The Professional Dieter

I have had a "strange" week as I have been absolutely snowballed with work. I have been working from 7am to 11pm everyday this week, but instead of me being on here complaining I am tired I actually loved it! You see one of my big things in life is to make a difference and as long as I am making a difference then I enjoy what I do, therefore, it isn't work or stress to me, it is just me being busy and achieving things.

This week I was chatting to a close work friend who wants to stop smoking, she had said to me many times before she is thinking of quitting but this time she seemed much more serious. Her concern though was that she thought she might struggle when she got in from work because that is when she really fancied a cigarette to help her relax. She thought without the cigarette she couldn't actually relax so I then asked her "What do you want instead of a cigarette that will still give you relaxation?", she thought about it and got on with her work. The next day she smiled and said that she had been fine because she was thinking of what she wanted instead of smoking as opposed to "I am not allowed to smoke".

Before I leave this week I need to tell you about someone who mailed me on Sunday. She was interested in the one day course and asked how many people were coming. She said she would wait until she had lost a bit of weight as she didn't want to be the biggest there. This is absolutely fine but she is choosing to worry about what everyone else thinks about her as opposed to wanting to move on with her life and her weight. My advice to anyone out there who is worrying what others thing of them and their weight then the only way you can create magic and be slim is when it is all about you and not others. The day I stopped caring about impressing and being perceived successful by others was the day I created my own success. To thyself be true :-)

I hope, as always, you have a fantastic week and cya Saturday.

Mike :-)

The Professional Dieter

How Many Diet Books Have You Got?

When I was big I was definitely a professional dieter. I had absolutely loads of diet books, exercise equipment, cook books, diet products and clothes that I couldn't yet fit in. I knew the calorie and fat content of absolutely everything and even regulary worked out my basal background calorie level to check how much food I needed to lose weight.

But even with all that I still got to, at my biggest, over twenty seven stone. The reason was that by buying diet products, reading about it, talking about losing weight, buying exercise DVD's and generally being involved in the diet lifestyle I felt like I was doing something and that allowed me to justify why I was big.

When anyone mentioned my weight I would tell them loads of technical reasons for me getting big and the reasons I was still big. I used to say I was carb sensitive, that I retained a lot of water and that ultimately it wasn't my "fault" I was big.

The reality, of course, was different! Sure I had "reasons" for overeating in the past but at the end of the day nobody ever made me eat too much and because I got me big then I could get me slim.

So I was a professional dieter... I know that a lot of other people are as well. Don't get me wrong, it is great to be educated and aware of what you need to do to be slim, and stay slim, but you MUST then take action...If you know you need 1750 calories to reduce your weight by a pound a week then great....but then are you actually doing it?

I vividly remember a chat with my boss's secretary back in 2000 when she said I was dangerously big and was going to have health problems. I felt terrible and worried afterwards as I knew she was right. The following day I joined a gym up the road but never once went to it, apart from the induction. The reason was that just by joining it made me feel better as I felt I was doing something, as opposed to me actually planning on going twice or three times a week to help my fitness.

It took me 4 years to get qualified for my IT career but I was a 20 year professional dieter so I was very good at it.

So turning this to you? Are you a professional dieter? Do you have all the knowledge? If so, ask yourself why don't you then choose to act on the skillset you have and actually deliver the fantastic result of being slim.