Diets and dieting

The reason I REALLY started Spit n Sawdust

The reason I started Spit n Sawdust was not because I wanted a boxing club, but because I wanted to get overweight men fit.  The boxing club started 2 years down the line.  I lost my parents to their lifestyle choices.  Without going into too much detail my mum was fond of alcohol and my dad seemed to have an allergy to exercise.  As most of us do, I loved both of my parents and losing them before I believe I should have hurt as you can imagine, especially if you have had a similar experience. 

So I thought to myself  "I will start an exercise club just for overweight men" I figured that men wouldn't want to be going to Slimming clubs but would be happy going to a club that was full of men after the same goal as themselves and they would get a chance to experience a bit of boxing..  As time passed and men lost weight they started to ask if they could bring their wives so it ended up being a mixed class of men and women and I advertised 'inappropriately' as 'Banbury Bloaters' and stuck the advert in the Banbury Guardian.  I even managed to get on a quiz show called The Chair on BBC1 at prime time on a Saturday afternoon and get tennis legend John McEnroe to mention it. I did get a negative response from a few but overall I had more than 70 enquiries and the class ran lovely. I used to weigh people and measure people and people lost lots of weight. SUCCESS!!!

No not really, because like dieting, exercise only works as weight control until you stop doing it.  One man lost 3 stone in 12 weeks after starting the exercise class and I had given him some nutritional advice. He stopped coming having achieved his goal and put all the weight back on and more.

Dieting has worked for many people and TV shows like The Biggest Loser will show the results and also the impact losing weight can have on your life.  If you are reading this to find out about how to lose weight and have tried numerous diets before you will understand that diets don't work as a long term solution.  Stars such as Oprah Winfrey have famously yo yo dieted for years.

What I have found in my time working with and discussing weight-loss is that almost all people who struggle with their weight think about food all of the time.  Conversely most people who don't struggle with their weight hardly ever think about food and can even forget to eat for an entire day... I am sure some people who struggle with their weight can go a day and forget to eat and some slim people do think about food all day I am just saying what I have experienced when asking questions.

So..... What is the solution?  The solution would seem to be and in my opinion, have to be to change peoples relationship with their food.  Lots of people with weight problems see food as a reward and see not eating an entire packet of chocolate biscuits as good.  People will come to my classes and say they have earned the right to have a takeaway. 

I believe dieting and exercise should be viewed separately.  Exercise will get you fit and weight-loss will happen as a result in most cases. But weight control will be achieved only when people realise that food is for nourishment and although it should be enjoyed it is not good to use it to alter your mood.  There are two reasons we eat. One reason is emotional and the other is physical.  Emotional eating something we might do when we are bored or angry. It is a hunger that can come on in an instant like when we see someone else eating  or pass a shop and see something tasty.  The physical hunger is a gradual hunger that generally happens around four hours after a meal.  

Although I do run fitness classes my weigh does fluctuate. I remember a Time I had put on one stone in weight and just put it down to me getting older.  But in truth I had just got a bit lazy and didn't do as much in classes. It was when people started to comment on my expanding belly that I decided to do something about it.  What I did was only ate when I was hungry, ate more slowly and appreciated every mouthful and stopped eating when I was full. I know this may sound simple and it was. By doing this I lost a stone in 3 weeks and felt lots better.  This wasn't a diet because I still eat the same way and have a new appreciation for my food.