in a while) and I’m really looking forward to seeing if I can lose weight and reduce my symptoms, making life a lot more bearable.

If you have tried clean eating or are thinking about it, I would welcome comments and ideas.  Thanks for reading x

 

 

http://www.webmd.com/diet/a-z/eat-clean-diet