My Weight Loss Challenge

In 2011 I started A Happier Self Blog and as I was posting about properties of vegetables and fruits I got more and more interested in the raw diet. I learned that vegetables and fruits can affect your mood.  I tried the raw food. I did a 7 day raw food challenge and a 10 day juice fast with Natasha from Raw Radiant Health. It was great. I also learned lots from Frederic Patenaude and read lots in the 30 Bananas a Day forum.

But for me, following a raw food diet was expensive and too time consuming. I had to go to the shops often, and then prepare salads or smoothies, and cook for my children separate meals.

I loved the idea, but I could not follow it forever. I somehow was led to Dr John McDougall and started following the starches and greens diet.
I then realized that I always ate without oil when I was single. I had weight issues since I was young, and so I decided I did not need oil in my cooking. Of course I was criticized for not knowing how to cook. They were right, I did not know how to cook the way everyone cooked.

But when I got married and started to cook from recipes, then I follow the recipes, because they knew how to cook. Well that was a bad choice. I started eating oil. Still, I think I ate less oil than many people. I never fried food, and I always put less oil than what the recipe said.

I started proper McDougal sometime in June last year, but I am afraid I was not 100% strict. I did not eat meat. Chocolate ice cream and chocolate were my weakness. If I went to someone’s house, and if I felt bad about not eating their food then I had some (never with meat).
I got stricter at the beginning of this year, but I still cheated with chocolate. I dropped the ice cream few months ago.

But I am still an emotional eater. I really am. When I get upset with someone I eat. I am also eating quite a lot of bread. When I am tired and feel like comfort food, I would warm some pita bread and eat it plain.

There was a time in my life before children, that when I got upset with someone I would not eat. I wish that I could do that again.

The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good!The McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook: Over 300 Delicious Low-Fat Recipes You Can Prepare in Fifteen Minutes or LessThe Healthiest Diet on the Planet: Why the Foods You Love-Pizza, Pancakes, Potatoes, Pasta, and More-Are the Solution to Preventing Disease and Looking and Feeling Your BestThe McDougall Program for Maximum Weight LossThe Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health & HappinessForks Over Knives – The Cookbook: Over 300 Recipes for Plant-Based Eating All Through the YearThe Forks Over Knives Plan: How to Transition to the Life-Saving, Whole-Food, Plant-Based DietForks Over KnivesForks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to HealthThe China Study: Revised and Expanded Edition: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term HealthThe China Study Cookbook: Over 120 Whole Food, Plant-Based RecipesDr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes without Drugs

My emotions and bad habits have prevented me from losing weight. So because I am an emotional eater I have not really lost any weight. I lost 3 kilos (6.6 pounds) and then I lost another 3 kg(6.6 pounds) but I have put on some 3 kg in the last months. It is very frustrating when you see the scale climbing up.

My second problem is that I eat often, and I stay up at night and then I eat even when I am not hungry. The McDougall plan says you need to eat until you are satisfied. .

Yesterday I was recording a video for another post, and when I watched the video I got a freight. I do not look slim like all the testimonials at Dr McDougall site.

So I need to do something drastic.
There is no point on building a website around this type of diet and then not following it.
So here is my challenge. I want to make it that I eat only when I am hungry, and basically I will make 4 meals a day and stick to them. No eating outside those meals. I will do this for 30 days and report back.

The 30 days is to start with. I will then continue the same. routine until I lose at least 13 kilos (28 pounds)

I am proud, last night I went to someone’s house and I did not eat. I sometimes feel I need to eat out of obligation, but I said no.
So here is the 6th of September and I am committing to eating only when I am hungry, and of course follow the McDougall eating plan.