I can’t believe what I’m reading right now, and yet I can’t stop reading it, like watching a train wreck I suppose.
It’s a book by a very well-respected Australian wight-loss legend. She is a mum who lost weight by getting to a desperate state of mind and changing her and her family’s lifestyle. She lost nearly 70kg over a year and then wrote a book about. She’s done really well since then, helping a lot of other people to achieve what she’s achieved.
Her food changes were to switch to low fat everything and watch her sugar. She also had surgery to remove loose skin. Mainly she introduced a small amount of regular exercise. Good on her for successfully switching to healthier food choices (though I’d question some of those choices, but anyway) and a more active lifestyle, and even more so for encouraging others to do the same; it’s surely, sorely, needed.
Now she’s written a follow up book answering the most common questions she’s received, and this is where I’m getting shuddery….
Question: I’ve given up smoking and now I’m gaining weight. Help!
Answer: Smoking, like food, is a habit.
My response: uhhhh no – smoking is a habit, food is not optional! If you smoke you’ll significantly increase your chance of dying a pain-filled prolonged death; if you stop eating you’ll die! Nicotine, in cigarettes, is a stimulant, it definitely keeps a very few pounds off; certainly not enough pounds to warrant the very real health risks of smoking. Smoking is also a ritualised way to give ‘time out’ to a lot of people. There are some proven ways to give up smoking – read Allen Carr’s books, see an EFT practitioner, and so on, all ways to cut the dependence on smoking.
The only dependence on food we can change, is by choosing to consume less refined more nutrient dense foods that our bodies will love.
I’ll do a few more of the orrible questions over the next few days…….
