"IT'S NOT POSSIBLE, MABEL"

So says one of the two ladies in the Aunt Bessie range of food advertisements on the television.  Those words have been echoing in my head for days.  "It's not possible" to stick 100% to a diet for 60 days.  If I accept that fact then I allow myself some grace when 'bad' food choice days happen.  As I have mentioned before I conclude that a diet is an AID to healthy eating, it is not a Gospel.

I am not advocating that you have a Mars bar for breakfast, then go on to have everything else you crave without restraint.  However, if a Mars bar is what you crave for and have it, and then STOP, you can re-start the diet from that moment onwards.  Count the syns/points/calories and you will only be a few over your daily allowance rather than blowing it all and heaping loads more calories to your total. 

I was quite surprised that having had 2.5 days 'off' the diet plan I craved something 'sensible'.  I ate some sugar snap peas raw as if I was starving.  Then I ate a big plate of fresh fruit, cut up into bite size pieces.  I really enjoyed them.  The 'diet' has aided me to make better choices and, miracles of miracles, to cook healthy dinners even when I am feeling rough!

I have a sore throat, a cold in the making.  I feel all in but still I stood and made the SW Diet Cola Chicken recipe that was so successful last week.  I really enjoyed eating it too.

The old addage - "if at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again" would be a good mantra for dieters who feel a failure for eating too many biscuits, or reaching for the bag of crisps between meals.  Don't heap shame on yourself but keep going with the diet until it has you hooked.  Do the head work - tell the NATs (negative automatic thoughts) to "sod off"; tell the lies - "you're a failure, no good, hopeless" to "go jump".  Tell the tempter to "sling his hook".  YOU CAN DO THIS, if you just keep going.  If you don't believe this I suggest you go and watch a marathon or 10K race in a town near you.  Watch them start off well, watch them whince with pain and walk a while; watch them huff and puff and grimace.  Watch them get emotional as they see the end in sight and the elation on completing their goal.  These people are a true inspiration.