Tips To Stay Deviation Free

[Sarah]

It can be hard to stay deviation free, even although we know what will happen when we do deviate! So to support and encourage each other, post your suggestions of what we can do to try and stay on track when hard moments arise.

Here are my suggestions:

• Visit the Cohen’s website and read some of the Success Stories and testimonials
  
• Go to your wardrobe and try on your clothes. Just seeing how some items are getting so loose or you can finally fit in to certain things, will be encouraging.
  
• Take a photo of yourself now and put your before photo next to it in the inside of a cupboard. Compare your photos and ask yourself if you want to look like you did in your before photo ever again?
  
• Visit this Cohen’s forum and post in your ‘diary’ about how you are feeling. Read some motivational material or other people’s diaries to keep you focused.
  
• Fill some shopping bags with things that weigh the same amount of weight you have lost. When you feel like deviating, pick up those bags and walk around with them for a while. This will remind yourself of how much you have lost and how uncomfortable it is with that extra weight and you do not want to go back!

Remember one little deviation means a whole extra week on the Eating Plan! I look forward to seeing many more ideas and tips for avoiding deviations.

[Sarah]

Here are some more ideas to help cope with times of ‘temptation’!

Using the Cohen's Recipe Book (or any other recipes), prepare a number of soup meals and have each one frozen separately and ready to heat when we are tired or distressed and do not feel like cooking properly.

Buy and cut proteins into Meal 2 and Meal 3 portions, label and freeze them ready to defrost for the next day – preparation and planning make it all work!

When invited out, there are a number of tactics to use, for example:

• Eat before going out and just have a diet drink or tea/coffee while there
• Prepare your meal in advance and take it with you
• Phone ahead and order some Cohen foods, weighed to your ‘prescription’
• Do the best you can with the meal that is served – we know our Eating Plan guidelines
• Make a wise choice from the menu and guess portion sizes
• Drink lots of green tea when visiting – that keeps us busy and will stop us feeling ‘peckish’
• Keep active when visiting – help the hostess serve and attend to visitors so that we are busy and not tempted to eat what is not on our Eating Plan.

Entertaining others at our home:

• Cook scrumptious food for the guests and our own meal separately – If you do not say anything most people will not even notice!
• Serve and attend to visitors so that we are busy and not tempted to eat what is not on our Eating Plan.
• Explain to others why you are on your Eating Plan – here are some useful ‘phrases:

“It’s a medically based eating plan – prescribed especially for me”
“My doctor insist I keep my weight down”
“I’m working to get my blood-sugar levels balanced”

[Lisa]

Love the tips Sarah - really handy, especially coming into this time of year with all the Christmas parties coming up!

Lis xo

[Bugzy]

I go to a regular poker game and usually there is some food that is on offer there. They range from BBQ, ordered pizza, homemade pies and sausage rolls. Now I would duck home and have dinner and then come back to the game instead of eating these foods.

The other night whislt the food was coming out the host said to me "come'on Bugzy, surely you can break your diet for one night its awkward with you never eating here"......

I said to him "actually my need to lose weight is more important to me than the my need to make everyone else feel comfortable by eating here". I obv said it with a laugh and a smile. But those words are pretty powerful. We are all doing cohens because we all need this for longevity in health. We have all put this off for too long. It is the season where heaps of foods are on offer that we would usually over indulge in. We have to put ourselves first. Typically overweight people have a real need to satisfy and make other people happy. I know I was.

This short time on Cohens is ours and we need to grab it with both hands and pull it close to our chest, and own it. We deserve to be happy. we deserve to put ourselves first .

Everyday we wake up and have a choice to make: Stay true or deviate. Everytime we stay true we are getting stronger. Being mentally strong is how we do this. But more importantly we deserve to be at Goal weight. WE DESERVE IT.

Rambling over....

Bugzy......

[booboo9498]

Very well said Bugzy, totally understand by what your saying....

I go to a cross-stitching group weekly and when i arrive there are cakes and slices, choc biscuits etc.... i used to eat what i could when i was there, but now i take my salada biscuits and/or fruit and dont even feel bad because i am not eating their food.

Well done to you and everyone else being strong at this hard time of year!!