Gosh, the motivation and assertiveness towards the success of me starving myself on artificial powder packets was hilarious. It was like I was constantly reinforcing myself that paying someone to starve myself, deprive myself of REAL nutrition and feel like crap everyday until goal weight was the best way to weight-loss and health. IT CLEARLY WASN'T.
What the Cambridge Diet and other VLCD's do is reinforce eating disorders and promotes an even lazier attitude towards maintenance. Why should anyone go to the gym and work out 3-4 times a week when you can just sit at home drinking a milkshake for xx amount of months and watch that fat disappear. Why should I care about the amount of food I am eating when all I need to do is get 250mls of cold water, add my powder packet and give it a good old shake, I suppose I could classify that as cardio!!
Now some may wonder how VLCD's reinforce eating disorders. Your on a well thought out calorie controlled diet, with ALL the nutrition you need in one convenient packet, what could possibly go wrong?
Binge Eating
Now, not everyone can say they have gone through this but the majority of those who have taken part in a VLCD have binged. It doesn't seem too dangerous at first, things never do. Your at a party OR it's someones birthday OR it's just Christmas and being the good dieter that you are you've bought your shakes along( in fact you have an extra product just in case!!). Your in the ZONE, your more determined than a sperm trying to fertilize an egg and just like the girl from 'Geordie Shores' you're "On it like a car bonnet".After all, you have been 'cheat' free for over 3 weeks now!!
Your gulping down the 7th glass of water for the day and the aroma of food is tantalizingly tickling your senses. You continually tell yourself that you can do this as you check the clock every 5 minutes; 20 more minutes until it's time to have my 3rd product, just 20 more minutes. The alarm bells start to ring, you can smell something, something from your past that oooh YOU LOVE SO MUCH. Gandalf has now taken over your imagination and your screaming " You shall not pass" to the food fantasies that are now engulfing you. Then it happens, in a moment of weakness you say the two words that will haunt you for the entire journey of your diet ' F*** IT'. You reach over to your friend/family member/ random stranger ( desperate times my friend, desperate times) and you satisfy that craving whether it is a small bite of chicken ( it's still low carb right), a swig of wine, a crisp, a slice of bread, a bite of a muffin or a lick of that twin ice-cream cone, with strawberry sauce, nut pieces and two chocolate flakes.
Now there are two roads to take, one road simply shrugs off this moment of weakness and continues with the diet as planned, you feel bad, you feel guilty but it's not going to stop you ( this would of been the better road to take), however there is this road of justification that preceeds to lead you into a winding staircase of 'Tomorrow'. Tomorrow is the honeyed word that promises new hope, dreams and everything that justifies the next action. Tomorrow is what has you breaking out in song, much like that little darling Annie, tomorrow is the day you can restart your diet!! With that mentality you go to town! 'I've already runied it for this day, I'm probably out of ketosis, I'm ( insert excuse) so I might as well enjoy myself. Bring on the bacon, bring on the booze, bring on the bagels, bring on the cake, bring on the curry goat, bring on the dumplings, bring on the ( insert your own food choice, become one with this blog).... let's just bring on the binge.
The seed of destruction has now been planted, tomorrow is the false prophet that will lead you to dietary hell. Your battle of internal Armageddon has begun. What's even more damaging is that you still managed to lose 5lbs that week after the binge. This occasion has now set the trend for futher blow outs on a VLCD but more dangerously it is reinforcing the fact that you can eat like a pig so long as you starve yourself in between with VLCD powder packets!
Obese anorexia
Simply put - What is the difference between a diet that is promoted on pro-ana sites and a VLCD. Your on less than 800 calories, your drinking tons of water, you tell yourself your not good enough if you fail and the fear of weight gain is forever haunting you.
It might not seem like it to some but behind the facade of great marketing and the success stories, most VLCD's promote the extreme restriction of calories for a fast end result. There is no food education between weekly weigh ins, you become afraid of carbohydrates, scared of eating and start skipping packs in the hope of losing more weight. For xx months, your telling yourself that food is bad, the only way to lose weight is too starve and drink your meals. Whether or not you progress onto completing the diet, these seeds of destruction have been placed!
_________________
But alas, I digress from the whole reason I am posting which was supposed to be a brief update from when I last posted, however it's more like a short book! As you can clearly see I have finally stepped/run away from all VLCD's. My seeds of destruction have bloomed into bastardized impulses and desperation to get to 'goal' weight and I am so consistent with inconstantly sticking to diets that I am in a worse state now that I was before BUT...I do believe there is light at the end of the tunnel which shall be revealed on my next post. I have been nattering far to long!!
Yours Truly
Alexandra x ( Yah, I changed my name too)
