A fat paunch never breeds fine thoughts. Saint Jerome in the 4th century.
I’d like to offer some insights into dieting that are based on my experience: on perceptions and habits.
Three Perceptions
1. find your sense of motivation – doesn’t matter what it is.
2. see a doctor: degree of obesity; physical ailments; strategies to cope; and may even prescribe medication to suppress your appetite or increase your metabolism.
3. tame your ambitions: cable TV adverts (20kgs in a month!) Not realistic – 1kg per month.
Five Habits
4. don’t be afraid to eat something when you are hungry.
5. substitution is a good strategy.
6. you can enjoy the good things in life. While on a diet it’s important that you still on occasion enjoy the food you have been abstaining from. This creates a sense of occasion, enhances your attitude.
7. water is your best friend – water is a valuable aid – digestion, hunger control, appetite suppression and calorie avoidance strategies.
8. slipping up. All diets are ideals. All dieters are people. In other words, we make mistakes. Don’t let that disrupt you from your diet! So if you think long-term slipping up won’t be a real problem.
Let me have men about me that are fat,
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616), “Julius Caesar”, Act 1 scene 2
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o’ nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.