I really like Jenni Murray of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour – she is a brilliant broadcaster and journalist, and I believe, one of the best interviewers on radio.  I was therefore very pleased that, after beating cancer, she has now managed to lose 3 stone in weight.  Remarkably, she has lost the 3 stone in a relatively short period of time – just 3 months through going on the Dukan diet.  This ‘revolutionary’ new diet involves restricting carbs, and eating lots of lean protein, cutting out alcohol and processed foods and adding oat bran to your diet.  Nothing new really, it would seem, just shades of Atkins/South Beach/GI all rolled into one.    And whilst it claims to allow you to eat all you want, without calorie counting, the diet is actually extremely restrictive, particularly in the initial phases.

Whilst I wish Jenni all the best, and really hope that she manages to reach her target weight, it concerns me when people lose weight really quickly, as invariably, once a ‘normal’ diet is re-introduced, the weight goes back on (and often much more) as the metabolism has slowed down, and also once the diet is no longer followed, your mind tends to tell you ‘she might be going on another diet, so I will have to eat all I can now in order to make up for it’.   Jenni admits that the weight went on over many years, so how can it be healthy to then lose so much in a matter of months.  It is the classic feast/famine syndrome, which ultimately is very unhealthy, and puts a lot of strain on the body.   The same sort of thing tends to happen with diets such as Lighterlife, where meal replacements are used for a number of months until the goal weight is reached, and then, just as soon as a normal diet is re-introduced, the weight has a tendency to go back on really quickly.

My advice to people wishing to lose weight is to address the psychological issues which are causing them to eat more than they need.  Often, once these are dealt with, it is much easier to get rid of unwanted pounds gradually and naturally (a rate of just 1lb per week is fine and much more like to stay off).  Also, I believe it is unwise to go on a very restrictive diet, as you only end up craving the foods that you are omitting from your diet – obvious really.

Weight loss is really quite simple – eating less and exercising more – but this seems to cause such difficulty, and people are seduced by the marketing hype of the latest ‘new’ diet, and think at last, this is the ONE that will make them thin.

Hypnotherapy and NLP helps you to identify what is making you eat more than you need, and is very successful at giving you new (non food-related) strategies to make you feel really good about yourself.

If you would like to find out how I can help you reach a healthy weight AND feel so much better about yourself, please do contact me on 0871 715 8429 / 01449 780352 or email me on wendy@wendychalk.co.uk.