To diet or not to diet...

I was watching BBC breakfast over the weekend and heard an amazing statistic. 90% of people on a diet will put the weight back on (and often more) within a year.

Now, that's an astounding figure.

But, they went on to say that losing weight shouldn't be about a "diet", which is a temporary state of mind (and state of eating) that when over is forgotten about. This is because people consider themselves to be "on or off" a diet, and when off a diet will resume bad habits etc.

So, one shouldn't diet, but change one's eating habits completely - it's more about adopting a lifestyle than being "on" a diet.

This all rang very true with me, and echoed what other Alizonne people have said on the forum - the ones who have stuck with the principles have kept the weight off, those who reverted to old eating habits piled the pounds back on. The Alizonne plan helps to reset the factory settings of your body as it were, but it's up to you to then maintain the body in good order afterwards.

So, the things I'll be sticking to are:

• eating little and often - 5 times a day (every 3 hours) suits me, and means I don't get the mid afternoon dip I used to have
• eating mostly fresh foods - I haven't eaten anything out of a packet in 7 months, so I'm not going to start - most of the stuff I've been making is just as quick and generally cheaper anyway
• limiting my carb intake - I haven't missed bread, pasta or rice, so I think I can generally do without them. And when I do have them, I'm going to limit them to mornings
• cutting out the drink - have I missed a drink in the last 7 months? No. Have I missed the hangovers and jaded feeling? Definitely not! So I'm going to stick with only planned glasses of wine for special meals (calorie counted of course) and just drink water the rest of the time.
• Planning meals - because of being on sachets I've had to plan in advance - where will I be, do I need to take food with me, will I miss / delay a mealtime etc? So, I'm going to carry on this and plan my meals in advance - OK, it may not be the full low down much in advance and my list might say "white fish and veg" rather than "cod, spinach, 100g tomatoes, 100g beans" until the night before when I'm working out my calorie allowance for the next day
• Preparation - I've also been preparing meals in advance so that there is always something "in" or handy for emergencies. If I get delayed getting home I know there is something healthy I can have at the drop of a hat that means I won't have to deviate from the plan. Definitely going to keep that up.

Oh yes, I'm going to get a MUCH bigger fridge too!