The thing is about being on a diet is that it is a journey, the cravings, the bad days, the struggles are there for a reason and they happen to test your patience, your strength and most of all your willpower. Stickting to our diets may result in loosing weight and achieving what we desire, but it also makes us stronger people. The one thing that I have never had in my life is willpower and as much as I want to loose weight, I also want to have willpower. I am told that I am a strong emotionally and individually, but deep down I would say that I am not, I have a strong exterior, break that down and it is all mush. I believe that having willpower will make me stronger. I sit here and think of all the hard things that I have had to do in my life, the sacrifices I have made and what I have achieved and I think 'wow, what I have done so far with my life has been amazing, it has been a journey'. That journey will continue, but I think why can I not loose weight, why have I not put my strength into loosing weight? I put so much energy into what I want in life, my career, my relationships, material things and I am getting there slowly and achieving what I have always wanted, but the weight loss has never happend, I have only continued to gain.

So, as life is a journey, this is part of my journey and I have a mindset to put all my strength into this new journey, to make me stronger, mindful, poweful. I want to particpate in life, I don't want to sit back and watch life pass me by. Participating in life means being part of many journey's, even if they are painful, happy, uncomfortable, joyous. Participating in life is experiencing the hard times, the pain as well as the good, happy times.

As loosing weight for most of us is very hard, I know that my journey will be a struggle, a battle between myself and my willpower, but what I think now is that at least I can participate in this particular journey and embrace the good, bad and the ugly, just like I have always did with other areas of my life. I like to believe that if you embrace the bad and the ugly as much as you can, there has to be some good in there somewhere. My willpower at the moment is the good, bad and the ugly. I want all the bad foods that I can not eat, but I am trying to be strong and bring the good out in my willpower. With this mindset, my willpower can only get stronger and my mind has never been in this 'set' before, ever, so I feel that me and my mind have turned a very small, but significant corner.

I will be glad when today is over with. I am about to walk back to work after having a black coffee at home. I will have something to eat at work, some lettuce, tuna and half of tomato, which I like and I am hungry so looking forward to that.

I feel very tired today and lacking in positivity about anything. I am trying to tell myself that this is only 1 day and it will pass. I have to work tomorrow too (Saturday), so I am in a vile mood, plus my husbands daughter will be here tonight which does not help my mood. BUT, battle on I will, as they say, things can only get better.

Here I go with my walk with MP3 player intact. A good bit of music always lifts my mood, even if it is only just for 10 mins

Hi Ebby, Is today your first day on Cohen's? I like your attitude to life and am sure you will be able to apply the same attitude towards your weight-loss when you see yourself getting slimmer. It does a lot for your confidence! Cheers for now, Cate.

This is my fourth day on Cohen's, I think LOL Today I have stomach cramps, not from hunger, maybe its just coming up to time of the month. My attitude to life is not always what I do though LOL thats half the battle, putting your attitudes into practice, but I will get there, even if I have some set backs. Like tonight, I have had two mouthfuls of pasta and ummmm it was good, but I stopped there. I noticed the set back and stopped before it got out of control, thats got to be some achievement!!! Now all I want is hot chips LOL but I will resist. About to have cabbage with chili con carne made the Cohen's way haha After the two mouthfuls of pasta I am not hungry, but gotta eat before 9. Had no fruit today because I was busy at work and forgot to eat it. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. It is the weekend and thats the time when I will struggle most because I would always use to pig out at the weekends and eat some really nice things. Not this weekend. I hope

Well I am into the weekend. Had to work today so have been good with the eating plan so far, has yoguart and apple for brekkie, came home this afternoon and had left over cohen's chili for lunch with 2 crackers. I thought straight after that I had eaten 'I am still hungry' which I was, but 15 mins later and I was full and that feeling is still there so it is a good thing.

Went shopping for a few things and I soooooo wanted pizza and mcdonalds!!! I will try to not think about those things, it will make my mouth water.

I also want a beer. I am no alcoholic but I do like a beer on a weekend. Just a couple would nice. Now I have to tell myself, no, no, no. Thing is, I am five days in, have not lost any weight, but I feel like I have, the scales say otherwise. Not loosing any weight is lacking my motivation. I thought that I would have lost some by now, even a little bit!!!! I am holding on with the skin of finger tips at the moment.

Your deviation has set you back & you are not giving the program a chance to work.
Cohen's won't work unless you stick with it 100%. One deviation costs you as much mentally as it does slowing down your weight-loss.
Do or do not Ebby, there is no try!
Cheers, Cate

Do or not do. That is definitley something to live by. I guess I have been having the odd bad foods thinking that it will not do any harm, thats the mode my mind is and I know I need to get out of that. I just so want to see some results and yes I must stop the cheating to see that.

On a positive note I do have a lot more energy. I was suffering reaaly bad with tiredness before I started this and the tiredness has improved immensley. I had egg and mushrooms for breakfast, which was ok, didnt like it much. Considering I normally have a full fry up I would say that it is an improvement breakfast LOL and I feel better for not having the fry up. Now I am drinking my water. I feel full, I feel energetic, but I feel down, not just because of the diet, with other things, but one good thing is that I am not associating my mood with food. I do not want the chocolate, bread and cakes, which I normally do when I feel down. This is a steeping stone to not eating emotionally. Trying seperate my moods from my eating is key to this journey.

Thank you Cate for the harsh kick up the butt. This is why I am posting here, for true words that I need.

Well done Ebby! Most of us are here because we do not look at food as nourishment. It has become so mixed up with our feelings.
Since re-feed I now think about why I want to eat something. I ask myself "do I want this" or "do I need this"? Am I hungry? I have surprised myself with how I have changed my attitude to food. I can tell you honestly that I must be a very slow learner as I'm 55yrs old but I have learned at last. I still sometimes have something just because I want to now & again but I always think about it first. Sometimes just that hesitating is all you need. I love not being fat any more. Putting rubbish in my mouth makes me feel like I'm rubbish too. I am now starting to think slim. It has not been learned overnight that's for sure. There's a life-time of bad habits to overcome. No wonder most of us have food and self-esteem issues.
Loving yourself is the hardest thing to do. You must learn to love yourself before you can overcome life's hurdles. They'll always be there. If you feel you need help doing this seek professional counselling. It helped me. It's nothing to be afraid or ashamed of.
I'll catch up again soon, cheers for now, Cate.
P.S. Once you have been on the program strictly for a while you will start to feel great. Then you will become a convert to the deviation-free way to go. I never knew really what "being in the zone" felt like before Cohen's.

Ebby,

Sorry, I have not posted on your thread, I did read it..Just didn’t realise I hadn’t posted.. ha ha

Sometimes the hardest days are the first few .. Forgive yourself for your deviations and move on, don’t dwell on them as that may cause them to continue.. I think some of us go through the “ oh I will just have that, one last time” when we start up and that does slow us down…

Interested in reading how it is all going.. Do you have a clinic or is your program done through email?

The power of the word “NO” does increase with our use of it, so persist… it really is such an amazing program.. Remember it’s a short term sacrifice.. When we have finished our program and reached all the goals we have set ourselves we will have the tools and knowledge to live a better and healthier… not to mention slimmer life… we will know within ourselves that we can… Because we will have… God I get excited just imagining myself at GW… Such a nutter I am..

Tell us all a little about yourself.. What are goals, your starting weight? How long have you been on the program? I think you must be coming up to your 4 week blood test soon…

Anyway, enough from me…. I hope this post finds you doing well, Take care and good luck on your journey..

TTFN
Chelle